Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Introduction to the Inspire Program by Spring

    • Inspire Overview

    • Inspire Program Worksheet

    • Welcome to Inspire

    • Tasks from the Introduction
  • 2

    Part 1 - Setting a Good Foundation

    • Part 1: Going from passion to problem

    • Opportunities vs. Passion

    • Simon Sinek - How Great Leaders Inspire Action (AKA Start with the WHY)

    • Defining Your Why

    • Defining Your Why

    • Defining your Values

    • Defining the values that will shape your business

    • An example of defining the Why and Values

    • Discussion: Passion, Vision, Values

    • Tasks for A Good Foundation
  • 3

    Part 2: Problem Definition

    • Defining the Problem

    • Problem Definition

    • Discussion: Problem Statement

    • Tasks for Problem Statement
  • 4

    Part 3 - Running our Business Lean - building a highly responsive business

    • Ensuring we remain focused on the customer

    • How the concept of Lean helps us to plan and launch our businesses

    • The Lean Concept & Your Business

    • What are pivots and when do we need to do them?

    • Why the Concept Pivots is Important to Know Now

    • Discussion: Lean & Pivots

    • Tasks from Running Lean
  • 5

    Part 5: Telling the story: Your Elevator Pitch

    • Elevator Pitch

    • Elevator Pitch

    • Discussion: Your Elevator Pitch

    • Tasks from Telling the story

    • THE NEXT STEP: Picking your brand to fit your story
  • 6

    Part 6: Customer Discovery

    • Intro: Finding out if you are really solving a problem

    • Customer Discovery Overview

    • Customer Discovery: Target Customer

    • Customer Discovery: The Script

    • Customer Discovery: The Sandbox

    • Customer Discovery: Wrapping Up

    • Customer Discovery

    • How to Run a User Interview

    • How To Do (And What To Expect From) Early-Stage Customer Development & Sales

    • Email Prospecting

    • Email Prospecting

    • Avoiding mistakes in Customer Discovery

    • The Ultimate List of Customer Development Questions

    • Tasks from Customer Discovery
  • 7

    Part 7 - Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

    • How Minimum Viable Product applies to you, and all businesses

    • Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Some examples

    • Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

    • Trevor Owens discusses MVP and Lean

    • Discussion: MVP

    • Tasks from MVP
  • 8

    Part 8 - Co-founders & Equity

    • Co-founders

    • Team & Execution

    • The Ultimate Guide to Creating the Perfect Founding Team

    • How We Built a Tech Startup Without Tech

    • Equity

    • Discussion: Co-founders & Equity

    • Tasks from Co-Founders
  • 9

    Part 9: Getting Help - Mentors, Advisors, and Influential People

    • Mentors & Advisors

    • Mentors & Advisors

    • Top 13 Dos and Don'ts for Business Introductions

    • How to meet influential people

    • Tasks for Mentors & Advisors
  • 10

    Part 10: Next Steps

    • What now?

    • Program Completion Survey

    • Business Model Builder Template
  • 11

    Part 11: Making a Difference in the World: The Spring Impact Scorecard

    • SpringImpactScorecardTemplate

    • An introduction to Impact: Changing the World

    • How Shared Value can help you define your impact on the world

    • How you can add impact metrics to your business
  • 12

    Bonus Material

    • Intro: Getting some basics in place

    • Pareto/80-20 Principle and Accountability

    • Discussion: Accountability Partners

    • Tasks from the Bonus Material
  • 13

    THE NEXT STEP: Guiding you From Idea to Startup

    • THE NEXT STEP: Guiding you from Idea to Startup

    • Chapter 2: Sales & Marketing

    • Chapter 3: A Guide to Building a Startup Finance Plan

    • Chapter 4: A Guide to Pitching your idea

    • Chapter 5: A Guide to Dividing Equity

    • Chapter 6: A Guide to Funding A Startup (though the lens of a US startup)