Program Overview
Submission Criteria: Spring Applications Now Closed
- Your business must have been formed not less than 3 months prior to application submission
- All applicants should be teams of at least 2 people
- At least one member of your team must have sufficient technical skills to develop your minimum viable product (MVP)
- Your business must be located within or willing to relocate to the state of Connecticut
Duration: 12 week hands-on, workshop-oriented, exploration and refinement of your startup concept
Goal: To build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) filling customer need and/or solves customer problem
Curriculum: based on LeanLaunchPadTM methodology of Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
Location: 285 Riverside Ave, Westport CT - LLV is now co-located at the offices of Canaan Partners
Lean Launch Ventures will provide:
- an engaged partner
- experience, industry and domain skills
- talented group of seasoned mentors
- contacts from our extended network
Key Tool: Business Model Canvas (BMC) used as a scorecard for proven hypotheses
Focus: “get out of the building” meeting customers, suppliers and partners validating hypotheses
One 3 hour class per week using a "flipped classroom" model:
- key lectures watched on video as homework assignments
- lectures discussed in class
- bulk of class time = reviewing progress of each team’s work
Successful completion of the program: investment of $20k to $25K in each startup for a 6% equity stake.
Demo Day: pitch your business to highly qualified early-stage investors to gain additional funding
Classroom Sessions
Week 1: Kickoff / Introductions / Mentor Matching / BMC review
Week 2: Business model and the process of Customer Discovery
Week 3: Value Propositions - Statement, Testing & Refinement
Week 4: Customers, Users & Payers
Week 5: Distribution Channels
Week 6: Customer Funnel - Get, Keep & Grow
Week 7: Revenue Models
Week 8: Partnerships, Joint Ventures & Strategic Relationships
Week 9: Key Resources / Key Activities
Week 10: Costs & Budgeting
Week 11: Presentation Skills
Week 12: Presentation Practice
Demo Day