Written By Linda Hale
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We just completed the summer cohort of I-Corps in July, and I had an opportunity to watch the final presentations in-person at the Bounce Innovation Hub. It was fun to meet some of our entrepreneurs in person and learn more about the ideas and technologies that drove them to I-Corps in the first place. We don’t allow the participants to focus on their technologies during the program, so the finale is usually an eye-opening experience for everyone. ​

I-Corps focuses on Customer Segments and the Problems those customers face. When emerging technologies can solve those problems for the customer segment, we call that Product-Market Fit. 
 
Most businesses fail because they didn’t take time to identify product-market fit before spending time and money on product development. I-Corps provides a safe space to delve deeper into the motivations of a customer segment PRIOR to expensive R&D, working prototypes, or software platforms. Once you identify your customer and the problems or pains they face, you will be able to identify your technology’s unique value proposition, which will guide your product development process. 
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For those who haven’t participated in I-Corps, let’s define some of the topics above and explain why they are so important to startups and emerging technologies. 

By Nick Glavan 

If you are like me, you may be feeling a little more stressed out than normal this summer. My mind is often racing with thoughts about personal and “real-world” issues, on top of trying to produce quality programs and advising for clients at work. I took to the internet to research a bit about how entrepreneurs are handling their stress and picked a few ideas that resonated with me. ​

Written by  Linda Hale

What do you think when your advisor asks you to identify your competition? 
If you are like me, the first impulse is to say, "I don't have any competition," or "I'm solving a unique problem, so there is no competition"  

When I was asked this question about my continuing education startup, I thought it was a trap.  
The advisor was trying to kill my dream by showing me that I'd never compete in a crowded market. He clearly didn’t understand my technology. (…sound familiar?) 

I wasn't planning to compete with the existing schools and providers. I was creating a whole new platform that would change continuing education as we know it. 
The current solutions were stale and uninspired. The current solutions were low-tech and irrelevant. My industry Needed my technology to shake things up and inspire attendees to actually Listen and Participate in their professional education. (…sound more familiar?) 
I didn't realize at the time that my “no competition” argument actually proved that competition exists. Continuing education is a requirement for professionals in my industry and they are clearly fulfilling their CE requirements somehow. 
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If my startup was going to improve on the current solution… I needed to understand "how the problem is solved today" to truly differentiate my product from the existing solutions. 

I didn't realize at the time that my “no competition” argument actually proved that competition exists. 

How Is The Problem Solved Today?

Written by Shannon Marshburn

It always seems like when I need to share business cards I never have them on me and when I’m getting dinner with friends I find them in every pocket of my purse, coat and pants. Are business cards even needed anymore in this digital age we live in? 

During a graphic design class in high school, we were tasked with creating business cards for ourselves for a project. Since then I have looked at business cards as an extension of oneself. (This may seem like a bit of dramatic thinking, but keep in mind I am a designer at heart.) The card is small leaving you with a small space to work with. This small space needs to be able to convey the branding of a company or yourself as an individual. At the end of a conference, you will have too many cards to count and this starts the process of weeding out the ones to take back to the office. 

There is an extensive history of business cards dating their first use back to the 17th century in Europe. These cards would be sent to announce the planned arrival of prosperous or aristocratic people to their local town or even to one's home. I suggest you take a read about the full history of business cards here: Business Card History!

So should you put the time and money into some cards?
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Without customers, businesses would not function. It’s that simple, but why does it seem so difficult? After all, customers are everywhere, but the customers that desperately need your product can be hard to find. I often think we are so lucky to be doing business today with social media as a marketing outlet where you can reach the whole world with your content! The hard part is that now that we have the whole world marketing their products right beside us, how do we stand out and find your customers? ​

Written By Nick Glavan

Last week, I attended the VentureWell OPEN virtual conference, which brought together innovators and educators from across the country and beyond to share research, experiences, best practices, trends, and tools to better prepare entrepreneurs and their advisors for navigating early-stage startup challenges. My favorite panel was candidly titled, “Screw Ideas” which presented an illuminating manifesto for developing entrepreneurial thinking in a new way.

Most entrepreneurs are familiar with the term “ideation” and may consider it the first step of building a startup. It often feels like the most fun step too, where we get to think up a new solution beyond the current offerings to solve a problem. But what if we were to cut off the love affair with ideation? The panel pointed to the serious negatives of ideation, especially it’s tendency to marry an entrepreneur to a theorized idea super early in the process. This typically leads to instances of halting progress when founders are inflexibly attached to a solution that is not novel nor impactful for the intended users. Ideation creates an environment where an entrepreneur acquires tunnel vision for advancing only their initial idea, rather than pivoting or adjusting to create a true solution for the market.