Lots happening!

We had an AMAZING visit to the CU School of Business yesterday.  We had three professors and three business students lead us through an entrepreneurial exercise.  Afterwards, we toured the maker space (a collaboration between the CU Business School and the Department of Engineering) where we got to see cars of the future and other marvels.

Our next ADI is on November 18th.  We are going to Community Enterprise Development Services in Aurora.  We’ll be learning about how entrepreneurialism can be a path to the American dream.  What economic opportunities for refugees and immigrants exist here in Colorado?   We’ll also have the chance to meet two Iraqis who came here as refugees and are now entrepreneurs.  One of them owns a carpet cleaning company.  The other has a Middle Eastern Kabob restaurant.   And yes — we will get to eat kabobs!  If you are interested in joining us as a chaperone for this adventure, please let me know.  We’ll be departing around 9:40am and returning around 2pm.

On Thursday at 3pm, we will have a special speaker visit from Teju Ravilochan, CEO of the Unreasonable Institute. They fund “unreasonable” projects throughout the world.  Check out the video on their home page; it’s pretty great.

Last week, we discussed different marketing appeals from the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, such as Logos, Pathos, and Ethos.  Students are creating a marketing artifact to help reach their target demographic.  Some kids are making videos.  Others are making flyers or electronic ads.  And some others are really focused on packaging.  Here’s a link to the slideshow that we used to introduce this marketing fyi…  This week, we’ll introduce pricing.  How do you justify a price for a product? 

Upcoming Due Dates:

• Tuesday:  Draft of marketing artifact posted on marketing padlet (available on Google Classroom.)
• Monday, November 7th:  Final draft LTP due at the beginning of class.  Here’s a draft of the rubric .
• Tuesday, November 15th:  Rough draft of the POL Pitch ready to present.  Students will be presenting to entrepreneurial mentors on that day.

Have a great week!

Big week!  A few important announcements:

1. We have our second ADI on Friday.  We need chaperones!  If you are available, we’d love to have you accompany us to the CU school of business.  We’ll have a chance to be on campus, get a tour of the business school, and an amazing maker-space, as well as talk to a professor and some graduate students about their entrepreneurial studies.  We need chaperones from 10:30am-2pm this Friday.  If you are available, please email me and let me know as soon as possible.
2. Our 2nd round of mentor meetings is on Tuesday.  Each business will have 20 minutes to sit down with an entrepreneurial mentor and get feedback on their business.  Prior their meeting on Tuesday, students should complete their “What Investors Want To Know Document” AND their “Mentor Prep” document.
3. For all students who turned in their checkpoint #3 (see previous blog post), I gave feedback. Hoping that feedback is helpful as students continue to revise and evolve their business ideas.  If your student hasn’t turned in their checkpoint #3, there is a “missing” in infinite campus.  Encourage them to get their work in or come and talk to me.  I will work with them in class as well to help them get caught up.  Students should have all questions #1-#5  finalized with revisions by the end of the week.
4. The main part of the LTP is now written.  There are two remaining pieces.  Pricing and Marketing.  Students will be developing some advertising materials (we’ll be learning about the modes of persuasion) and we’ll also be discussing how to price a product.  They’ll be a bit of math too!

Thanks for all your continued support!

We had a great visit from David Cohen from Techstars last Friday and I’m excited to continue exploring the “entrepreneurial path” with students.   We’ll spend the week preparing for our second round of mentor meetings on Tuesday, October 25th.

Upcoming Due Dates:

Friday:  Questions #1-#5 on our LTP (The CHOICE Business Plan) should be complete with sign-off from me.  Here’s a breakdown.

• Question #1:  Entrepreneur Essay.  This was already written in September.
• Question #2:  Product Essay.  This is the hardest one to write and the one we’ll be focusing upon most in class.  There are five parts detailed in a step-by-step guide here that we are reviewing in class.  We’ll be focusing this week on the trends that support our product.  For example, a student who is selling soccer goals might want to write about the increasing popularity of soccer as a sport.
• Question #3:  Sales Locations.  This only needs to be one or two sentences.  Here’s the guide to writing.
• Question #4: Target Customer.  Students wrote this two weeks ago.  All they need to do is “cut and paste” their thinking from their business canvas into this document.  Here’s the writing guide for question #4 just in case.
• Question #5: Customer Research.  Students are completing a chart about what they learned from their target customers during their interviews.  Many students may wish to interview MORE people so they can get more insights about their product idea and their target customers.  There is also an “optional” writing extension for this question that students can do if they want the extra challenge.  Here’s the writing guide for question #5

(After this, the only items left will be advertising and pricing.  Then we get to start preparing our pitches!)

Tuesday, October 25th:  Mentor Meting Prep #2 with Checklist should be ready before our mentor meetings.  Have a fantastic week!