VISION HOTSEAT TOPIC: You have 60 seconds to explain why you have the passion, the motivation, and the skills to be a successful entrepreneur.
1. (Feedback) Discuss your idea(s) with your Working Group, using the format found here (http://fi.co/madlibs). From each of your peers, ask for extremely honest feedback about both the quality of the idea and your ability to build a world-class business. Being too nice with peers might cause them to pursue a bad or otherwise unsustainable idea. Write a couple of sentences, with extremely honest feedback, about each of your Working Group peers in the chat bubble by their name on your homepage under ‘Working Group’ (this will be public to the Group). Paste the feedback per peer into your assignment. (45 Minutes)
2. (Rating) Rate each of your Working Group peers on their Idea Quality and Course Performance on your homepage under ‘Working Group’ by selecting the rating and then clicking ‘Rate.’ If you have a concern about a peer, select a ‘Flag’ from the drop down and hit the ‘Flag’ button. It is important that you are extremely honest with the rating of your peers. Your rating data and flags are private and are not visible to other peers. (15 Minutes)
3. (Startup Toolkit) Get a Startup Toolkit that includes: (1) a laptop that is not associated with an employer, (2) a smartphone that is not associated with an employer, (3) a private email address that you check at least six times per day, including the weekends, and (4) a complete set of personal social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Ensure that the FI site contains your correct email address and other account information under ‘Edit Profile.’ In the assignment, write all of your tools and accounts with a name and description, such as 'Twitter: @handle.' (1 Hour)
4. (Life Story) Write your Life Story in no less than five paragraphs with at least one paragraph dedicated to each of the following topics: (1) early childhood, (2) schooling, (3) professional career, (4) entrepreneurship and (5) the future. For entrepreneurship, explain why you are starting a company, how entrepreneurship fits into your life story, and how your experiences and strongest skills will help you on your entrepreneurship journey. (2 Hours)
5. (Why You) Write two paragraphs. In the first, elaborate on the deeply personal reason on why you are motivated to be entrepreneur. In the second paragraph, elaborate on the industry or problem that you are deeply passionate about. Next, create a 60 second video of yourself covering your reason to be an entrepreneur and your passion. Send the video through email to everyone in your Working Group and solicit at least one piece of feedback from each peer. The contents and feedback of this video will be the basis for your weekly Hotseat presentation when called. (2 Hours)
6. (Projects) Identify three separate Projects to pursue building in the Founder Institute; these can be completely different ideas or the same idea with different implementation or different target customers. For each Project, write (1) one sentence that describes the Project, like here (http://fi.co/madlibs), (2) one sentence on why you are passionate about running the Project for the next 20 years of your life, (3) one sentence why you are uniquely qualified as compared to anyone else in the world to develop this Project, (4) one sentence describing your customer; the individual human being that will authorize payment to you for the Project, and (5) one sentence why the customer needs the Project to improve his/her life or business. (3 Hours)
7. (Initial Interviews) Identify at least five individual customers for each of the three Projects and set-up 15 minute interviews with each of the 15 customers. Use the following guide (http://fi.co/guides/initial) to develop a strategy and a series of questions to interview customers with; this is called basic Customer Development. After the interview with each customer, write the name of the individual and provide one or two sentences on key insights about the project, positive or negative, that were received during the interview. Update your previous work on ‘Projects’ with the insights gained and include a re-write of the Project description as seen from the perspective of the customer. (5 Hours)
8. (Tracking) Set-up tracking technologies and tools for your three Projects in order to collect ideas, news, and data. These tools can include a note taking platform such as Evernote, and/or a personalized homepage such as Netvibes (See Resources). Write a list of the Project Tracking Tools that you have chosen. Next, Search for words associated with your projects on search engines, app stores, AngelList, CrunchBase, Linkedin and other distribution or discovery platforms to see what is out there and how it is described. For each project, write a series of ten or more Keywords and set-up a customizable news feed to help you track trends and news related to your projects. (2 Hours)
9. (The List) Set-up a mailing list with at least 20 friends, family members, associates, and potential future collaborators by using an online mailing technology that will allow you to send them updates and requests for feedback on a weekly basis, like MailChimp (See Resources). Include ‘updates@fi.co,’ as well as email addresses for the local Directors. This will be referred to as 'The List.' Describe the technology that you have chosen to manage The List. Write the name and relationship of everyone on The List. (1 Hour)
(Advanced) Write a Vision and a Mission Statement, along with company Values, for each of the three Projects. The Vision Statement is a one sentence statement of purpose for the company. The Mission Statement is a one sentence measurable objective that the company hopes to achieve over the next five years. The Values are three to five adjectives with a one sentence description for each adjective that the company uses to make decisions, set culture, and hire team members.
