Launch and Learn – Entrepreneurial Workshop Series
Launch & Learn Series
Entrepreneurs Building Bold Businesses
This 10-workshop series guides early-stage entrepreneurs through the critical steps of building a business. Each workshop is designed to be practical, hands-on, and tailored to the unique challenges of early-stage founders.
Participants will learn how to brainstorm business ideas, validate their concepts, build a brand, acquire customers, manage finances, and more. Along the way, they’ll gain access to mentorship, industry connections, and ongoing support to ensure their venture has the strongest possible foundation.
By the end of the series, entrepreneurs will have a validated business concept, a clear plan for growth, and the confidence to continue building.
#3 - Know Your Customer: Defining Your Market
Reserve your space now for this workshop!
Overview:
Entrepreneurs will focus on one of the most critical aspects of building a business: understanding their customers. This session will dive into how to define the target audience and conduct market research that helps entrepreneurs gain deep insights into their customers’ needs, preferences, and pain points.
Participants will learn how to:
- Segment their market by identifying different groups of potential customers.
- Develop detailed customer personas to represent their ideal buyers.
- Conduct simple but effective market research using surveys, interviews, and competitor analysis.
- Analyze the data to refine their business model and offerings.
The goal is for entrepreneurs to move from broad assumptions to clear, data-driven customer insights that will guide their marketing, sales, and product development strategies.
Key Takeaways:
- Techniques for identifying and segmenting target customers.
- How to create detailed customer personas.
- Simple methods for conducting market research to validate customer needs and preferences.
#4 - Financial Basics: Managing Money and Resources
Overview:
This workshop dives into the financial foundation every entrepreneur needs to build a sustainable business. This session focuses on understanding key financial concepts, managing cash flow, and creating simple financial projections. Entrepreneurs will learn how to keep their business financially healthy from day one, even with limited resources.
Participants will cover:
- The basics of budgeting and tracking expenses.
- How to create financial projections, including revenue, expenses, and cash flow forecasting.
- Key financial terms and concepts every entrepreneur should know (profit margin, breakeven point, runway, etc.).
- Different funding options, from bootstrapping to grants, loans, and angel investment.
The workshop is designed to give participants practical financial skills they can apply immediately, with templates and tools for budgeting and cash flow management.
Key Takeaways:
- How to create a budget and manage cash flow.
- Developing financial projections to guide decision-making.
- Understanding different funding options and when to seek outside capital.
Upcoming 2025 Launch and Learn Workshops
#5 – Building a Brand on a Budget
#6 – Prototyping and Testing: Building Your MVP
#7 – Marketing 101: Getting Your First Customers
#8 – Sales Fundamentals for Founders
#9 – Scaling Up: Managing Growth
#10 – Building a Resilient Entrepreneurial Mindset
Register for one or all of our workshops!
Please complete the below form to register. You will be provided additional information via email for virtual and in person workshops upon submission of form.
Past Workshops
Past Workshops topics are listed below. Look for these workshops in 2025!
#1 - Unlocking Ideas: Brainstorming and Validating Your Business
Overview:
Entrepreneurs will dive into the process of turning ideas into viable business concepts. We’ll explore techniques to generate fresh, marketable ideas and methods to quickly validate those ideas through customer feedback. The goal is to ensure entrepreneurs are solving real-world problems that people are willing to pay to solve.
Participants will learn how to:
- Brainstorm effectively using structured ideation techniques like mind mapping, SCAMPER, and problem-based thinking.
- Identify pain points in potential markets by conducting simple customer discovery interviews.
- Quickly test their ideas with low-cost validation methods, including surveys, online research, and direct customer interactions.
By the end of the workshop, entrepreneurs will have a clear understanding of the problem their business aims to solve and initial feedback from potential customers on whether their idea addresses a real need.
Key Takeaways:
- How to generate business ideas based on market demand.
- Techniques to validate ideas before investing significant time or resources.
- Early-stage customer discovery techniques to test assumptions.
#2 - Crafting a Lean Business Model
Overview:
Entrepreneurs will learn how to structure their ideas into a simple and effective business model using the Lean Canvas. This session focuses on creating a one-page business plan that outlines the essential components of their business, allowing for flexibility and quick iterations as the market evolves.
Participants will break down their business into key areas, including:
- Identifying target customer segments.
- Defining the problem they’re solving and how their solution is unique.
- Outlining revenue streams and cost structures.
- Establishing their unique value proposition.
The workshop is designed to help entrepreneurs avoid overcomplicating their business plan and instead focus on the elements that will drive early success. This simple yet comprehensive approach enables them to pivot quickly if necessary.
Key Takeaways:
- How to build a Lean Canvas to visualize the entire business on one page.
- Clarifying the problem, solution, and customer segments.
- Understanding revenue streams and cost structures to create a sustainable business model.