Velocity Labs is a 3-month startup accelerator divided into two distinct 6-week tracts for founders and teams of pre-revenue and early adopter stage high-growth companies. Velocity works closely with a select group of entrepreneurs in the earliest stages with the proven Customer Development framework to discover a valid solution for a problem worth solving for a sizable population that’s big enough to build a scalable, profitable and impactful company. Customer Development recognizes a startup is a temporary organization built to search for the answers to what makes a repeatable & scalable business model. Entrepreneurs will test a series of unproven hypothesis (guesses) about their business model: who the customers are, what the product features should be, and how this scales into a hugely successful company. The peer-to-peer course will engage insightful discussion among the diverse group of startup entrepreneurs while creating accountability, personal leadership, increased productivity and an accelerated learning platform to give companies the necessary velocity to reach the critical growth and scale stages.
Customer Development
There are three critical stages for velocity track companies. The Customer Development framework supports the first two foundational stages:
1) problem/solution fit
2) product/market fit
3) scale/growth
The first six-week tract (Spring 2019) is all about Customer Discovery and is for the earliest stage companies, typically pre-revenue, working on product ideation, business model concepts, market analysis and the critical problem/solution fit stage. Companies will understand deeply what the big problem is they are working to solve and specifically for which customer segment(s). Founders will use the Value Proposition Canvas to help test their own assumptions about the problem and the solution directly with a number of potential customers, explore direct competitors and how their value proposition is unique, and analyze the true size and value of the potential market. Companies will be able to confidently measure whether they have true problem/solution fit before moving on to Customer Validation in the second six-week tract to prove out product/market fit. The course culminates in a community pitch event to allow founders the opportunity pitch their validated business model concepts and gain support from the High Country startup community.
The second six-week tract (Summer 2019) is for the early stage companies that have validated that they have problem/solution fit and are engaging with a small early adopter customer base. Using the Customer Validation framework and Business Model Canvas, companies will build and test a minimal viable product (MVP) with a growing number of early adopters as they ramp up into and validate true product/market fit. Companies will gain a deep understanding of early adopter engagement, sales funnel and channel development, early revenue generation, market positioning and growth metrics that matter. The course culminates in a community pitch event to allow founders the opportunity pitch their early stage company to the community, investors and mentors to gain support from the High Country startup community.
Spring Course: Customer Discovery and finding Problem/Solution Fit
Rolling Applications with Final Deadline March 15th, 2019.
Class Times: Mondays 6-9pm in downtown Boone (Coursework)
Every other Wednesdays 6-9pm in downtown Boone (Leadership)
Class Dates: April 1 – May 6 2019 (Mondays)
April 3, April 17 and May 1, 2019 (Wednesdays)
Summer Course: Customer Validation and finding Product/Market Fit
Rolling Applications with Final Deadline May 17th, 2019
Class Times: Mondays 6-9pm in downtown Boone (Coursework)
Every other Wednesdays 6-9pm in downtown Boone (Leadership)
Class Dates: June 10 – July 15, 2019 (Mondays)
June 12th, June 26th, and July 10th 2019 (Wednesdays)