It is with great excitement that we introduce a second iteration of Startup School. In Fall 2016, the Entrepreneurial Institute created Startup School as a weekly workshop series to provide the NYU community with the training and resources necessary to launch a startup. In its first iteration, we had over 1,800 signups representing students and faculty from 20 NYU schools. Participants left with a clear understanding of topics ranging from testing MVPs to raising venture capital. The breadth of topics followed the trajectory of most entrepreneurs and was successful in teaching the foundations of entrepreneurship. Check out some of the presentation slides here.

Building upon the success of the eleven part series, we are growing the Startup School curriculum into three tracks: Startup School Foundations, Founder Skills, and Financing. The foundations series will continue to cover the startup essentials and is largely influenced by the Lean Startup Methodology. We highly recommend that those who are in the early stages of development or new to entrepreneurship attend the Foundations. The newer tracks, Founder Skills and Financing, will each take a deeper dive into their respective topic through skill-building workshops and panels led by industry experts.

Building a great product and company is difficult and often requires founders and team members to learn a new skillset. The Founder Skills track covers the must have competencies for startup leaders include Agile Engineering, Facebook Advertising, and Creating a Marketing Launch Plan, among others. The Financing Track will cover the fundraising topics, from dilutive to non-dilutive avenues, that are crucial in preparing for growth. Please see below for the tentative Spring 2017 Startup School programming.

There are no prerequisites for any of the three tracks and we encourage you to sign up for any and all topics that are of interest to you in your entrepreneurial journey. Please check back to the Startup School site here to stay up to date on the schedule. As a reminder, all Startup School sessions are only open to current NYU community members. ID cards are required upon check-in. We look forward to seeing you at Startup School this semester!

Startup School: Foundations include topics such as:
Getting to Product Market Fit (1/31, 2/7)
Sizing up Your Market & Competition (2/14)
Testing Your MVP & Prototypes (2/21)
Protecting Your Idea or Invention (2/28)
Acquiring Customers (3/28)
Building and Growing Your Team (4/4)
Measuring & Monitoring Metrics that Matter (4/11)
Legal Essentials for Startup Founders (4/18)
Sales for Startups (5/3)

Startup School: Founder Skills
Facebook Advertising to Grow Your Startup (2/1)
Prototyping PCBs with Botfactory Squink (2/8)
Google Analytics (3/24)
Creating Your Product Launch Plan (4/12)
3D Printing for Entrepreneurs (4/19)
UI Prototyping & Wireframing (TBD)
Agile Engineering (TBD)
Product Management Basics for Entrepreneurs (TBD)

Startup School: Fundraising
When and How to Raise VC (2/23)
The Anatomy of a Term Sheet (3/1)
Green Grants Program Overview (3/22)
SBIR Advanced Workshop (4/5-6)
Crowdfunding Your Business (4/20)
Storytelling and Pitching to Investors (4/25)
Accelerators, Angels or VCs: Oh my! (TBD)
Bootstrapping Your Startup: An Overview of Non-Dilutive Funding Sources (TBD)