Launch into the New Year!

One of my delightful MBA alumni sent me this post today and said, “this is so you, I thought you wrote it under a pseudonym.”  Turns out…she’s only half right.  But the nice thing is, it saves me from having to actually write a really compelling piece.  Release your inner-entrepreneur for 2015… (and thanks Tracy!)

Make 2015 the Year You Finally Launch Your Own Startup

Huff Post 2014

The “Paleo Diet” for Business Plans?

As some of you readers know, I’m not a huge fan of “doing the way we’ve always done it.”  I have nothing against tradition and proven methods, in fact I’m a big supporter of those ideas.  But doing something the “way we’ve always done it” because its the only way we know, because it’s the way we were taught, because it’s easier… well that just doesn’t’ fly for me.

Recently we started reviewing the “way we’ve always done it” in our business plan writing.  A graduate assistant help me do some research by examining the concepts of “lean entrepreneurship.”  While this methodology is getting some press right now, it’s not entirely new.  In fact, its really just embracing the realities of a startup (no money, no time, lots of passion) and validating practical methods for getting a new enterprise off the ground.  In an era of fad diets, this “lean” approach actually makes a lot of sense.  The process looks something like this: “ideation, innovation, iteration, launch, feedback, iteration, re-launch, feedback, iteration…”  You get the picture.  I’m very excited to see where these concepts go and how our students respond in their current projects.

For those of you interested in the “lean” methodology, here’s a great conference coming up this fall: The Lean Startup Conference

Hope to see you there!