Being an entrepreneur sounds great. After all, what’s not to like? You decide what’s important, when to work, what to do and how to do it. It’s not all cream and cookies though. There’s lots of really tough decisions to make when you’re setting up a business, and a little bit of experience goes a long way. Which is why I’ll be volunteering in Portugal this summer.
I’ve been mentoring with the European Innovation Academy for several years. It’s a non-profit, educational program developed in partnership with professionals from institutes such as Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, and Google. It’s focused on getting future-entrepreneurs the skills they need to succeed.
It starts by teaching you to develop and validate your ideas & create a team with the right skills to make it happen. Whether you’re planning to trade tech commodities or develop a next generation gizmo, you’ll know how to test the waters.
Once you’re ready you’ll get straight into designing & launching the product and figuring out your go-to-market strategy. This is the guts of product marketing, an area that I’m always keen to share my experiences on.
It finishes with you learning how to acquire your first 1000 customers, and a pitch to a panel of venture capitalists from Silicon Valley. True story. This last part is where you learn what it’s like to be on Shark Tank. It’s not enough to just talk about how you’re going to increase sales , you’ll have to actually show that you can walk the talk.
If you’ve ever thought about being an entrepreneur, attend this workshop. The mentors have an incredible wealth of experience and expertise, and it’s one of the best opportunities to learn everything there is to know about setting up a business. This is alot better than watching videos on YouTube or reading more blogs on entrepreneurship. It’s a practical, hands-on opportunity to learn how to make things work. Look forward to seeing you there!