Module 1: Your Idea

Introduction Before diving into a new venture, founders must thoroughly assess the opportunity across critical areas - the problem, solution, market, team, and viability alignment. This preliminary screening provides data-driven insights on whether to proceed or redirect efforts. We recommend a five-step pre-screening process: Frame the Opportunity - Define customer needs, success measures, and hypotheses … Continue reading Assessing Venture Viability: Preliminary Screening of the Opportunity

Introduction In today's hyper-competitive startup landscape, innovation is no longer just a nice-to-have - it's an imperative. Startups that fail to make innovation integral to their culture, processes, and offerings face almost inevitable extinction. However, the startups that embrace innovation across the organization stand to reap enormous benefits when it comes to gaining a competitive … Continue reading The Innovation Imperative: Why Startups Must Make Innovation a Strategic Priority

Introduction Understanding customer behavior is the fundamental element that holds new ventures and product innovations together. Entrepreneurs risk developing solutions that miss the mark without comprehending what customers aim to accomplish and identifying critical behaviors to achieve those goals. Customer behavior is the thread that weaves through opportunity framing, discovery, and design. By aligning solutions … Continue reading Cognitive-Behavioral Design Strategies: Unraveling Customer Psychology to Foster Meaningful Change

In this post, I want to update our readers and subscribers on the ever-evolving process of new venture realization. My focus continues to evolve over the years to encompass new theories and practices regarding the creation and growth of new ventures. I engage with approximately 300 founders each year as a professor and mentor. In … Continue reading New Venture Realization Roadmap: Fresh Perspectives & Insights

Understanding customer behavior is crucial when embarking on a new venture or developing a new product. It serves as the fundamental element that holds your business model together. Neglecting the time and effort required to comprehend your customers' objectives and the behaviors necessary to achieve those goals can jeopardize the success of your venture. In … Continue reading The Behavioral Thread: Navigating the Path from Discovery to Design

As my students will confirm, I am a process nerd. I live and breathe anything that supports the development of new ventures and innovation. You can refer to an earlier post on the new venture realization process I use with founders and startups. For this article, I want to focus on "connecting the dots" during your venture … Continue reading Managing Redundant Knowledge in Venture Development

Many articles describe the challenges that entrepreneurs face as they launch new enterprises. The statistics certainly validate how difficult starting a new business can be for even experienced entrepreneurs. However, it is challenging to provide current statistics on startup failure rates, as these rates can vary depending on various factors, such as the industry, location, … Continue reading Startup Failure: Five Avoidable Challenges

People frequently ask entrepreneurs how they come up with new ideas. This answer is not as straightforward as one might think. There are many ways that entrepreneurs and innovators come up with new ideas, products, and processes. Even once you have a list of idea-generating sources, it is only half the story. As it turns … Continue reading The Power of Crowdsourcing for Startups