Social Entrepreneur Training Series
The Social Entrepreneur Training Series is your opportunity to gain practical skills specifically tailored to a start up venture with a social, as well as profit driven purpose. Join members of the largest angel investor network in California, the Kiretsu Forum, and the start-up experts from the Clean Tech Open, to develop and define your concept for an entrepreneurial venture. A final keynote theater pitch to investors will cap off your two days of training.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Fundraising Preparedness or What is Investable?
Thursday, October 1st, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
As an entrepreneur, how do you know when it’s time to start raising money for your business? Should you look for institutional funding, an angel investor, or continue to bootstrap? As a social entrepreneur, your options are different from a traditional start-up. Come hear these two experienced investors tell you what they look for when evaluating social ventures. Interact with experienced coaches and get real time feedback about tweaking your business plan to make it appealing to venture capitalists and angels.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Creating & Recognizing Competitive Advantage
Thursday, October 1st, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
What is competitive advantage? How do you recognize it, measure it, and above all, make sure it is sustainable? And once you know, how do you communicate this to those who are evaluating your business? Get an overview of the concepts, then practice articulating in front of experienced mentors and coaches. You will leave having a better understanding of how you can compete more successfully in the marketplace.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Sales & Distribution
Thursday, October 1st, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
The key question in any venture competition is: “how will you make money?” Your sales and distribution strategy is at the heart of this answer. In this session you’ll gain a deeper understanding of selling both a product and service. You will be able to talk with those who have had the experience taking a small idea and scaling it to large by developing successful distribution systems. Bounce your ideas off of industry experts and learn from their mistakes and successes!
Social Entrepreneur Training: Marketing & Branding
Thursday, October 1st, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
One of the most important aspects to launching a new venture is what you say to the outside world about your product. This training will show you how to effectively match your marketing with the best targeted audience. It will give you insight in how you to engage your customers with your brand and what tools you will need to use. Our mentors and coaches are waiting to help you brainstorm and refine your marketing strategy. Come work with them to create the story that will result in connecting you with more customers for your product or service.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Peer to Peer Pitch Off
Thursday, October 1st, Thursday, October 1st, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Put it all together here: apply what you learned from the Venture Hub or bring your own “back of the envelope” idea and pitch to peers and mentors. You can help fine tune these ideas by giving valuable feedback to the others. Each small group will choose a pitch from among them that will be presented to the whole audience. Then the top 5 to 7 selected from that round will be the finalists who will pitch their ideas to a team of investors on Friday.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Management & Advisors
Friday, October 2nd, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Gathering the right group of people to manage and grow your business is an incredibly delicate process. Who should be on the team, who should be an advisor and who should have a seat on the board? And what has been the effect of Sarbanes-Oxley? This experienced group of mentors and coaches will offer their perspectives and advice on navigating one of the most difficult but important parts of effectively building your company.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Financing Your Business - Private Funding
Friday, October 2nd, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
In order to really scale your business, you may find yourself in need of capital beyond what you are able to generate organically. This session will focus on what some resources are that you should tap into as a way to help fill in the gaps. These experts on resources that are available from private funds will give you the overview of where and when to start looking. They’ll also help determine the appropriate strategy for moving forward with your fundraising plan. You’ll work in small groups with a dedicated team of business coaches on exactly what your next steps should be!
Social Entrepreneur Training: Financing Your Business - Public Resources
Friday, October 2nd, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
In the wake of broad economic stimulus and new government programs, entrepreneurs have access to unprecedented levels of public funds. Questions abound: What are some of these resources? How I get a piece of the pie? In this session you’ll learn about what is being funded by public sources and what specific programs are looking. These programs are as diverse as they are numerous, and this session will help you discern which one is appropriate for your business.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Pro Forma Assessment
Friday, October 2nd, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
As an entrepreneur and business owner, reporting on your business’ financial outcomes is a huge responsibility. This team of experts is on hand to share with you exactly what you need to know! Preparing financial reports for a start up venture is markedly different from more established companies, and the team of mentors and coaches is skilled at guiding you through a very complicated topic.
Social Entrepreneur Training: Entrepreneurs Pitch Brilliant Ideas to Investors
Friday, October 2nd, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Winners from Thursday afternoon's Peer to Peer Pitch off will address the crowd in the Cowell Theater in this keynote session as we bubble up the latest ideas in Clean Tech, Green Products and Social Innovation. Come listen to entrepreneurs pitch their big ideas to the heavy hitters in the investment community. Watch as this group of venture capitalists, angel investors, philanthropists and bankers ask the tough questions and push these budding industry leaders to go to the next level. This session promises to be both interactive and thought provoking!