Michigan Lean Startup Conference
The Michigan Lean Startup Conference, on Thursday, May 19th, in Grand Rapids, is an event designed to unite those interested in what it takes to succeed in building a lean startup. The day long event will give startups, aspiring entrepreneurs, technology professionals, investors, educators and entrepreneurial stakeholders the opportunity to hear insights from national leaders in the lean startup movement. You will get practical advice on product and customer development, customer acquisition, business model generation, intellectual property, raising capital & more!
“The Lean Startup is a disciplined approach to building companies that matter. It’s designed to dramatically reduce the risk associated with bringing a new product to market by building the company from the ground up for rapid iteration and learning. It requires dramatically less capital than older models, and can find profitability sooner. Most importantly, it breaks down the artificial dichotomy between pursuing the company’s vision and creating profitable value. Instead, it harnesses the power of the market in support of the company’s long-term mission”. Eric Ries, creator of the Lean Startup Methodology
Michigan Lean Conference Agenda
May 19th, 2011
7:30 to 8:15 Registration/Breakfast
8:30 to 8:45 Opening Remarks, Bill Holsinger-Robinson
8:45 to 10:00 The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
The Lean Startup movement is taking hold in companies both new and established to help entrepreneurs and
managers do one important thing: make better, faster business decisions. By testing assumptions earlier,
faster, and with more rigor, you can improve your success rate. Bringing principles from lean manufacturing
and agile development to the process of innovation, the Lean Startup helps companies succeed in a business
landscape riddled with risk. In this presentation, author and serial entrepreneur Eric Ries will share practical
solutions based in his work building IMVU to more than 25 million members worldwide and his experiences
consulting to more than a dozen technology startups.
10:15 to 11:00 It’s the end of the Startup World as We Know it
Brant Cooper & Patrick Vlaskovits
Changes to the startup environment are having a disruptive affect on how startups are funded and built.
Patrick and Brant will discuss how lean startups fit into the world and what it means to entrepreneurs and
investors. They will also dispel some common misconceptions regarding lean startups and how startup
founders can start using the principles to mitigate market risk.
11:00 to 11:45 Lessons Learned Moving From Developer to Entrepreneur
Rob Walling
As a software developer turned entrepreneur Rob’s learned most things the hard way. Years of trial and error
have unearthed a laundry list of false assumptions, missed expectations and times when “best practices” were
far from the best approach to a problem. Using stories from his experience Rob will share lessons he’s learned
over the past several years, each of which has had a profound impact his ability to run a company.
11:45 to 12:15 Lunch/Networking
11:45 to 1:00 Lean Product Development: Learning is the Killer Feature
Dan Martell
In todays world of open source, cloud computing and API’s, it’s not if you can build it, but should you build it?
The #1 killer of startups is running out of time before you “figure it out” and get traction. Lean product
development is the methodology that allowed companies like; PayPal, Yelp, and Ardvark to pivot into their
market to become a dominate player. There is a process behind this approach; in his talk, Dan will go over
customer development, qualitative feedback loops, feature prioritization, split testing, product metrics and agile
development as approaches to increasing your probabilities of succeeding.
1:15 to 2:00 Going the Distance: Building a Sustainable Startup
William Pietri
Much of the focus on the Lean Startup is about its excellent business practices, including Customer
Development. But what about the technical side of things? Can keep your code base reliable and flexible in the
face of such frequent change? How do you avoid losing 6 months to a rewrite? What will build a company that
will attract the best developers? William Pietri, former Grand Rapidian and current San Francisco startup CTO,
answers from his hard-won startup engineering experience, and as a bonus will tell you why Michiganders are
the perfect people to use the Lean Startup approach.
2:00 to 2:45 MVPS (minimum viable patent strategy)
Jeffrey Schox
There is a misunderstanding that startups must choose between sharing their ideas during customer
development, or protecting their inventions with a patent. In fact, by avoiding the patent pitfalls, startups can
choose both. Jeff will cover how to develop a MVPS (minimum viable patent strategy) that attracts money from
investors and increases chances of an acquisition.
3:00 to 3:45 Investor Panel
Michael Godwin, Jason Townsend, Marc Weiser, Kapil Chaudhary, Jeff Bocan
Matt Bower,(Moderator)
This panel will discuss the VC perspective on Lean Startups: Do VCs looks for Lean Startup Principles in
prospective portfolio companies? How are Lean Startups changing private equity financing? What advice do
VCs have for the Lean Startup? When should companies make the transition from Lean Startup to Big
Company?
4:00 to 4:45 Founder Panel
Gagan Palrecha, Zach Steindler, Jeff Epstein, Nathan Stoll,
Dug Song (moderator)
Plan to execute, and execute to plan” worked for the US manufacturing and auto industries for decades – until
clobbered in 80s by Lean Production in Japan. In the race to build / win global markets, how does a Lean
Startup build a car as they’re driving it? In a highly interactive session, our diverse panel of Michigan and
Silicon Valley companies (bootstrapped, angel/venture-backed, post-revenue/profitable, exited, B2B/B2C) will
discuss the finer points of building agile software startups to discover and deliver on outsized market
opportunities.
4:45 to 5:00 The Lean Startup Circle, Bernhard Kappe & Todd Wyder
As founders of the Chicago Lean Startup Circle Bernhard & Todd have grown the group to 850 members in
little over a year. They will share strategies that will help Michigan start its own Lean Startup Circle.
5:30 to 7:30 Momentum 2011 Kick-Off Celebration
The BOB (Crush)
–Matt
