Live Blog – Lean Launchpad NY
I”m at Steve Blank’s Lean Launchpad course for Incubators and Accelerators at Columbia University.
Data Informs Vision Creating Insight – Getting out of the building provides the
data that informs the vision of the founders assumption. That process will create insight that influences the strategy and direction of the company.
Guiding without telling – Not being prescriptive – in providing teams feedback
Steve’s definition of a Pivot – a substantive change in the business model canvas. Changing the price from $4,99 to $9.99 is an iteration. Changing your target market, however, is a pivot.
What if an idea is fundamentally flawed? It’s a total restart.
Don’t ignore great advice from your Board/Advisors For the Company Founder CEO – avoid the two extremes in feedback:
- But, saluting and taking advice without question is abdicating your roles as a leader and you are on your way out
- The best advice from Jerry Engel, is to take the feedback, take the time to digest as well as setting a schedule to get back to the advisor with a conclusion
For Corporate Accelerators – Leaders issue grand challenges – but not prescriptive. Intuit as an example, a business unit leader will issue a challenge, for example “pre accounting products”. The founder and chairman of the company has said – this is what we are doing.
To get funded, they will need an Income Statement and Cash Flow analysis. What will take the real time is the research to get to the “Metrics that Matter” to actually put into the spreadsheet.