"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.
Last week, our Blast Furnace teams heard from three experts on funding early stage companies. The Blast Furnace is the University of Pittsburgh’s student accelerator, which recently launched its inaugural cohort. Two speakers from the 3x3 are funders, the third one is a serial entrepreneur who has been funded by the two funders (amongst others). They had great information and great advice.