A Quick Guide to Becoming an IDEA Venture
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably interested in becoming an IDEA venture. Luckily, by the end of this article, you’ll be well-equipped to begin your entrepreneurial journey with IDEA’s support!
What Does One Need to Become an IDEA Venture?
There is only one hard rule for joining IDEA: at least one of the founders needs to be affiliated with Northeastern University, meaning there needs to be at least one Student, Faculty or Staff member, or Alumnus on the team.
Otherwise, any individual who is open to feedback and criticism, patient, and willing to engage with the process is more than prepared to join IDEA.
Contrary to public misconception, you don’t need to have a business idea before you get started, as there will be all sorts of opportunities for you to find out what you want your venture to be. However, for those reading who do have an idea, be prepared for the possibility of pivoting or changing your idea as your business grows and you learn more about your industry or customers.
Attend a New Venture Information Session
To actually get started, the first step is to attend a New Venture Information Session (NVIS). This semester, an NVIS is held in the IDEA lab (Hayden 001) every other Wednesday at 6 pm. These sessions are where prospective ventures get to learn all there is to know about IDEA — from the various stages within IDEA to what resources and support can be expected. NVIS is also where ventures learn about the next steps — most notably, signing up for Ready Stage Orientation. Overall, NVIS serves as an introduction to IDEA and establishes a connection between you and IDEA.
The most important step for NVIS attendees is filling out the sign-in form. This form is how IDEA gets emails for prospective ventures and enrolls them in our automated system for notifications, invites, and access to the Venture Hub, which is where the bulk of IDEA’s resources can be found.
After the meeting, make sure to get and read the confirmation email! This email will lay out the next steps again and also contain a link to the sign-up for Ready Stage Orientations.
At this point, you’re officially in the IDEA system and considered a venture! However, your venture is not in the READY stage yet, so there still is some work to do.
Attend Ready Stage Orientation
The Ready Stage Orientation (RSO) meeting is where ventures learn more about the IDEA READY Stage and what it requires from them. These meetings cover everything ventures are expected to learn in this stage, how to graduate from this stage and move onto the SET Stage, and all the information that falls in between. This semester, RSOs alternate Wednesdays with NVIS sessions and also happen at 6 pm in the IDEA Lab.
After you attend RSO, you officially start the READY Stage and will be well on your way to becoming a successful IDEA venture and having access to all of IDEA’s resources.
From this point onwards, your entrepreneurial journey will be guided by IDEA through the stages until you build the business you’re dreaming of.
Want to be completely up to date on IDEA? Follow IDEA on our social media to keep up to date on when our next NVIS and RSO meetings are!
A few helpful links: IDEA is @ideaneu on Instagram, IDEA — Northeastern’s Venture Accelerator on LinkedIn, and you can sign up for the newsletter here.
Hope to see you soon!
