Be the Entrepreneur Weekend Seminar Series

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October 09, 2018
As you may have heard, Be the Entrepreneur Bootcamp is undergoing some exciting changes in the coming year. Many of these changes are in direct response to feedback we have received from previous attendees, as well as our strong desire to maintain contact and provide resources to our attendees, alumni, and community members throughout the year. Below is an explanation of each event for the next year, including our reasoning for these changes and additions. As always, please reach out if you have questions about or would like to attend or sponsor any of our events, and we look forward to working with you to make this the best iteration of Be the Entrepreneur Bootcamp yet.

BTE: Student Weekend
Fall 2018:
This event will focus on helping students evaluate and refine business ideas, as well as teaching them basics of developing a business model, performing competitive analysis, teamwork and development, customer discovery, and pitching techniques.
Studies have shown that early engagement in business and the workplace have real, concrete benefits for long-term financial success. This, coupled with teens’ facility with emerging technology and their own highly-sought-after market, makes high school the perfect time to learn the tools needed to take a great idea from page to market. Many successful and tremendously impactful businesses have their roots as college start-ups, from our own College Hill Custom Threads to giants like Microsoft, and we think teaching the basics of business to the next generation of entrepreneurs gives them the best possible chance to capitalize on their current and future innovations.

BTE: Executive Weekend
Spring 2019:
Here we will reconnect with our BTE alumni and businesses ready to take the next step to revisit the material covered on the last two days of our previous BTE Bootcamps, covering topics such as advanced business modeling, creating a successful startup, selling your idea, trademarking, and will also feature more specialized mentoring.
Our attendees come to us with businesses at all levels of development, and we pride ourselves greatly on providing the tools and education necessary to take the next step, regardless of what stage you may be at. That being said, a lot can change in a year or five, and what may have been most relevant to an attendee three years ago is certainly not the same now. With our first Executive Entrepreneur Weekend, our alumni and businesses will get a chance to dive back into the latter stages of our curriculum with added experience and perspective. We will provide more specialized mentoring to attendees as well, addressing specific issues for our more experienced entrepreneurs.

BTE: Foundation Weekend
Summer 2019:
This event will occur over a single weekend, focusing on what was the first two days of our previous BTE Bootcamps. We will help attendees ascertain if their idea is indeed a sound business proposition, create a business model, perform competitive analysis, develop a team, discover potential customers, and pitch their idea.
A consistent piece of feedback we have received is the nearly overwhelming amount of information provided during the BTE experience, with one attendee likening it to ‘Drinking from a firehose’. In response, we have decided to break up our curriculum into two separate weekends several months apart. This first weekend will be primarily focused on developing sound business principles and vetting ideas, while creating a plan of action for the coming months and beyond.

Summer to Fall Transition, 2019:
We will then allow attendees the time to put what they learned during the initial Bootcamp weekend into practice. Attendees will meet with advisors, perform customer discoveries, attend events, and put the skills they’ve developed to the test.
Attendees of the Foundation Entrepreneur Weekend will then set out to enact what they have learned and put their ideas into practice. They will not be alone, however, as they will have many community resources available to them, as well as advisors and their fellows to help work through any kinks and roadblocks they might encounter along the way. By beginning the process of implementing the plans they made in the Foundation Weekend, we believe they will be better able to get the absolute most out of the next stage of the BTE program and a better chance of success in general.

With all of these changes, we hope to make BTE’s curriculum more accessible and actionable for attendees, while also providing increased visibility and value for our sponsors and supporters. Please reach out if you have any questions whatsoever or if you would like to be involved in any or all of these exciting programs. As always, thank you for your time, attention, and dedication to making the Palouse a better place to work and live.
Contact:
Francis Benjamin
contact@btebootcamp.com