The 7-Hour Founder's Sprint: From Idea to Pitch

Thinking of Taking the LEAP from employee to Entrepreneur?

Join like-minded peers and savvy business experts for a one-day intensive program designed to move founders from a vague "idea" to a concrete, pitch-ready differentiated concept and business model. It’s fast-paced, collaborative, and focuses on the three hardest parts of a new venture: proving value, naming a price and developing a short and engaging sales description.

The Goal: By the end of the day, participants will have worked in teams to develop a validated Unique Selling Proposition (USP), a defensible pricing strategy, and a polished 60-second elevator pitch for the business they worked on. (Whether the business idea is your own or belongs to another team member, all participants will have spend the day learning how to refine your idea, test and strategize on pricing, and create an elevator pitch that will attract the attention!

Block 1: The Core Value (Group Deep Dive)

• Activity: Participants who wish to have their ideas "workshopped" must come prepared with a "ONE MINUTE Sales Pitch" for everyone to hear. Once presented to the audience , the idea will be written on a paper, and when all ideas are presented, the audience will join a team of the ideas they like best. Participants are grouped by idea. Teams help to refine the idea they are most attracted to work on.

Outcome: Teams will help refine the idea with the "founder" and identify key considerations, e.g. potential customers, partners, channels, costs, revenue streams, and environment.

Block 2: The Math of Value (Pricing Strategy)

• Activity: A crash course (10 min) on Cost-Plus vs. Value-Based pricing. Teams work through "Price Sensitivity" exercises to determine what their target customer is actually willing to pay.

Outcome: A preliminary price point backed by competitive research and a basic understanding of their margins. We recommend you bring your laptops or ipads although you can do research from your phone.

Break Before Lunch

Block 3: Working Lunch: The "Peer Pressure" Pitch

• Activity: Over lunch, participants must explain their business idea and price to someone from a different team.Attendees can also network with other colleagues. When lunch concludes, share the feedback with your team.

Outcome: Instant, informal feedback on whether the value and price "click" for a stranger.

Break After Lunch

Block 4: The Script (Articulating the Pitch) Develop what you will be saying to potential customers, investors and partners/team. We'll give you some pointers and time for you and your team to develop the "script."

• Activity: Translating the morning's work into a narrative. Participants use a specific 4-part framework: The Problem, The Solution (USP), The Value (Pricing), and The Ask.

Outcome: A written draft of the elevator pitch.

Block 5: The Final Hustle (Drill & Refine)

• Activity: Speed-dating style pitching. Every 5 minutes, participants rotate and pitch to a new peer, refining their delivery based on real-time reactions.

Block 6: Final Team Pitch Presentations - Teams get together to refine pitch after practice sessions and then do final presentation

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Host or Publisher Stage2Startups