Entrepreneurial Women Lean Startup
Duration: 8 weeks | Stage: Ideation
A Lean Startup for Women, by Women
This program is designed to train, educate, and empower women innovators that are looking to transform their idea into a viable startup concept, while navigating challenges that are unique to women founders.
Throughout the 8-week program, you will attend weekly workshops, conduct self-directed work, and acquire tangible tools to:
- Test the viability of your concept
- Build your business plan
- Develop your minimum viable product (MVP)
- Discover your market
- Create your value proposition
- Develop your fundraising strategy
- Establish realizable goals for your startup
“As an entrepreneur, I have the ultimate freedom to pick an issue I see in society and proactively go and make that change that I want to see.”
Chloe Ryan
Cofounder, Acrylic Robotics
Program Overview
Duration: 8 weeks | Stage: Ideation
Program Dates: May 3 to June 21, 2023
Time: 6:00PM - 7:30PM
Location: In Person at the McGill Campus in downtown Montreal
Key Learning Themes
- Why some startups fail, and others succeed: stages, pitfalls and best-practices
- Understanding your market and what matters to customers
- Identifying your problem and designing your solution
- Articulating your value proposition
- Developing your market outreach strategy
- Funding an innovative venture & defining KPIs
- Iterating your business model and drafting a business plan
Format
- Weekly interactive workshops introduce business concepts, strategic frameworks and tools, while guest speakers share real world examples through stories, and industry insights. Workshops generally last one hour, with extra time reserved for group discussions and learning activities.
- Action learning encourages participants to apply learned concepts and tools towards building their business and creating a viable startup strategy.
- Coaching sessions allow participants to review their business plans during one-on-one meetings.
Course Overview
| Week | Learning Themes |
|---|---|
| 1 |
Why Some Startups Fail And Others Succeed
|
| 2 |
Developing and validating a proof of concept
|
| 3 |
Understanding your market and creating a market outreach strategy
|
| 4 |
Defining Your Value Proposition
|
| 5 |
Managing your Intellectual Property (IP) & other legal aspects
|
| 6 |
Funding your startup & measuring its growth
|
| 7 |
Building a business plan
|
| 8 |
Crafting and articulating your vision to stakeholders
|
| Post-program |
One-on-one coaching sessions with subject matter experts
|
Program Application
Ideal Participant Profile
- You identify as a woman and are affiliated with McGill e.g., student, faculty, staff or alumni (graduated within the last 10 years).
- Your startup table is made up of 50% or more women founders.
- You are working towards validating your concept, creating a business plan, and launching your startup.
- You, or at least one of your co-founders, has technical expertise, and can build your business upon a technology, science, or idea that is significantly or radically disruptive.
- Your team is composed of multi-disciplinary professionals (including learners or graduates).
- You can commit to attending all the workshops and executing the project work (required to maintain your participation in the program)
How to Apply
Next cohort: May 3 to June 21, 2023
Be notified when the program applications open.
Next Steps
Following completion of the Entrepreneurial Women Lean Startup program, participants are encouraged to apply to the McGill Dobson Bootcamp and Cup competition for a chance to win up to $20,000 in pre-seed funding.
Have questions about the program? Email us at dobson.mgmt [at] mcgill.ca for more information:
