UB' recently debut4ed its StartingLine program for the "founder-curious"
Knowing where to start when you have an exciting business idea can be overwhelming and intimidating. There are a number of great startup programs in Buffalo that address this knowledge and experience gap, but many are long-term investments that require a founder to be fully committed.
What about people that are just testing the waters or want to build a business but aren’t sure that the fast-growth, risky path of venture is right for them? I’ve seen many founders take the leap without knowing what’s ahead of them and could have benefited from a crash course on what’s to come.
This is why the Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships department at University at Buffalo created StartingLine, a pre-accelerator program for the “founder-curious.”
StartingLine kicked off its inaugural cohort this November with 12 companies. Our cohort was full of true trailblazers, willing to take a chance on a new and unknown program in the pursuit of furthering their ideas.
If you’re “founder-curious” or an ecosystem operator looking to provide this as a resource to founders you serve, please fill out the form at the link here. You’ll be the first to know when we announce our new cohort.
StartingLine participants weren’t the only ones learning during this program. Launching StartingLine acted as a mini-startup in itself and led to a number of insights that anyone interested in starting a company could learn from:
Learn startup best practices to avoid headaches down the line
Making mistakes are part of the startup journey, but many are avoidable. While no startup path looks the same, you can get ahead of future, potentially timely and costly, mistakes by leaning on industry best practices. For example, no investor will question a decision to incorporate as a Delaware C-Corp. Innovation is hard enough as it is, don’t reinvent the wheel in every aspect of your business.
Most startup topics take years to master
While the program was meant to be an introduction to startup fundamentals, each of our expert instructors stressed that you could spend years perfecting these concepts. While that might seem overwhelming, one of the keys to successful entrepreneurship is perpetual learning. The industry, tools and culture are constantly evolving, so the sooner a founder gets into that mindset, the better off they’ll be.
People are everything
Building the right people around you is one of the hardest, but most important things you will do as a founder. From your cofounding team to service providers to advisors, not everyone is built or equipped for startups and identifying the people who are right is a skill founders should hone early on. It also is one of the metrics in which investors will judge your company. It comes down to this: can you convince talented people to follow you when you have likely nothing to offer but a vision?
Becoming a founder is a personal choice
Being a startup founder is as much a lifestyle as it as a career choice. At the earliest stage, getting really clear on whether that lifestyle fits your personality, goals and everyday needs is crucial. Knowing where to set boundaries with yourself, when to drive forward and when to step back all comes down to self-awareness. Working through these questions before you start can help guide you when your path inevitably feels uncertain.
You can move the needle a lot in a few weeks
Startups move fast and sometimes as a founder you can get preoccupied with everything you haven’t done, losing sight of how far you’ve come. When we first started the program, the concept of an elevator pitch felt daunting to many participants, but by the time they pitched in front of a room of 30, they seemed like seasoned pros. Don’t discount incremental progress and celebrate small wins because you might be surprised at how much you can accomplish by putting one foot in front of another.
With our pilot under our belt, we’re excited to bring more companies into the program across New York State. Our goal is to make startup education accessible so anyone with a great idea can get the information, resources or network they need to make the decision thats’ right for them when it comes to running a business.
If you’re “founder-curious” or an ecosystem operator looking to provide this as a resource to founders you serve, please fill out the form at the link here. You’ll be the first to know when we announce our new cohort.
.png)
