People who know me know I love exploring new ideas and concepts, especially in the pursuit of personal improvement. I just finished participating in Jacksonville NEXT, a great five-week business development program that introduced me to several new concepts and gave me the opportunity to meet a lot of smart people — both established local business leaders and up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
Jacksonville NEXT focused on startup business, teaching its participants how to research and prepare their ideas for the real world. Each week, a group of 40 or so of us got together Saturdays at the University of North Florida to hash out how to get these ideas from the power point through the board room and to their customers.
The Business Model Canvas
While Jacksonville Next had many mentors who taught and provided feedback, it was mostly led by Kevin Riley — a dynamic speaker who connected with the class. The curriculum focused on the “business model canvas,” which is a system to help entrepreneurs find, design and manage a business model.
What really intrigued me most about the class was the focus on research. From interviewing consumers to determining markets sizes, we learned a range of techniques to test and develop a startup business plan. Another idea discussed in the class was the “minimum viable product,” a concept that can be broadly applied to many parts of life. Here, our mentors stressed the importance of doing “one thing really well.” Like Google has search and McDonalds has the Big Mac, the minimum viable product is the core of your business, the one thing that customers can’t do without.
Startup Accelerators
Plus, I had an opportunity to learn about local efforts to support startups. Yash Nath, CEO of local business accelerator iStart Jax, was the program organizer, and helped give us several useful resources — including access to many noteworthy business leaders and delicious homemade Indian food for lunch!
The NEXT program is created by Startup Weekend, which is another efforts to help guide and inspire entrepreneurs. After my positive experience at NEXT, I am certainly considering attending Jacksonville’s next Startup Weekend on Jan. 24, 2013.
Saturday Pitches
Most of the attendees of Jacksonville Next were there to individually, or through part of a team, develop their startup business ideas. Throughout the five week course, they worked on their business model canvas, refined their ideas and improved their pitch. On Saturday, all did their final presentation, and it was great to see how some of these different startup proposals had progressed how the concepts taught in the class had emerged in the final products.
A group of mentors reviewed the pitches and made several insightful observations. From their power points to their data to their public speaking styles, the feedback from the mentors was relevant, engaging and thought-provoking.
Busted Undies
What brought me to such an event to begin with? I was part of my brother John Lane’s team. He’s got an interesting idea for a subscriptions service to send underwear, socks and t-shirts through the mail. It’s for the lazy, the forgetful and the unkempt and it’s got the best name: Busted Undies.
My brother absorbed the lessons from the class and applied his own research to Busted Undies. Interviewing potential customers, writing online surveys and researching sales data, he made serious steps to getting his business ready to launch. I am proud of the intellectual rigor he’s put into the effort and think his startup idea has a lot of potential. Between both the service and its creative name, a lot of the class participants really took to Busted Undies, and I am excited to see it launch.
And dudes, if you have a second, take the Busted Undies survey!
Tag It Fits becomes Advertical Labs
One startup where research was vigorously applied is Advertical Labs. This startup aims to deliver mobile advertising by targeting consumers when they use product-scanning technology that’s many smartphone apps utilize.
But what most fascinated me about Advertical Labs is that it originally started as a different business idea entirely. Called Tag it Fits, this service was designed to harmonize the sizing of baby clothing, which apparently can vary by maker. That seemed like a good idea to me and it turns out that Tag It Fits had won recognition at an earlier Jacksonville startup conference. But through their research, they realized that Tag It Fits had only limited growth potential, and from that emerged Advertical Labs, with a broader mission and bigger ambitions.
Creative Local Startup Ideas
The Jacksonville NEXT class was populated by many ambitious and thoughtful . One startup with potential is DineSpot — an online restaurant reservation system and directory that helps restaurants fill empty tables. Throughout the course, I could see this business plan updating its approach to meet the findings of is research. Another is Moment Strong, which taps into the healthcare market by providing a mobile tool for companies to help their employees stay strong during weak moments — especially for smoking, drinking, diet and stress.
Mystical Basket will automatically fill out an Amazon order cart with the supplies for online arts and crafts projects. I could certainly see how this product would be welcomed by crafts enthusiasts. Tada Language gives parents tools to help improve their children’s language learning. This startup benefits by a good, easy to remember name and equally well-designed logo. Also focusing on foreign language, Whata.tv is an online service that will stream live foreign TV stations to computers and other devices through an app. Clearly this service could be popular with many consumers, foreign and local alike.
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
More than anything, NEXT helped inspire me as an entrepreneur. My fledgling business as a freelance writer and marketer is not the same kind of startup that they’re doing. I already know my product is viable, its just a matter of competing in the marketplace. By focusing on my own personal minimum viable product, conducting market research on my potential customers and, of course, improving my pitch, I can apply the lessons of Jacksonville Next to my own personal entrepreneurial journey.