Imagine that you come to Pitt as a freshman, or returning upperclassmen, and “BAM!” you say to yourself, “Self, that is a great idea I have. I need to start a business!” In short, you realize that you have an idea that could make you the next startup superstar. You’ve watched numerous episodes of Shark Tank, The Profit and even Bar Rescue. You’ve seen pictures of Zuckerberg, Gates and Jobs and read their quotes. You even had summer jobs in retail sales, or had your own lawn cutting/landscaping business, or had a summer internship. You know you are ready to use all this experience.
"Out here the nights are long, the days are lonely I think of you and I'm working on a dream I'm working on a dream" -Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream
We enjoyed one ‘last blast’ at the University of Pittsburgh’s Blast Furnace student accelerator Speaker Series. The subject was extremely important for the ‘about to graduate’ Blast Furnace participants: the good, the bad and the ugly of being an entrepreneur. In the Furnace we had two veterans: Larry Shoup and Marc Malandro.
The University of Pittsburgh student accelerator, the Blast Furnace, hosted another great set of speakers recently to discuss the subject of building and leading your startup team during the various stages of growth.
At this week’s Speaker Series at the University of Pittsburgh’s student accelerator, The Blast Furnace was one of the most important subjects a startup faces: what lies beyond the ‘idea,’ past ‘customer discovery’ – going to market. One of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is underestimating their go-to-market costs, or assuming the ‘product will sell itself.’ Unfortunately for most businesses, the ‘build it and they will come’ is not reality.