From Lab Bench to Innovation - Creating Ventures from University Research
Roman Lubynsky, MIT Venture Mentoring Service
| Jan/16 | Thu | 03:00PM-05:00PM | Classroom 4-163 |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/13
Limited to 80 participants
Prereq: none
Starting a new venture based on university research is not the same as launching a traditional high tech startup. This session will discuss a number of unique challenges that you will face and provide suggestions on how to navigate through them. Topics covered will include: how to get from idea to action, how to structure your organization, the best sources of funding at different points, how to increase your chances of getting SBIRs, potential conflicts and problems you may encounter, and resources you can tap into for help for with all of the above. Recent MIT alums who have successfully launched ventures based on their research will be on hand. Open to members of the MIT community, particularly recommended for graduate students from any school or department who are considering starting new ventures based on their discoveries and inventions.
Sponsor(s): MIT Venture Mentoring Service
Contact: Roberta McCarthy, W31-306, 617 258-0720, VMS@MIT.EDU
Sales Boot Camp
Kent Summers, MIT VMS Volunteer Mentor, Jim Noschese, MIT VMS Volunteer Mentor
| Jan/09 | Thu | 01:00PM-05:00PM | Classroom 4-163 |
Enrollment: Limited: Advance sign-up required
Sign-up by 01/06
Limited to 80 participants
Prereq: none
The lifeblood of any new business venture is revenue – the result of successfully selling an innovative new product or service. One of the biggest challenges facing any start-up is landing the first paying customers, and a tremendous amount of thought and energy goes into this all-important mission. Technical MIT entrepreneurs often hack into the sales black box with much trial-and-error, or spend precious time and resources on a "sales professional" with marginal results. During this session, sales experts will cover basic sales concepts, mechanics, vocabulary, and sales Do's and Don'ts at the block-and-tackle "how-to get a sale" level. Our goals are to help entrepreneurs with a technical background increase the likelihood and pace of early customer acquisition, decrease time-to-revenue, and provide a solid foundation from which founders can establish and grow a new business. The Sales Boot Camp is targeted at researchers and engineers who are the founders of early stage ventures and intended to equip you to be both sales conversant and knowledgeable, so you can make better decisions and incorporate sales-thinking into your day-to-day operations and organizational culture.
Sponsor(s): MIT Venture Mentoring Service
Contact: Roberta McCarthy, W31-305, x8-0720, vms@mit.edu
Contact Information
COPYRIGHT 2014