Brandy Old & Craig Elias | How We Tested Student Entrepreneurship

06/12/24 • 42 min

Brandy and Craig discuss their collaboration and the challenges they faced in teaching entrepreneurship and de-risking startups.

They highlight the importance of testing and iterating through customer interviews, surveys, and landing pages. They also emphasize the need to overcome biases and consider counterfactuals when evaluating risk.

The success stories they share include students winning funding at Draper University and turning down investments to pursue their own vision. They discuss the process of scaling their program and providing support to entrepreneurs through events and resources. They also touch on the importance of questioning assumptions and guiding entrepreneurs to discover the gaps in their understanding.

The conversation explores the importance of feedback and testing in entrepreneurship. It emphasizes the need to be open to feedback and willing to challenge assumptions. The hosts discuss the concept of being right versus being successful and the value of honest feedback.

They also touch on the importance of understanding the problem and the customer before jumping into activities like advertising and landing page optimization.

The conversation concludes with a discussion on the founders' initiatives, including Founder Fridays and Help a Startup Out.

Brandy and Craig discuss their collaboration and the challenges they faced in teaching entrepreneurship and de-risking startups.

They also touch on the importance of understanding the problem and the customer before jumping into activities like advertising and landing page optimization.

The conversation concludes with a discussion on the founders' initiatives, including Founder Fridays and Help a Startup Out.

Previous Episode

Kate Hopkins | How I Tested a Portfolio Ops Platform

Kate shares her journey of building OneGuide, a platform that provides leverage to PE and VC firms.

She initially started with a marketplace model, but realized that startups were not willing to pay for access to experts.

She then pivoted to selling to PE and VC firms, offering them a centralized platform for resources and an extended network of experts. Kate discusses the challenges of selling to firms, the importance of testing, and the evolution of OneGuide's features.

She emphasizes the need for patience and the willingness to iterate and adapt along the way.

Next Episode

Aaron Eden | How I Tested Ideas at Intuit

Aaron Eden shares his background and experience with experimentation, particularly within Intuit's Design for Delight (D4D) and Innovation Catalyst programs. He discusses the importance of adapting the approach to fit the company's culture and the challenges of marketing and socializing the process internally.

Aaron shares success stories, such as the development of SnapTax, and a failure story with the Quick Receipts project. He emphasizes the need for continuous testing and learning to drive innovation.

Aaron Eden shares his experience with experimentation and innovation at Intuit. He discusses the importance of understanding customer behavior and aspirations, even when they may not align with their stated preferences.

Aaron also talks about the challenges of driving innovation in a changing company culture and how he is working to reignite the innovation catalyst group at Intuit. He shares the success of a recent three-day workshop called Speed, where teams applied AI and velocity mindsets to deliver business impact.

Aaron emphasizes the importance of using real ideas and providing career skills to participants, even if the ideas don't succeed.