Entrepreneurial
Launch Pad
Learn. Plan. Execute.
Program Leaders
Meet the Conduit leaders who know what it takes to build, grow, and scale a startup.
Program Overview
The goal of this workshop is to equip entrepreneurs (startup founders & small business owners) with concepts and a practical understanding of starting and running the first 2-3 years of their companies. The workshop is being led by Rupak Doshi, CEO of OmniSync.
The workshop consists of a series of 6 sessions covering a range of topics. You can start the course by clicking below and complete when convenient for you., 1 session/week
Duration of each session: 30 min + 30 min Q&A
Format of each session: How the topic pertains to startups versus small businesses, concepts & misconceptions, real-life examples, and resources
Venue: Virtual
Don’t miss out
Session 1. What type of entrepreneur are you?
Guest Conduit: Amir Emadi
A practical guide to understanding the distinction between small business and startup, the stage that you are at from an unbiased perspective, and some of the unintuitive things that you need to consider prior to launching your company.
Session 2. Setting up your company
Forming a company is like creating the scaffolding before the building. Kinks will sooner or later show up. This session will equip you with practical advice on how to setup your company (startup or small business) using best business practices guided by decades of experience and input from investors and business gurus.
Session 3. Setting up your company’s financial system
Guest Conduit: Mike Houlihan
We live in an interesting time, where on the one hand, small businesses have a lot more avenues of fundraising than before, and on the other, companies with unprofitable business models land unicorn valuations, and yet fall short of their targets in the public markets. Having a good handle on your company’s financials is highly revered now, more than ever, among the investor and lender community.
Session 4. Protecting your company’s intellectual property
Guest Conduit: Danna Cotman
Intellectual property is an asset for any company, but only if you know how to monetize and/or defend it. For your product or service, does patenting or trademarking make more sense, or both? Do you really need to spend $$$ on these items, and if yes, then when exactly is the right time for it? Trade secrets can be another way to protect assets of your company, but you need certain systems in place to make it effective.
Session 5a. Funding years 1 & 2
Guest Conduit: John Sanders
The first two cycles of death encountered by most entrepreneurs are (a) where do you get the first ~$5-10K to launch your company? (b) where do you get the first $100-200K to validate your idea? A lot of startups never make it past this point to even get in front of potential investors. This talk will focus on ways to break these money->validation->more money cycles of death.
Session 5b. Funding to scale your business beyond year 2
Guest Conduit: John Sanders
Startups and small business have distinct approaches available to them when it comes to attracting money to scale your business. What are these approaches and resources, and what are they typically looking for? We’ll chat about these and action items to put into place before being ready to scale your business.
Tips to get the most out of this program.
Have an open mind – this workshop is designed to provide practical education on real-world entrepreneurial concepts, some of which can be hard to digest if you have pre-conceived notions about things. So try listening with an open mind and bring any questions or comments to the “Entrepreneurs Club” topic!
Keep notes on the ‘tips & tricks’ – every session will have real-world examples of how other companies and entrepreneurs have approached or experienced issues in their journey.
Get as much as you can from this free consulting opportunity