Lessons from Startup Studio Sprint

Student startup projects are still in the early stages of development—names are changing and products pivoting—but in the first Studio Sprint of the semester, teams stood before faculty, peers and staff to present the work they’ve done so far.

No product was finished. No team knew exactly what their company represented. And every presentation had room for improvement. But after 24 hours of hard work, everyone learned something.

Here are a few lessons from the first Studio Sprint of the semester:

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

Through technical difficulties and stumbled speeches, teams learned one very important lesson of entrepreneurship: sometimes you just have to fake it. If you lose your place in your deck, improvise. If you don’t have a product yet, act like you do.

Dogstar, a team creating wearable devices for dogs to inform owners of their pet’s emotions, had their prototype strapped onto a stuffed dog. It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t functional, but it showed their concept and despite the fact it didn’t work yet, they acted like it did.

Know Your Stuff

A common thread through the presentations was the importance of knowing your material. Reading slides is ineffective and shows you aren’t comfortable with your presentation. Take the time to practice and be able to go off book.

Vero is a team working to develop virtual reality video games to to make exercise more fun. Their slides stopped working in the middle of their presentation, but the speaker knew his stuff and was able to carry on, despite technical difficulties.

Three Take-Aways

David Tisch advised that after a presentation, the audience should walk away with three concrete things:

• A sound bite. Each team should have one memorable phrase that embodies your company’s vision.
• A number. Everyone should walk away with a number that makes your company valuable and justifies your product.
• A concept. It’s obvious, but important. Everyone listening to your presentation should understand the concept of your company and what problem you aim to solve.

In the next few weeks, students will continue to iterate and evolve their products as they prepare for another Studio Sprint and another chance to present their companies.