Ted Zoller Returns

Ted Zoller returned to the Foundation for the second time this week to continue his guidance through the ins and outs of entrepreneurship.

In the two days that Ted was here, we covered “The Venture Build-Up: Designing the Executive Model”, which consisted of Market, Model, Management and Money.

“Entrepreneurs are like jugglers, managing many ideas and businesses at once. If you manage just one, they are managers” (Ted Zoller)

We also spent time working on our Value Propositions, and two minute elevator pitches. Ted is a really intelligent, fast thinking and generally great guy. Working through our pitches really helped develop them further from what we’d prepared. Pitching to other members of the group and getting constructive criticism at the end of the afternoon.

“Assembling people that share the vision, and aligning them in the way they are interested in the market” (Ted Zoller)

On the Second day we continued building on from the first, but also went onto talk about business models, segmentation of the market, beachheads and target first customers.

“time is not finite, time is not scalable”.

TED gave us all a present, a metal clip that rotated slightly. He said, as he was giving them out, “No one has guessed what these are”, as he said it I returned from the restroom, picked mine up and immediately said, “its a lynch-pin right?”.  He was truely surprised, having lived on a farm most of my life we use them everyday. He pointed out that they were a gift, to symbolize us as entrepreneurs..the lynch-pin of our company, organisation or business venture.

A Northerner in Kansas (cont)

So week one is over and what a week! The days have been long, and the meals have been large but I feel I have already been “nudged” further towards achieving the ambitions and goals I’ve set myself. Everyone at the Foundation and in Kansas City have been so welcoming, and I couldn’t of wished for a better group of people to be doing this with. Everyone’s so determined, bright and dynamic in the group, new ideas and potential collaborations are already being talked about.

Highlights of the week included talks from Bill Aulet, a successful entrepreneur and now academic at M.I.T. who discussed marketing and sales. He compared starting a new company, to that of a small country trying to invade a larger one. You don’t want to spread your army too thin, attacking at different ports. Rather, you focus your attention and efforts attacking one single port ceasing control and then going after one city at a time.

We also had the opportunity of attending the KTEC Pipeline awards. Pitches were held throughout the day, with an awards ceremony held on the night. It was a great chance to meet the entrepreneurs and business community in Kansas.

To round the week off Ted Zoller,  another seasoned entrepreneur but now works at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He delivered a “New Venture Boot Camp”, which included a host of really interesting topics including focused customer value propositions. The week included a lot of reading, both books and case studies.