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This program is one of a kind, it’s not your regular education program.
It starts with you, your objective, what you are after, and moves at the speed you move.
Want to build a unicorn, the next big thing, the be-all and end-all tech startup that will forever change the world?
Want to sell some merch on Shopify as a side hustle?
Want to just test the waters and learn what this entrepreneurship thing is all about?
You are a creator and plan to sell you art or content and you’re wondering how to build that into a business?
Launch Your Startup is for you!
Let’s take a minute to explain who we are and how can we make such a promise?
You will be even more shocked to know that we never meant to build such a program.
You see, Launch started as a place in Vancouver, Canada for entrepreneurs to find a home, to work alongside other entrepreneurs and learn from them.
We were entrepreneurs ourselves and we wanted company because we didn’t want to go through the hardships on our own.
Set up as a non-profit in 2012, Launch was a simple idea, a few desks and a group of friends working together and helping each other.
We quickly found out there was something more here. Entrepreneurs needed help.
This thing that started as a small idea, is now the go-to place for entrepreneurs in Vancouver.
We found a higher calling. Sounds cheesy, I know. That’s probably what Ray Walia, Launch’s founder, would say.
But when I walked through Launch’s doors in 2014 everything changed for me.
A few months earlier, I landed in Vancouver. A Syrian immigrant looking to build a life for myself and my family in Canada.
The one thing on my mind was finding a job. Yes, entrepreneurship is in my blood and all I’ve ever done. Over 18 years I had 2 jobs and I never kept one more than 3 months.
But I was in a new country, I had a family, and money was running out fast. So the last thing on my mind is to do something as risky as pursuing an idea and building a company.
Well, as anyone who walked into Launch would tell you, that changed the moment I walked in through those doors.
Launch was dedicated to the Vancouver startup community. We knew how hard it is to go it alone, how draining to get things off the ground, and how challenging every day is in the life of an entrepreneur.
We thought that by having a place where you can find companionship, support, and mentorship, one that perpetuates the culture of support and help in the community, we will solve many of those issues.
We were wrong.
Even though we were entrepreneurs ourselves, we knew very little about the many challenges entrepreneurs have to deal with.
Everyone’s story is different, everyone’s circumstances are unique, and no matter how much we knew, we had to acknowledge there was more.
So we started engaging in education through events. We thought putting the stories of different entrepreneurs on display and having open and honest conversations about failure, success, and what it takes to be an entrepreneur would fill that gap.
The fireside chats and interviews were amazing, and the community responded favourably. But entrepreneurs wanted even more. And we wanted to help everyone who walked through our doors.
The challenge is, the space couldn’t fit everyone, and then there is the daily commute to Launch, plus for many entrepreneurs, they were pursuing a side hustle, not a full-time thing, and many had a job.
So how can we take Launch to them? How can we create for them the conditions to get the support and the guidance to help them find their way, move forward, and get shit done?!
We had no idea where to start, so we sat down with more entrepreneurs, we had hundreds of conversations.
We listened and looked for clues.
Being entrepreneurs ourselves, we also had some sense of what needs to be done.
But we didn’t want to rely only on our intuition. So we tested an education program designed around the input from entrepreneurs.
We started noticing consistent themes in the stories, the hardships, the mistakes, the failures, and the successes.
Then we found our epiphany.
Your path as an entrepreneur is unknowable.
Your experience is unlike any other.
So there is no program that can tell you what to do.
And just about the time when we were ready to give up, we discovered what was staring us in the face all along. Entrepreneurs want companionship, mentorship, community, funding, and support. One is not enough. They needed it all.
So we set off to build a program that delivers on all of them.
We start off with companionship.
When you come to Launch you are immediately among friends. You can turn to the person next to you and share where you are stuck and they would have a suggestion that can unstuck you and get you moving forward again.
Launch Your Startup does that. A series of short videos that will accompany you along your entrepreneurship journey.
Divide into 24 main sessions, each will nudge you forward and give you guidance using our startup growth roadmap framework.
This is a framework that brings together the best of the lean startup ecosystem and movement from the masters and practitioners who have been where you are and lived to tell about it :)
Once you get moving with companionship, you can upgrade to mentorship with Get Shit Done.
With Get Shit Done, you ask questions and we respond in a combination of recorded videos, written responses, and selected resources.
Now you may say, that’s not the same as a face to face, real mentor, and we agree. However, we’ve found through planning, managing, running thousands of mentorship sessions that many times entrepreneurs do not know what to ask, and over 50% of the time spent in mentorship is spent in pleasantries, you know; saying hello, how are you, and checking in with the person.
Of course that’s important, after all you are building a relationship with the mentor. However, combined with the fact that over 80% of the questions entrepreneurs ask are the same, and mentors have to repeat themselves over and over and over again. Mentorship can be incredibly taxing for the mentor, and expensive for the entrepreneur.
Get Shit Done is not meant to replace the role of an in-person mentor, and we highly recommend you continue to work with one, however, what Get Shit Done does is give you the baseline mentorship you need to get shit done!
And for a select group of entrepreneurs who choose in-person mentorship Get Shit Done plus is available by application.
It’s time to join the Launch Community
Meet other entrepreneurs, learn together, share with each other, and possibly work together.
Being part of a community is unbelievably important for your development and growth. It takes a village to raise a child, and a community to build a startup.
Launch Community comes with perks like access to special events, ask me anything sessions, fireside chats, and in-depth sessions with remarkable founders, experts, and specialists from the Launch universe.
Finally for those startup teams who are ready to take advantage of a unique market opportunity, Unleashed is a venture building program delivered by our partners at Unleashed Ventures.
Unleashed provides product, marketing, and fundraising support.
So if you are ready to take action, get results, and build something people want.
Launch Your Startup is designed for you.
Welcome.
Suggested Prompts
How can integrating community support with personalized mentorship enhance an entrepreneur’s chances of success?
In what ways might the startup growth roadmap framework be adapted for different types of entrepreneurs or industries?
What strategies could entrepreneurs use to leverage programs like Launch Your Startup to overcome challenges when pursuing side hustles or full-time ventures?
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#0 Before you start
MODULE
Before you start
Session 1 - What’s Your Everest?
Session 2 - Uncover Your Passion
Session 3 - Share your story
Session 4 - The First Unicorn Wasn’t Magical
Session 5 - A New World
Session 6 - Making ideas happen
Session 7 - Ideas: A real story
Session 8 - The startup way
Session 9 - The Lean Startup
Session 10 - Reinventing business
Session 11 - The Lean Canvas
Session 12 - Talk to your customers
Session 13 - Find your early adopters
Session 14 - Build your predictive persona
Session 15 - Path to product
Session 16 - Focus on value
Session 17 - Think experiments
Session 18 - Build experiments
Session 19 - Accelerate progress
Session 20 - Pitch investors
Session 21 - Pursue a future vision
Session 22 - Be Ready for Anything
Session 23 - Make your own luck
Session 24 - The Secrets to Success
Curated Resources and Tools