Notes from Pitch HU: why diverse entrepreneurs using asynchronous and synchronous cohort learning to upskill themselves and their businesses are the future of equitable growth.
There are many new trends that are afoot, amongst the exit from this current pandemic. Three trends stand out that will drive business and society positively forward in our humble opinion.
1.) Diverse entrepreneurs are building businesses that are focused on problems worth solving based on the unmet needs they see and have experienced from their unique and lived perspectives
2.) The future of work will be achieved by distributed means, switching between synchronous and asynchronous activities to make sure we manage and value our time and attention in collaboration across businesses and teams.
3.) Online learning is here to stay, everyone is upskilling and learning how to find their place globally, and structured programs, both self-guided and facilitated, will be the norm for individuals and organizations to remain competitive.
The Pitch HU cohort — a product of the partnership between Fiserv, Howard University’s Office of Research, and humble ventures — represents these three trends, interwoven into a cord. We are entering the home stretch of the Pitch HU cohort and are so proud of what we have learned together, and how far we have come.
The depth and breadth of these founders and their focus, drive, and ambition are all critical to their success.
With over 40 participants in this cohort, we have both b2b and b2c businesses that span various industries including, Software-as-a-Service, consumer-focused apps, marketplaces for products, goods or services, consumer-packaged goods, biopharma startups, computer-vision hardware, and skincare for those with melanin to name a few. These businesses are all in various stages of maturity, and some are generating good revenue. Participants are Zooming in from various locations across the DMV, contiguous United States, Hawaii, and even India.
We have spent our time using synchronous and asynchronous sessions and tools to help focus our attention on a few frameworks that we use at humble to help us quickly define problems worth solving.
In class #1, we used the Golden Circles framework, created by Simon Sinek to help founders define the WHY of their companies, which is a good exercise to understand the unique value proposition. We helped founders understand how to use this framework to tell a high-level story about their businesses.
We also used the Empathy Map framework to help founders better define they serve.
In class #2, we spent time learning about the Lean Canvas and the best way to create a one-page business model that helps entrepreneurs understand how they create value and deliver on their value proposition.
In class #3, Nancy Cronin of IP Capital Partners, alongside Terry Adams of Howard University, discussed the various types of intellectual property that could exist within a company and how to protect each business while weighing cost and impact.
In class #4, we focused our attention on how organizations can map the business ecosystem they exist within. Ecosystem mapping provides early-stage businesses with a clear understanding of the relationship between their core business, and other stakeholders that help them deliver their products or services. Ecosystem mapping provides context for building up a good partnership model.
In class #4 we also worked through the partnership canvas which helps entrepreneurs consider how to build win-win partnerships with others. We had special guest Tim Darcy, humble ventures Executive-in-Residence, discuss his expertise in building our partnerships that drive growth during his 20-year stint at ViacomCBS.
During class #5 we discussed how to conduct a good self-reflection exercise in order to assess our current state, what is working well and what is standing in our way. This exercise is called ‘Sailboat’ and we find it most helpful in helping a founder or innovator outline the ‘Sails’ which help drive progress, and the ‘Anchors’ that hold you back.
This self-diagnostic is best used for group therapy and self-reflection across a team or organization. In fact, running this exercise with smaller groups within an organization, or across multiple customer segments can help surface important insights about unmet needs. It’s important to assess the current state of your business and yourself on a regular basis.
In the same class, we completed another exercise called Cover Story, which helped us consider a future state which landed us on the cover of a magazine. We designed the cover, focusing on the key sections below, to provide positive constraints to our creativity and act as a goal-setting, visualization device for our business and entrepreneurial ambitions.
During class #6, our colleagues Shane Caldwell and Dana Stephenson at Fiserv ran a session on the importance of financial literacy in building early-stage businesses and the various ways that Fiserv help early-stage businesses grow. We also heard from successful entrepreneurs who have gone before us. Our partners at the National Black Chamber of Commerce brought 3 of their entrepreneur members, including Juan Young, Founder & CEO of Melanence, Brooke Sinclair, Founder & CEO of Velourit, and Roby Mercharles, VP of Partnerships at The American Dream Fund.
We held a special session this week with Howard alumna Denise Marcia who leveraged her Howard University performing arts background as well as her long career as an actor, and professional communications consultant to share a masterclass in personal branding, professional speaking, and digital etiquette.
We will conclude this week with another session that is focused on building an effective 3-slide, 3-minute pitch and then move into our Demo Day.
We have used a variety of tools to support our programming and enable asynchronous learning. We have been using our new humble home app, which is a productization of the key activities and frameworks we have been using to drive growth for both startups and corporate innovators.
humble home helps implement and accelerate an agile approach to entrepreneurship, innovation, and business operations, helping individuals, startups, and large organizations quickly determine how to effectively identify problems worth solving, and craft compelling business narratives that help you trade your assumptions for customer-driven insights.
Here are some use cases for how humble home can help an individual or team:
Improve operations for distributed teams
Every organization operating with a portion of their team working remotely should use this platform to organize around key initiatives, big and small. If you need to teach your team how to be an agile team and focus on quickly aligning activities around shared goals, humble home can help provide the positive guardrails to make sure we are all aligned on strategy into execution. Start with Coaching, then consider using Sailboat and Cover Story as scoping activities to help teams focus their efforts.
Decrease your sales cycle and improve your close rate
If your sales cycle is long or requires customization of your service or product, our coaching module and prototyper modules can help decrease your sales cycle and compress your funnel. Start with coaching, then use empathy map to identify your sales prospect. After engaging your sales prospect and delivering your creds deck, use Sailboat and Cover Story to validate your opportunity by scoping it with your lead and qualifying through a shared activity which builds trust and gets to Yes more often than not.
Build your innovation strategy
As an innovator, if you’re trying to better understand problems, use the empathy map to guide your thinking and conversations around customer development with key audiences. Use Sailboat and Cover story with subject matter experts to identify opportunities for collaboration. Use ecosystem mapping to identify potential partners. Use Lean Canvas to outline JVs, partnership models, pilots, open innovation challenges, or other growth-related initiatives.
Run a startup cohort
Run a cohort using the curriculum. Teach a select group of participants a common set of tools and skills, then have them apply their knowledge to the problems they know best.
Run an innovation challenge
Run an innovation challenge using the empathy map, lean canvas and rocket pitch. If you can create a brief which outlines a problem, you can solicit input in the format of a brief compelling pitch, an understanding of customer, and business model.
Agile team operations
In growth startups and innovation teams, the rules have not been written for what you are doing. The act of flying the airplane while building it is common to both and the path forward is risky based on lack of visibility into what to do. We de-risk activities through the use of the scientific method on a regular basis to validate customer needs and an organization’s ability to address those needs.
Helping you find Product/Market Fit
If you’re trying to find product / market fit, build up your empathy maps through customer development, adjust your lean canvas to ensure that your business model is sufficiently addressing your customer needs. In the early days of telling stories, use the sales narrative protool to build a compelling narrative that should be tested with prospects.
Helping you find Product/Market Scale
If you’re trying to find growth by scaling your efforts after identifying product/market fit, make sure your narrative is updated to reflect this new story. Build an empathy map for key channel partners that are going to help you scale your efforts, then complete a partnerships canvas. Build a compelling partnerships-focused narrative through the Partnerships protool.
We believe that every organization focused on ‘innovation’ or ‘digital transformation’ should be using this tool to guide their thinking and doing.
We look forward to releasing this tool to the public in the near future.
As we quickly approach Demo Day, we are emboldened by the progress of these entrepreneurs and look forward to sharing more about the participants and their progress and we continue our partnership in support of their growth and success beyond the conclusion of our official programming.
Stay tuned for more notes from this inaugural cohort. As always, if you would like to learn more about what we are doing, how humble home can help you, or want to collaborate, feel free to drop us a line.
