Startup Institute
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in case anyone was wondering about the different types of product roles
Apply to the New York Summer session by May 26th (starts June 10th) and the Boston Summer session by June 2nd (starts June 17th).
The first step is filling out the online applications here.
UPDATE: Here’s the link to yesterday’s AMA with Aaron and Shaun.
Hey everyone,
Aaron here, we’re getting some serious interest in our Google Hangout’s this week, which is good and bad because there’s a limit to the number of people that can hangout at once. A few months ago we went on Reddit.com to answer any and all questions. They call it an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA). If you don’t get a chance to google hangout with us this week, please join Shaun and myself on Reddit this Friday, 5/10 from 3pm - 5pm EDT for a lively round of “Ask Us Anything”.
The link will go up 15 - 30 minutes before 3pm on Friday. Sign up here to be notified when the link to the AMA goes live.
If you don’t have a Reddit account, well…now’s the time to get one. It’s a cinch to sign up.
We look forward to answering your questions!
Guest post: Allan Telio is VP of Business Development at MyEnergy, a Boston-based web company focused on demystifying residential energy efficiency. He’s also an instructor in SIB’s Sales & Business Development track.
Bees and startups? Bear with me. It’s just as relevant as how improv comedy can help you in business.
About a year ago, my two-year old daughter received “The Beeman,” a childrens book about bees. Since receiving it, I have read it to her before bedtime two to three times a week, which naturally lead me to decide I should start a bee farm at our house. Fortunately, my ever-wise wife pulled me aside and said. “ I love you. Please take a class about bees before you get a hive and kill our family.”
Smart woman.
A few weeks back, I finally attended bee school (pun intended) taught by the Northeast Organic Farming Association at BU (pun not intended). It’s a two-day intensive course on bee behavior, communication, hive construction, and the cause of disappearing honeybees across the country. Fascinating stuff.
In the days since, I have realized there are several best bee practices that apply to business and sales. Here are a few.
Stop, Collaborate and Listen
Honeybees have one of the most complex, interesting communication systems in nature. For example, through “dance,” a bee can basically describe the following about a food source’s location in relation to the hive.
Sally: “Hi Jane. Head one mile at 13 degrees and you’ll find a bangin’ crop of flowers.”
Jane: “Thanks Sally. I’m on it.”
By communicating the source of the food, the hive, as a whole, ends up being much more efficient.
Effective sales teams do the same thing. They share information with team members about verticals they’ve been successfully selling to and provide advice about how others can tap the same vertical for leads. Instead of hoarding the source of leads, they share it with the entire group, which makes everyone more effective. Communicating where “nectar” is located also eliminates wasted effort, because team members don’t have to spend time searching for a good source. In a startup, effective use of time is essential. If a salesperson sits on leads and fails to reach out to a potential customers, guess who is calling? The competition. I’ll spare you the rising tides and ships cliché, but simply put, if your company is growing rapidly, you’re more likely to do well.
Bee open. It benefits everyone.
Now I Ain’t Sayin’ She’s a Gold Digger
To produce just one pound of honey, honeybees must visit over 2 million flowers, and collectively travel over 55,000 miles (that’s two times around the globe). You’d think that during a trip to collect nectar, bees would be desperate to stop at every flower they come across, but you’d be wrong. During a given trip, a honeybee will only visit one single plant species. For example, if a honeybee collects nectar from a clover, it will only visit other clovers during that trip. On the next trip from the hive, the bee may decide to collect dandelion nectar, and will only visit dandelions. Honeybees like to focus, but don’t limit themselves.
The same is true for effective sales teams – they go deep, but aren’t limited. A salesperson may need to contact numerous prospects (hopefully less than 2 million) in order to make a sale. Common mistakes are to overspecialize or, conversely, completely lack specialization. The most successful sales teams develop a strategy that targets several different verticals, but allows each team member to delve into a specific vertical. By focusing on one vertical, a salesperson can learn the industry language and quickly identify the value proposition necessary to close the deal. A word of caution, though: early-stage companies, which have smaller sales teams, should be careful not to overspecialize. Spend time learning a vertical, but don’t hesitate to take risks and visit different flowers.
Bee deep, but not limited.
Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta
During the spring and summer, an adult worker honeybee lives about 35 days. In this short lifespan, they learn how to master every job in the hive.
Worker bees do it all. They’re little multifaceted gangstas.
Being multifaceted is also essential when working at a startup. It’s not crucial that everyone is able to do everyone else’s job, but it is key that everyone at least understands each other’s roles. Having everyone aware of each other’s roles allows people within an organization to help each other, collaborate together on more creative solutions, and ultimately build a better product. Businesses, like hives, are living organizations. Working together towards a common goal is the only way an organization can grow.
Bee curious.
See, bees can teach you something about growing your startup. Don’t be a honey hog, be selective (but not too selective) when you’re on the hunt for nectar, and learn how to do everything from warming the brood nest to ventilating the hive. Follow these tips, and your hive will grow to dominate the forest.
Application deadlines for NYC (May 26th) and Boston (May 12th) Summer sessions are coming up fast. Apply today!
If you’re in NYC this week you already know you can come celebrate with us at the “Techstars Welcomes Startup Institute to NYC” party, but for all of you who can’t make the trip, and still have lots of questions you’d like to ask, we’re hand-cuffing Aaron to a chair and making him do a bunch of Google Hangouts. Just kidding about the hand-cuffs. It’ll probably be zip-ties.
Seriously though, Aaron wants to connect with as many of you as possible, so you can all make informed decisions about the upcoming Summer sessions in NYC and Boston. The more interest we get in these hangouts, the more we’ll keep doing them, so don’t be bummed if they are at capacity when you try to join.
Enter your name and email address on this page to sign up for a spot.
It’s true that content is king in almost every line of business these days, but it’s especially true for startups that want – nay, need – to raise brand awareness, acquire potential clients and educate their existing customers.
Kate Slattery and yours truly presented uTest’s philosophy on content marketing to the students at the Boston Startup Institute. We covered a fairly wide range of topics – both high-level and tactical details – and fielded some really insightful questions.
So what exactly did we cover? Here were five of the key takeaways:
1. Publish. Something. Every. Day. – As we explained, sloth is one of the major sins of content marketing. All too often, startups launch a content plan with great enthusiasm, only to tire and let it fizzle out. Not only will this disappoint your existing readers, but it essentially guarantees that new visitors will be few and far between. So when creating a content strategy, don’t ignore the aspect of publishing frequency. Create an editorial calendar – set aggressive but attainable goals – and stick to it. You probably won’t see huge results right away, but if you publish on a regular basis, you will eventually have an engaged, captive audience – a marketer’s dream!
2. Content Always Plays a Role – Content marketing isn’t all about raising brand awareness. As we outlined, it plays a role in almost every facet of startup success. With whitepapers and webinars, it can help acquire leads. With help topics and video tutorials, it can help educate prospects and clients on the benefits of your product or service. With one-pagers and brochures, it can help your sales team close deals. With bylines and articles, it can turn your executives into respected thought leaders. When creating a content strategy, define how you plan to make life easier for every department in your company.
3 Think Like a Publisher – How do the most popular magazines and websites get so much new and repeat traffic? With timely content and eye-popping headlines that readers simply can’t resist. This formula for success is not confined to the media business; the same applies to content marketing. The ability to write compelling copy is an absolute must, as is the ability to define and understand your target audience. What are their fears? Their goals? What are the problems they are trying to solve? Only by understanding your audience can you expect to create content that keeps your audience coming back for more.
4. Repurpose Your Content – Coming up with ideas for new content isn’t always easy, which is why it’s so important to re-purpose your existing content where possible. If for, instance, you’ve just written a whitepaper, consider taking some excerpts from it and turning that into a blog post. You could also convert a whitepaper into a webinar; a video tutorial into a blog post; a landing page into an email, and so forth. Remember, the content might be old to you, but it won’t be for a good chunk of your audience. Be original when possible, but repurpose when you come down with writer’s block.
5. Keep Score – At first glance, it might seem as though determining the success (or failure) of your content marketing efforts was entirely subjective. For instance:
- Was the article well-written?
- Was the infographic visually pleasing?
- Was the video of high quality?
But in truth, the success and failure of your content marketing efforts can (and should) be quantified in hard numbers. For example:
- How many clicks vs. opt-outs did that last email get?
- What is the conversion rate on your landing pages?
- What type of blog posts get the most traffic?
- What percent of visitors are new vs. returning?
These are the types of questions that lead to more effective content marketing; find out what people like and do more of it.
Again, these were just a few of the topics we covered, but they were among the more important ones in our view. If you want to learn more about content marketing at uTest, you can start by checking out our blog or following us Twitter.
To close, we wanted to thank everyone at the Boston Startup Institute for the opportunity to present. We hope everyone had as much fun as we did!
- Michael Brown
Sr. Content Marketing Manager | uTest
My parents talked me out of the quitting part (probably for the best), but about a year and a half ago, I moved to Silicon Valley to experience the amazing world of startups first hand. I couch-surfed for 3 months through Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View and eventually settled in San Francisco. Doing a startup on the side wasn’t really ideal but I made it work. We built our product the lean way, based on weekly calls with a large enterprise customer who had given us a vague commitment to purchase an annual license to the tune of ~$100k.
I worked long nights designing & developing the product and even longer days working fulltime at a Big 4 audit firm. Long story short, the deal fell through, we lost momentum and our startup fizzled away. It was tough, I was completely burnt out; I felt like crap.
A few months passed and I randomly heard back from the Startup Institute. I had applied a few months back and hadn’t heard back. I had assumed that my application was rejected, but lo-behold, here was an offer to interview sitting on my inbox! I wasn’t sure what to think. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to re- engage the world of startups; but it also felt like a crazy/risky decision just when I had gained a little coherence and stability.
Since I lived in San Francisco, I couldn’t physically check the school out, so instead I started to ‘follow’ a few of the alumni on LinkedIn. I inMailed, emailed and even called them to try to get a sense of what they were doing before, what the institute was like and what they did after. I heard nothing but positive reviews. But I was still skeptical: is two months really enough time? Will they really teach me something I didn’t already know? Do I even want to work at a startup? Is it prestigious enough? I wonder how many people get in?
In hindsight, I was just looking for reasons not to take the plunge—because as unfulfilling the status quo was for me, and as desperate as I was to shake things up—I was in a really comfortable place: I had just been promoted, gotten a pay raise and was now a senior—which meant that I could focus on the bigger picture and delegate work to Staff and Interns.
Now, if you’re a prospective student, you’re probably wondering: what made me join? Why did I take this leap of faith? The answer: something about it just felt right. The aforementioned talks with alumni, my final Skype chat with Aaron, the team’s willingness to be flexible—it all added up to a strong gut feeling that I simply had to do this program, and so, I found a way to do it.
Half way through the program, I’ve lost count of the number of times my mind’s been blown. We’ve had intimate fireside conversations with some of the top founders in Boston. They’ve kindly shared their stories, their advice, their mistakes and even their pitch decks. On the product design track, we’ve been taught wire- framing techniques that will make building that next MVP that much faster. We’ve learned the ins and outs of the design process and are continuously polishing up our design and front-end skills.
Most important of all—and this comes from the heart—I’m blown away by my peers. They inspire and challenge me at every twist and turn. They’ve made me a better person. I consider myself blessed to have crossed paths with this vibrant group of entrepreneurs, designers, marketers, musicians, developers, photographers, and of-course: meme-designers.
We witness each other’s successes and failures. And are the first to give high-five and empathize. What makes these moments especially profound is that despite our differences (our various talents and diverse backgrounds), we’re all here together at a very pivotal point of our lives. We’re at a crossroads; and it’s my belief that our potential is limitless. SIB has given us the key (props to the team!), and a little nudge in the right direction. It’s up to us to unlock the door.
Hadi built webapps in high school & college for fun. Leaving Texas in search of adventure, he couch-surfed through Silicon Valley and bootstrapped Playquid (an enterprise startup) while working on the side. He loves exploring new ideas, meeting new people and is enamored by the art of story-telling.
A younger version of myself thought I would have it all figured out by the age of 24. I never thought that by this point I would know who I wanted to spend my life with and not what I wanted to do with it.
What I have learned is that things don’t always turn out the way you imagine they would. You can either wallow in self-pity about the twists and turns of your journey or you can embrace the past and look forward to designing your future.
I started at Yale undecided in my major and changed my mind about my field of study daily! The world was so vast and possibilities were endless. The dice landed on architecture and I embraced it for its challenge.
The journey from logical, scientific thinking to a more right brained approach was exhilarating. Learning to operate in a world without a clear answer taught me creative thinking and in my liberal arts education I was able to combine my differing interests in the pursuit of architecture.
Reality turned out to be different from what I expected. Contrary to popular belief, an architect does not necessarily have a detailed understanding of structures, construction, physics and math. They will design space, create forms and select color but it takes many years to get to that level of responsibility. My friends in architecture spend their long workdays staring at construction drawings, designing handrails and laying out toilets. Some live in New York City on $38,000, some work for free.
I gravitated towards project management to get a deeper understanding of how things get built after the design process and after a year of work experience started at MIT’s architecture program. At MIT I was hoping to work on development issues and challenge the boundaries of what we currently conceive of as possible.
The Masters of Architecture degree is a 3.5-year endeavor and the first 1.5 years are preselected courses. I felt a strong current of formalism where design was art rather than problem solving.The culture of the department was to push you beyond what you thought your capabilities were so instead of being asked to develop a couple of ideas deeply, you would be asked to create 10 concepts.
This led to work for the sake of work, often with little thought behind it. The constant negativity, pressure, and the lack of emphasis on ideas and concepts left me uninspired. It all seemed preparatory-where students are taught to suffer because that is what the industry would ask from them- until such day when they start their own firm.
The culture of grad school also spawned a kind of suffering for the sake of this art. People stayed up three nights in a row- proud that they hadn’t showered- or of how many cups of coffee they drank. For me, the result of that work (often a pretty rendering- or good line weight) was just not worth their effort. The emphasis on how something looked as opposed to how something worked did not resonate with me. These long hours led to architects rarely spending time with people from outside of their department. I didn’t realize how strange our lives were until some MIT engineers came into studio and were shocked at how much work we did relative to what was produced.
An aspiring photographer and graduating student told me that in 3.5 years he had not had the time to explore and photograph downtown Boston. Architecture students should be drawing inspiration from their environment. To see them holed away in their studio spaces not engaging with the world demonstrates a big problem with current education models.
For more details about architecture read: http://www.archdaily.com/234633/worklifework-balance
The larger university of MIT is incredible but the investment and time I was forced to pour into uninspiring architectural quicksand was too high. This may have been a dream come true for someone else but it was not where I was supposed to be. I woke up every day with a heavy heart, with no desire to face the world with a strong motivation to keep sleeping.
I knew that I wanted to a make a difference in this world- that is what drives me- and I had chosen this path to take me there. I now started feeling that there were other avenues that could take me to my goal. However, with a degree in architecture, experience in project management coupled with a difficult job market I found the path to change careers daunting and fraught with obstacles.
I was afraid of leaving such a prestigious institution. I was afraid of disappointing my family, my husband, and my friends. I was afraid of jumping off into the unknown with no plan. Everyone advised me to stay and to find opportunities using the system. Logically their arguments made sense, but intuitively I knew I needed to make a change.
Making the leap and jumping off without knowing what was next was the best decision I ever made. It was scary to find myself without next steps but I tried to be proactive. I set up informational interviews with people in fields I thought would be interesting- I went to meet-ups and discussions and told friends and strangers where I was trying to go. A professor once told me “if you don’t tell people where you are going, how can they help you get there?” As a result, more and more, I meet people who are trying to help me achieve my dreams- and I try to help them achieve theirs.
I heard about the Start-up Institute and applied about a week after leaving MIT. This program has proved to be one of the most inspirational environments I could have ever imagined. I am surrounded by 60 other people, all taking control of their lives. They are ex-consultants, mid career professionals, recent graduates and founders of companies who are searching for the right next step for them. Everyday they are challenged, motivated and inspired and each of them has the agency to find out where they fit. There is no shame in not getting it right the first time. No one has the answers and everyone is searching.
The Start-up Institute empowers me. This is the time in history when young people are taken seriously in their endeavors to make a positive contribution to the world. The start-ups who come in to talk to us embody this idea. As an employee, as a human being, you matter and you can make a difference.
Learning in this environment is also geared towards a practical application of skills, so as I am studying product design, I am using design to solve problems. There is an emphasis on the end user and recognition that design is not just pretty colors and beautiful images. Design is a process, a way of thinking and organizing, to make a product that is functional and as a result of that functionality also beautiful.
The start-up environment values good design but more importantly it values trying, failing and iterating. Producing an MVP (minimum viable product) allows you to test your idea and then improve upon it. It is this emphasis on testing and prototyping that keeps the problem solving within design.
Everyone has their own motivations and their own path to follow. MIT architecture may be someone else’s destiny- it just wasn’t mine. My advice to you is to listen to your heart- because you will know when you are not following it. I am on a journey that finally feels right. I feel alive again
Zheela Qaiser is a writer, designer, traveller and a life long learner. She loves effective communication and working with others to produce work that is bigger than single individuals. Always ready to create positive change and make an impact!
More About Me. // @zheeq
Same time: 9AM - 1PM (just Thursday 4/25 instead)
Same place: Harvard i-lab / 125 Western Ave
Same rockstar startup talent
Don’t miss your chance to access the Spring flock of high impact startup talent ready to hit the ground running at your startup.
What is the Student Talent Expose?
Our Student Talent Expose marks the culmination of all the collaborative #learntodo efforts of our students, staff, instructors, and partner companies. After 8 weeks of intense practitioner led education, our 51 students could not be more excited to get themselves out into the startup world and make an impact.
Turning the traditional career fair on its head, we will be putting our student body on display in demo-day style. Students with diverse backgrounds and skill sets ranging from Web Development, Product & Design, Marketing, and Sales & Business Development, will one by one get up on stage and make their 60 second pitch to a room full of CEO’s, hiring managers, and company representatives in hopes that they find their perfect match to align their passion with profession.
After the presentations, there will be networking and a catered lunch.
The last two Student Talent Expose events were wildly successful. 94% of our last two classes landed a job with a startup. Check out this blog post from the CEO of GrowthSpark, Ross Beyeler, about how he hired 3 grads from the last Expose, which led Growthspark to be a partner company for the Spring ‘13 class.
Last Minute Registration
If you have been pulling your hair out looking for the next all-star member of your team, fear not! There are a few seats left at the Expose.Sign up here, but do it quickly because we are almost at capacity!
https://proximate.com/events/startup-institute-student-expose-spring-2013
SCHEDULE
- 9AM-9:30AM:Coffee provided by Beantown
- 9:30AM: Intro from Shaun Johnson, Co-founder & COO of Startup Institute
- 9:45AM: Student Presentations Begin
- 11AM: Presentations End
- 11AM-12:30PM: Networking and Lunch
Fill out your information on this page if you’re interested in learning more about partnership opportunities.
Tomorrow, our Student Talent Expose marks the culmination of all the collaborative #learntodo efforts of our students, staff, instructors, and partner companies. After 8 weeks of intense practitioner led education, our 51 students could not be more excited to get themselves out into the startup world and make an impact.
Turning the traditional career fair on its head, we will be putting our student body on display in demo-day style. Students with diverse backgrounds and skill sets ranging from Web Development, Product & Design, Marketing, and Sales & Business Development, will one by one get up on stage and make their 60 second pitch to a room full of CEO’s, hiring managers, and company representatives in hopes that they find their perfect match to align their passion with profession.
After the presentations, there will be networking and a catered lunch.
The last two Student Talent Expose events were wildly successful. 94% of our last two classes landed a job with a startup. Check out this blog post from the CEO of GrowthSpark, Ross Beyeler, about how he hired 3 grads from the last Expose, which led Growthspark to be a partner company for the Spring ‘13 class.
Last Minute Registration
If you have been pulling your hair out looking for the next all-star member of your team, fear not! There are a few seats left at the Expose. Sign up here, but do it quickly because we are almost at capacity!
https://proximate.com/events/startup-institute-student-expose-spring-2013
SCHEDULE
- 9AM-9:30AM:Coffee provided by Beantown
- 9:30AM: Intro from Shaun Johnson, Co-founder & COO of Startup Institute
- 9:45AM: Student Presentations Begin
- 11AM: Presentations End
- 11AM-12:30PM: Networking and Lunch
Fill out your information on this page if you’re interested in learning more about partnership opportunities.
I started mowing lawns for my neighbors at 15, doing whatever it took to make a dollar. Soon enough I had more work than I could handle and was encouraged by my father to go through the process of legalizing my company.
I took his advice, along with much more, and began to grow The Grounds Crew at an even faster rate, managing up to 13 employees at one point. My friends and others in the industry wondered how I grew so fast in just a short period of time. I told them I was good at selling (which back then just meant being good at hustling)
Over the course of 2 years I landed about 15 commercial clients. I literally thought I was unstoppable and that I was the best seller under 20. I actually didn’t know how to sell though. I didn’t know how to write a sales script and didn’t even understand the sales process. I was just good at “faking it”.
I needed to learn the skills necessary to properly sell a consumer service. I decided to take action myself. I went to the University of Washington bookstore and bought three of their senior level textbooks and began reading. I taught myself a little bit, but nothing comparable to learning from a teacher.
Again I came to the realization that I didn’t know how to sell. All I knew how to do was manipulate. I was even uncaring to the majority of my clients. I wouldn’t reply to customers at times and would cut corners when I wanted to make an extra dollar. I still don’t know how I was able to maintain a high customer retention rate. Some of my friends told me I had too much luck and to be brutally honest, 90% of it was luck. I needed to take a step back and reflect on my life.
During my reflection I knew I needed to step away from my business and learn from it. I felt that education would be the best thing to help me learn how to maintain and develop relationships and learn the skills necessary to work within a startup environment.
Reading a book wasn’t enough, so I began searching for accelerator based programs. Luckily, Startup Institute showed up in a Google Ad and instantly I knew it was the right fit for me. I actually sold the company 11 days before I got accepted into the program and the timing could not have been better.
It has only been about 14 days since day one in the program, but I can honestly say that I have learned a lot, not just from the guest speakers, but my peers as well. I might have come across as overly confident and not willing to ask for help at times, but the truth is I don’t know much yet.
I don’t know much about selling and I don’t know much about what I want. I am still learning to not be manipulative and stubborn when conversing with others and to ask for help. I hope to continue to learn more about sales, but most importantly, learn more from my peers. Both about sales and about them as people. .
I continue to learn that having the ability to “listen” is much greater than being the “know-it-all.” There will always be someone smarter than me and I need to ASK them for help. Going through the first two weeks of this program I have learned and continue to learn that being wrong is OK. Failure is something that I need to accept and I still have a lot to learn.
Curtis Michael is in the Spring ‘13 Sales track. He truly enjoys new challenges, such as teaching himself a new language or conceiving and launching his own landscape management company. He has learned that nothing is too hard if you set your mind to it. For Curtis, the challenge of taking new ideas and turning them into something real is both exciting and motivating. You can check him out on Linkedin or follow him on Twitter.
