Lean Canvas
Lean Canvas
TVC offers prospective licensees and founding teams assistance with business model evaluation through its Lean Canvas program. Teams consisting of the faculty member/inventor, and Entrepreneurial lead, and a Business Mentor participate in multi-week, peer-based cohorts to explore and refine their value proposition and other strategic management elements.
Typically a postdoctoral researcher, graduate student, or other student, that possesses relevant technical knowledge and a deep commitment to investigate the commercial landscape surrounding the innovation. Generally, this investigation requires, predominantly, primary data collection through interviews and supplemental data materials collected via other sources. Additionally, the entrepreneurial lead should be capable of disseminating this information to the instructor, TA and participants each week in the form of a presentation. This position could be compensated.
- Must have a sufficient understanding of the assigned technology and the target market.
- Must have proficient communication skills.
- Must have the ability to freely travel if necessary.
- Must be able to allocate 25-35 hours a week (during business hours) to the cohort if an individual EL.
- Must be able to allocate 10-15 hours a week (during business hours) to cohort if working as a co-EL.
- Must be willing to take direction.
The BM brings entrepreneurial experience and serves as the principal guide in determining the technology’s disposition to the market need. The BM also provides warm leads to the team for customer validation interviews, which is a critical component of the Lean Canvas Cohort.
- Must have a comprehensive understanding of the assigned technology and how it could integrate into a market.
- Must have access to a large number of potential contacts within the technology’s industry or target market.
- Must be able to aid in translating feedback received in [customer] interviews into actionable goals/technical pivots.
- Must be able to allocate 3-6 hours a week to the cohort.
The principal investigator (PI) is typically the inventor of the technology and serves as the technical lead or expert. He or she will be expected to make any necessary technical pivots with the technology. The PI is required to allocate 5 hours a week to the cohort.
Have questions?
Spencer Walker, MBA
Manager, New Ventures & Entrepreneurship801.587.0520
Spencer.Walker@tvc.utah.edu
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“The Lean Canvas experience provided our team with unique business insight and guidance to further develop our product. It helped us learn how to better navigate the market and validate key features of our product. The business knowledge gained from this experience will help us as we move forward with our product.”
Aaron Fisher
Principal Investigator, Positive Behavior E-Modules -
“I have found the Lean Canvas experience (Cohort I) to be very stimulating and educational. It has taught our team what it means to define and validate a beachhead market, which is critical for getting a company started. It has also been an enjoyable experience."
Clayton Williams
Principal Investigator, 3D – Interferometry -
“The most valuable experience was meeting with industry leaders, insurance executives, investors, and engineers with medical device prototyping experience to gain their feedback and insight. The interviews with end users provided useful actionable feedback about product development and a target consumer. I would definitely recommend this process to my colleagues who are developing medical technology. I will use the data we collected in discussion with investors and grant submissions”.
Dr. Fred Grimmer
Principal Investigator, MD, Rigid Bronchoscope -
“The benefits are enormous, no question. First and foremost, you learn fundamental skills to succeed in entrepreneurship. The most important lesson that can be drawn from my experience, was the process of killing off a business or determining that there wasn’t a customer or value pivot that we could make. The benefit of that, is that so often, you find entrepreneur’s expending enormous amounts of energy and effort in building businesses with value they have not yet validated. We invalidated a business concept without ever writing a line of code; although it took great effort, it saved orders of magnitude more effort”.
Michael Sears
Entrepreneurial Lead, Grand America