2. What does the Biz Foundry do?
• Educates and supports entrepreneurial companies and individuals in the
region
• Hosts business and technology related classes and events
• Offers co-working space
• Matchmaker
•
5. Experiential Course: Not a Typical Academic Lecture
• Collaboration between disciplines
• Get out of the building
• Flipped classroom
• Different speaker each week
6. Teams
• Froodle - App for rewards and promotion management
• OmniNexus - App for formative assessment
• iGT-HD - Echolocation device to compliment walking cane for the blind
• M-possible N-gineering - PCM derived instant water heater
• REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates)
7. Biggest Success (thus far)
• Team Froodle
• Started with an app for
restaurant menus
• Went out in the community
and found a different need
was more prevalent
• Pivot Time!
• Working on app for restaurant
mangers who want to manage
rewards and promos better
and more efficiently
8. Biggest Failure
• Communication between students and teachers
• Expectations and pace of this course
• “Handsome Team” had to drop because they fell behind
Editor's Notes
Hi-speed internet, mentorship, office space, etc.
Conference Rooms
3-D Printers
Scanners and Copiers
The primary purpose of our organization is to support the successful development of entrepreneurial companies by matching innovation, education, mentorship, and investments with aspiring entrepreneurs.
Biz Foundry partnered with TN Tech to offer a summer engineering/entrepreneurship course based on the teachings of Steve Blank. We use the Lean Launchpad software and the Business Model Canvas becomes the roadmap for the duration of the course.
The goal for this course is to help take the student’s idea from purely an innovative technology (that they think everyone in the world will buy) to actually having a Minimal Viable Product that was developed by data gathered from potential customers. Once they have gone and researched their potential customer archetypes, the course begins to define specifically how to develop and maintain customer relationships, distribution channels, revenue streams, partners, etc. Towards the end of the course, each team of students should be able to decide whether or not they have the potential for a repeatable and scalable business venture.
Students from any discipline are encouraged to take this course. We have mechanical, chemical, and civil engineers, business majors, and computer science majors.
The course makes the students go out into the community and talk to business owners, gainfully employed individuals, gatekeepers, and everyone in between.
After the students gather some research about what potential customers really want, they give a presentation to a panel of “judges” who offer advice and direction.
Each week a business professional comes to speak and talk about their experience starting a company. Micah Johnson, Todd Gregory, William Klauss, Kent “lawyer”
OmniNexus
Winning team from Eagleworks competition
Graphing calculator on smart phone
Real time analytics provided to teacher
Formative assessment much easier with this app
iGT-HD
Invited to Chicago to tryout MVP
M-possible N-gineering
Looking to target CA and western U.S.
