Every year, there are thousands of startups born across the country. But every year, only a few are break through the noise and become legendary companies. Startups aren’t rare, but real breakthroughs are.
For the last 5 years, the Floodgate team has taught a course at a university in our backyard, showing students how to build breakthrough ideas, products, and companies. The course has become the home of all our latest thinking on how to find and help the best companies before the rest of the world believes.
But great companies don’t just come from a couple of schools or from certain types of people; they can start anywhere and by anyone. That’s why we’re piloting an online course we’re calling “Building Breakthroughs,” a course and community focused on Black and Latinx students and founders across the nation. Black and Latinx founders are underrepresented in Silicon Valley and receive single-digit percentages of VC funding each year. Tomorrow’s breakout founders will look a lot less like Silicon Valley does today and a lot more like America’s overall composition.
There are no prerequisites; we will provide context in the first lecture to make sure everyone is on a level playing field and can get as much as possible out of this course.
We‘ll teach you how to find and test breakthrough concepts, strategically build breakthrough products, and become synonymous with your category on a global, breakthrough scale. You’ll learn our core frameworks and case studies we’ve honed from backing and working with the founders of Lyft, Twitch, Okta, and more.
You’ll have access to the full Floodgate team (During class, office hours, and ongoing after the course ends), legendary guests (Prior guests include Mike Krieger, Nat Friedman, and Heather Fernandez), and an extended community of Floodgate friends. You’ll talk through why some household startup names are just as exciting today as they were 10 years ago and why others grew unhealthily and may have lost their luster. You’ll have open, candid conversations where the bold are rewarded and conventional wisdom is constantly flouted.
If this sounds interesting, apply here! (Deadline: 9/20/20)
Huge thanks to the Black Venture Capital Consortium, 645 Ventures, and all of the amazing founders and students who helped us bring this program to life!
Course logistics
Building Breakthroughs will be a 9-week-long class, starting in October. We’ll meet once a week for 2 hours. (Exact timing tbd, but it will likely be late afternoon PT / early evening ET on a weekday). The sessions will not be recorded to increase candid conversation with students and guest speakers, so attendance is mandatory. There is no cost to participate. Each class will consist of two main pieces:
- Lecture: Each lecture will focus on an essential piece of building a legendary company (e.g., Product, Business Model, Culture)
And alternating
- Fireside chat and Q&A: We’ll bring in amazing guest speakers to chat with the class about their experiences, struggles, and future goals
- Pitch: On alternating weeks, we will bring in seed-stage founders to pitch their company to the class with open Q&A from students. Then, we will have a class discussion using the course concepts to evaluate the company.
Before each class, we’ll recommend a few online resources to help you prepare (readings, podcasts, etc.). There will be some “homework” that will flip the script and turn students into teachers (1-2 hours / week at most). Stay tuned to learn more ;)
Who should apply to the course
Students: University students (graduate and undergrad) with an interest in learning about early-stage, venture-scale technology companies. We are major-agnostic, but prior students of our course are familiar with common startup business models.
Ideation-Phase Founders: Soon-to-be founders who are exploring startup ideas. Founders at this stage will learn how to evaluate the viability of each of their concepts.
Building-Phase Founders: Current founders who have built an MVP and are just starting to build the business. Founders at this stage will learn how to structure their business to grow intelligently and lay the groundwork for fundraising from VCs.
Sound like you? Sound like fun? We can’t wait to meet you.
Apply by Sept. 20th!
-The Floodgate Team
