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Written by Shannon Marshburn Walking outside in nature can be a powerful way to reduction stress. The simple act of stepping into nature, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life, can have an immediate calming effect on the mind. With the beautiful turn of the season, now is a great time to get out there and enjoy the fall days. Northeastern Ohio is a hidden gem for outdoor enthusiasts, offering some amazing walking trails that allow you to immerse yourself in nature. From tranquil forested paths to breathtaking lakefront routes, the region has something to offer for everyone. In this blog, we'll take you on a journey through some of the best free walking trails in Northeastern Ohio.
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 Written by Nick Glavan
I wanted to take this week’s blog to offer some overarching tips for the upcoming pitch events the entrepreneurial ecosystem will be hosting over the autumn season. These are some of the most common critiques I’ve heard over my past couple years working with startups and occasionally serving as a judge for pitch competitions. And while each pitch opportunity and set of judges will be looking for something specific according to their contests’ criteria, these tips hopefully provide overarching advice on how to put your best pitch forward.  Written By Elyse Ball
Every year when August rolls around, I feel a compulsion to read more. Maybe, it’s a result of the combined high temperatures, humidity and pollen count driving me to spend more hours inside. Maybe, it’s all of those grade school and college summer reading lists. But every year, when the calendar flips over to August, I think about reading and, even more specifically, I think about how reading 5 books ought to earn me a free personal pan pizza. That’s right, for those of us who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, Pizza Hut’s iconic Book It! program links reading lots of books and eating lots of pizza in our minds. (For those who aren’t familiar, Book It! rewarded grade school students with free personal pan pizzas for reaching reading goals, which typically included reading 5 books in a set amount of time.) In honor of this classic and innovative initiative to get kids to read more, I decided UARF should issue its own Book It! Challenge this summer. It’s simple:  Written by Shannon Marshburn
Networking events are starting to make a comeback and there are so many out there to choose from. These events can help you level up your community connections and open some new doors for you. Most events are free, so it is hard to say no to an evening of conversation and community. Here are some tips for networking and how you get the most value out of the next event you go to.  Written by Nick Glavan
We kicked off yet another cohort of I-Corps last Friday, and our 10-year anniversary of our I-Corps program at University of Akron is just around the corner. I wanted to take some time in this week’s blog to talk about a pivotal role on many of our I-Corps teams – the faculty Academic Lead – and why faculty should consider being an active member in our program. This one is for all university faculty, and especially those who want their students to develop in-demand skillsets and have life changing experiences.  Written by Elyse Ball
As we kick off our summer I-Corps session next week, dozens of innovators, entrepreneurs and students will find themselves reaching out to potential interviewees via email, LinkedIn messaging or via chat forums. While it may simple, a well-crafted message can be the difference between landing a meaningful interview or failing to connect at all. In service of upping your interview game, here are 7 simple tips for writing better professional emails. These same tactics can also apply to any other written or verbal communication where you are trying to land new contacts.  Written by Linda Hale TAM, SAM, SOM, Bottom-up, Top-Down – What does this mean… As you travel through your entrepreneurial journey you will inevitably be asked “how big is your market?” Maybe you’ve received a request for a “bottom-up, or top-down market analysis.” or been asked to identify your TAM, SAM, or SOM?
Market sizing is important. Potential partners, investors, and other stakeholders need to know that the overall market opportunity is large enough to warrant their attention and that you understand your product’s specific portion of that opportunity. So, let’s break it all down and empower you to tell your market sizing story in a quick and cohesive way. Written by: Shannon Marshburn  I’ve never been one to stop working until my task is complete because before I know it something else is popping up on my calendar and I am needed elsewhere. I like to “grind it out” and work through my task list, but I am now learning a new way to be productive with less stress, more energy, focus, and creativity all while working just a little bit less; and that new skill is to take breaks.
 Written by Nick Glavan
As we conclude yet another cohort of I-Corps, I wanted to use this week’s blog to reflect on some of the most common follow-on steps for startups and entrepreneurs after they their 21-interviews of our flagship program. Assess Your Idea’s Potential This typically happens informally, but the first activity after wrapping up your cohort experience in I-Corps should be to step back and assess your idea’s commercial potential. Ask yourself critically, “is there a real customer who needs my innovation?” Don’t be afraid to pivot your idea to provide value to your customer and solve a real problem for them. Your initial idea may not have been what’s best for your customer, but as long as you continue focusing on meeting their needs, you can still find success. In most cases, 21 stakeholder interviews will only scratch the surface of truly knowing the wants and needs of your target customer, so you’ll likely end up finding there are more questions to answer before you are ready to develop your innovation further.  Written by Elyse Ball
In 2021, I wrote a blog about why your first product should be perfectly imperfect. The idea was that we don’t actually know what perfection looks like to our customers until they’ve had several chances to interact with our product, so we should get that product into their hands as quickly as possible. This blog picks up where we left off: What do we do after we give customers that ugly, imperfect product? We iterate, of course. Iteration means making small, incremental changes to a product or service, testing these changes, and then repeating the process until it’s grown, and you’ve created something customers love. To get iteration right, there are a few things you need to embrace: |
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