This week was the kick off of the University of Michigan Innovation Corps (I-Corps) summer session where 80 scientists, engineers and mentors gathered in Ann Arbor to participate in the 8-week entrepreneurial-immersion program developed by Steve Blank and the National Science Foundation (NSF). For those not familiar with I-Corps, it is an intense entrepreneurial training…
Last night was the UM Student Startup Showcase at the new TechArb location where 225 Ann Arbor entrepreneurs gathered to see not only the 8 most recent student startups to complete the TechArb program but also to meet the 20 new UM Student Startups entering TechArb for session #7 (Nov-2011 through April-2012). Many thanks to…
We have made great strides in developing and teaching skills and processes that help entrepreneurs figure out how to take their ideas, reduce risks and more efficiently test and validate (or invalidate) they’re assumptions. As you probably know I’m a huge fan of the lean startup model and customer development. I’m also really happy to…
Trying to get a fire lit when you are camping is sometimes a struggle. Sure, everyone has their 2 cents on how to stack the wood, prime the fire and light a match but ultimately we never know if the fire is going to stay lit, blow out or burn out too fast. Ann Arbor’s…
This is the third phase (fourth blog post) of the Acceleration Project. See last week’s post for the Skill Building Phase and the first post in this series for an overview of what I’m rambling about here. I was thinking back to a strategy session I was having at one of my early startups I…
This is the second phase (third blog post) of the Acceleration Project. See last week’s post for the Application Phase and the first post in this series for an overview of what I’m rambling about here. In Colorado Springs, teams gather to sharpen their skills, train and win. They analyze their performance, meet with experts…
Imagine that there were no Olympic training camps for aspiring athletes. In fact, let’s imagine that there were no regional qualifiers; state finals or even high school sports programs. Now let’s assume that every four years we gather together and let anyone who aspires to compete for a gold medal sign-up, get in front of…
The last two days we were fortunate enough to have Steve Blank spend time with us at the University of Michigan’s Center for Entrepreneurship. During those two 12-hour days we packed Steve’s schedule with meetings, presentations, reviews, office hours and opportunities to meet with as many of our entrepreneurial community as possible (without killing Steve).…
Doug Neal 