GearUp

Unleashing your full potential

Starting a business is the easy part. Keeping it going in the first few years is another thing entirely. It’s not that the idea was bad or that its creator lacked business acumen. Often, it’s because there is one or more missing pieces in the business model itself. With little to no support at this early stage, entrepreneurs are often left to their own devices.

GearUp fills this void. The weekly sessions are designed to take you through the six steps in starting a business. Each week focuses on a single topic and is supported by one-on-one coaching, mentorship, tools and resources to help you build and grow your business. By the end of the six weeks, you’re ready to strike out on your own, knowing that your business model is solid and you’re ready to take on the world.

Week 1: Laying the foundation, goal setting – ‘What problem are you ACTUALLY solving?

Week 2: Business Model Canvas, understanding the “gaps” in your plan AND your thinking.

Week 3: Identifying your “riskiest” assumptions

Week 4: Customer Discovery – understanding who, specifically, your customer ACTUALLY is.

Week 5: Early adopters and where to find them, MVT – Minimum Viable Testing

Week 6: Pitching, action planning, and the 90-Day Sprint

Each series is limited to 15 participants. The weekly sessions are 2.5 hours of online instruction with a dedicated facilitator. Each session will be highly interactive, a chance to bring your ideas and challenges to the group, collaborate on problem solving and provide you with takeaways and lessons learned that you can use to build and refine your business. Occasional homework is part of the program, so sharpen your pencils and minds to make progress each week on your own.

GearUp is a pilot program conducted in partnership with Mashup. Based on the success of this pilot, we hope to expand the program in the future.