Program Objective
This program is designed to foster growth of new ideas and individual participants into early stages of new ventures, including technology and social impact ventures.
The five-week sequence is open to any and all CCNY students, who may also bring friends and potential colleagues with them. Participants may come with ideas for new ventures - or not! These workshops are all about exploration, discovery and team-building.
At the end of these five weeks, participants will be very well prepared to apply for the Zahn Innovation Center’s Venture Competition Program that will take place in Spring 2024. That program culminates in a Demo Week where new ventures will be awarded funding to help develop their startups.
Fall Startup Minicamp Program Logistics
In-person workshops will be held on Thursdays, from 12:15-1:45pm, in NAC 1-103 (Flex Space), from October 12, 2023 through November 9, 2023.
Additional Open Innovation Office Hours will be provided during the minicamp. Participants may meet each other, Zahn Innovation Center staff, alumni and mentors in the co-working space for more personalized interactions.
Optional workshops on topics including prototyping, branding, networking and pitching will also be offered, schedules TBC.
Spring 2024 Venture Competition applications will be due on November 12, 2023. The application will draw heavily on content discussed in the minicamp, so attending the sessions in the fall will increase your chances of being accepted in the 2024 Venture Competition!
Minicamp Program Schedule (Tentative)
10/12 - Introducing Startups, Entrepreneurial Problem Solving, and Value Propositions
You have a “great” idea, now what? You want to help solve an interesting problem, how can entrepreneurship do that? What value will you provide?
10/19 - Customer/ User Discovery and Insights
Who are your customers? What do they want? Learn how to find your target customers and stakeholders to interview, how to conduct truly productive interviews, as well as how to listen for insights and trends.
10/26 - Market Sizing and Competitive Analysis
Some of the first questions an investor will ask are "How big is the market opportunity?" and “Who are your competitors?”. Learn what this means and how to set a strategy to capture your target market.
11/2 - Minimum Viable Product/Prototype (MVP) Development
You started with assumptions on how your product would fill a need with your customers. Now how do you proceed in building and iterating on a solution that offers them the greatest value without investing a lot of your time, effort and expense on development?
11/9 - Spring 2024 Incubator Info Session and Application Help
In the last session of our Fall 2023 Venture Minicamp you'll hear from Zahn Innovation Center incubator alumni who can provide insight and advice about their experience. Zahn Innovation Center staff will also be available to help answer questions about the application process.
This is the last chance to get feedback and help before the applications for the Zahn Innovation Center’s Venture Competition Program are due Sunday, November 12 at 11:59 pm.
Last Updated: 10/13/2023 20:26