Our business development program helps entrepreneurs get clear on what needs to be done as they develop a business using our Business Development Roadmap Tool. Collaborative Experiences are in-person or via remote tools.
Program Description
The Collaborative Experience Business Development Program (CX) enables entrepreneurs gain expertise for advancing a business model and venture through a multi-disciplinary commercialization/development team. Ventures may include products, services, or combinations of both. CX includes product proof of concept and customer development activities aimed at identifying, testing and validating key assumptions of the business model.
Participants must apply for admission and follow the guidelines provided by the Zeru Center.
Meetings Times
CX is based around a two tier peer-to-peer/coach learning experience. All participants must attend one weekly session where the team meet to discuss entrepreneurial/innovation materials, common problems, etc.
This cohort remote meetings times are:
- Tuesday from 5 to 8 pm
- Thursday from 5 to 8 pm
- Or book peer-to-peer session via Calendar
The weekly collaborative sessions are scheduled by your business associate, you and the individual teams at mutually convenient times.
Course Objectives
The general objectives of these collaborative business development sessions are:
- To develop an understanding of the strategies, concepts, and methods involved in business/venture creation and development including:
- Goal Setting, Teaming, and Creative Unblocking
- Business definition and investor presentation requirements
- Practice of customer discovery and product market fit
- Development and execution of learning plans
- Acquisition and analysis of data
- Development of commercialization strategies and tactics
- Ability to work in teams
- To apply these to a business development opportunity with emphasis on testing the key assumptions that underlie the business model.
Overview
The objectives of this program will be accomplished through individual/team research and planning, and instructor feedback. Participants will work individually and as a team to accomplish program goals. Members will meet weekly as a program to discuss a range of topics related to new business formation. Members will also meet weekly with their assigned Business Associate for status reviews, guidance, and action planning.
Participants will be expected to conduct primary research with potential customers and partners in an effort to validate a real e-commerce business model and/or pivot to a new direction after 3 and 6 months.
Business associates will spend a significant amount of program time commenting on and critiquing each team’s progress. These comments, while directed at an individual team, tend to be generally applicable to all teams, therefore participants are expected to engage, by listening and responding, to these comments. Also, the critique may push participants beyond their “comfort zone”. Please don’t take this personally. We are helping to expose you to the “real world of business creation” while maintaining a positive learning environment inside the business center.
Reading – Required
- I n s l I g h t s is our community News room that contains several business development and entrepreneurship information curated from top sources. The newsroom has information from some of the most influential black entrepreneurs, content creators, reports, digital downloads, news and training. This single source of truth is what we use in our decision making process. You will be required to comment on topics posted
- “Why Startups Fail and How Yours Can Succeed”, David Feinleib, Apress, 2011 - Selected chapters as indicated in program schedule.
- This book offers keen insights as to the various failure modes experienced in starting a business, and offers guidance on how to avoid the mistakes that lead to failure. It is available for free in electronic form in CXiP Studios.
Additional Resources & Recommendations
- “Entrepreneurs Guild to Customer Development”, Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits, Cooper-Vlaskovits, 2010
- “The Startup Owner’s Manual”, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, K&S Ranch, 2012
- This book, a more readable rendition of Blank’s “Four Steps to the Epiphany” is a “how to” for business creation with particular focus on the “customer development process” – the analog to the product development process.
- “Business Model Generation”, Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, Wiley, 2010
- A good deep dive into business model dimensions, options, and examples
- “The Art of the Start”, Guy Kawasaki, Portfolio Hardcover, 2004
- Words of wisdom from Guy Kawasaki in a very easy to read form.
- Business Statistics: https://openstax.org/details/books/introductory-business-statistics
Program Deliverables
Mastery in this program will depend on performance within three primary deliverables, indicated below, as well as your program participation. All are equally important to your success.
Final Report, Business Plan and Sale
The paper (one per team and nominally 10-15 pages) will describe the work you did over the quarter with emphasis on what you learned about yourself, your business, your customer, and how to start a business. This is a team assignment, but each person must complete their own individual section on personal learning. Each member’s grade will be a composite of the team effort and their own section.
This paper is due by midnight on the last announced date of the program.
Final Presentation
The presentation will be modeled after an investor presentation and will consist of approximately 10-15 slides as per template in CXiP. Each team will present to the entire program at a (to be determined) time and place during final exam week. Please bring your presentation on your own laptop with backup, i.e. thumb drive.
Weekly Update and Program Participation
The weekly update, which needs to be written and handed in, will cover:
- What have you done since your last meeting?
- What have you learned from this?
- How does what you learned affect your overall game plan?
- What will you accomplish by your next meeting?
- What could get in the way of accomplishing these items?
- In addition to the above questions regarding project status, please answer “How does this week’s reading relate to my (our) business?
These must be sent to your Business Associate no later than 24 hours before your meeting. NOTE: Participants must regularly meet with their business associates. If for whatever reason this fails to occur, participants must bring it to the centers’ attention. Failure to do either of these will adversely affect grades.
Member Teams are encouraged to participate in Business Plan competitions offered by the various universities and organizations.
Evaluation and Grading
Progress and grade will be based on the following:
- The energy and action orientation that participant bring to the program including engaging potential customers and others in a research activity aimed at testing assumptions
- The soundness of logic and conclusions drawn from your research
- Development and management of a viable learning/business plan to address those assumptions and issues that you are not able to finalize during the program
- Clarity and coverage of the final investor presentation – including clearly distinguishing between facts and assumptions, data and knowledge
- A final report that has a complete accounting of what was planned, done, and learned with keen insights
- The final report (Founders Letter) and investor presentation should be well done with regard to structure, clarity, grammar, spelling, etc
- Submissions of photos, business documenting video journal entries, and image release form
Other Important Items
- Successful completion of the program is highly correlated with use of multi-disciplinary teams. Participants wishing to take the program, but not on a team, can use the first week of program to find one. It is therefore imperative that you attend the first week’s program. If you cannot do so, please notify ZERU Center in advance.
- Rare exceptions may be made to permit an individual member to participate in the course. All members must be working on an identified business opportunity – no exceptions.
- Teams will need to complete a “Memorandum of Understanding” that lays out responsibilities of each team member, company ownership should a real company evolve from the work, etc. These must be completed and provided to the center before you attend the second collaborative event.
- You need to be fully present during the weekly program session, i.e. providing your full attention and not checking email, browsing the web, etc. as you’ll never know when a key insight or lesson critical to you or your team may emerge.
- Finally, in the event you experience issues with your team – please try to work them out on your own. Alert your coach at the first sign that the issue may not resolve easily. If necessary, your coach may help the team work through the issue, but this is a last resort. Do not wait until the end of the semester to raise and confront the issue.
Written Communication Skills
“Strong written communication skills” appears as a primary requirement in most business writing; this requirement has been repeatedly cited by employers and investors. As such, written communication is an important component of a member’s ZERU education. To help develop writing skills, members are expected to write and synthesize ideas in a informed manner. Failure to meet these requirements will negatively impact the evaluation of written projects, and could impact future financial investment prospects.
Confidentiality and Integrity
All members in the program are expected to follow Terms of Service and Privacy Policy as outlined in the ZERU Center terms of service.
ZERU Business Mission
Making it easier to start or scale a business
