ILT Academy (100 Series)
North Dakota – Virtual Summer Cohort 2024
ILT Academy’s Virtual Lean Startup Innovation Cohort is designed for anyone who wants to start or grow their business. ILT Academy provides scholarships to participants provided by statewide, regional and local partners. There is no cost to participants other than your time. Whether you’re an individual or part of a startup team, have an existing product or just starting to shape your ideas, this program can help you succeed. We welcome High Tech, Low Tech, No Tech business ideas, as well as non-profits.
Over 10 weeks, you will learn and practice how to unpack the customer discovery process, create products that people want, and validate your assumptions and ideas. Using the ILT Innovation Framework, you will explore market opportunities and articulate possible marketable solutions. The program combines remote learning, remote collaboration, and coaching to help you test and refine your business ideas. The course has limited full-tuition scholarships available and will conclude with a virtual founder showcase where you can deliver a 5 min pitch to startup founders, business leaders, and potential investors.
Week of July 16th – September 17th
JUN
3
Application Deadline
Program Cost: No Costs to participants other than your time.
**Limited spots available
*** Virtual Program
Applications Open
03/15/24
Applications Due
06/03/24
Applicants Notified
06/24/24
Program Starts
07/16/24
Applications Open
03/15/24
Applications Due
06/03/24
Applicants Notified
06/24/24
Program Starts
07/16/24
“The North Dakota Department of Commerce is excited to support entrepreneurs across our state and with ILT Academy’s proven education and training framework, we can offer more startups the skills and mentorship needed to grow their business.”
Carla Valentine
Program Manager, North Dakota Department of Commerce
Program Details
This 10-Week Lean Startup Program coaches, supports, and boosts entrepreneurs and soon-to-be-entrepreneurs on their lean startup journeys. While working on their business ideas, participants will learn and practice the skills needed to refine, explore, innovate, and develop a plan for their business ideas. Participants will connect with fellow entrepreneurs, coaches, and mentors to be a part of the ILT Academy community of startup entrepreneurs and business leaders.
Session Dates //
Every Tuesday from 07/16/2024 to 09/17/2024
Session Times //
6:00 PM – 10:00 PM (CDT)
Session Location //
Online ILT Virtual Academy
How much does this program cost?
ILT Academy provides scholarships to participants provided by statewide, regional and local partners. There is no cost to participants other than your time.
Who should apply?
Participants do not need any startup experience nor a fully formed idea for a startup — just ambition, motivation and grit. The 10-Week Lean Startup Program will build startup skills as participants work on their business ideas.
Am I eligible to apply to the program?
Anyone can apply for our virtual program. There are a limited number of seats available; the acceptance rate will be very competitive. We encourage participants to apply regardless of your location and business stage.
Who Should Apply
The 10-Week Lean Startup Program is ideal for teams and individuals who are just starting to shape their ideas, or have an existing product or business that they want to develop and grow like a startup. High Tech, Low Tech, No Tech business ideas, as well as non-profits are welcome. The program combines remote learning, remote collaboration, and remote coaching to help participants test and refine their business ideas. Over the 10-week period, participants will learn and practice how to:
- Explore and refine ideas
- Assess the market potential
- Reduce risk
- Validate products, customers, and markets
- Prepare for future development
- Prepare for investment
The course will conclude with a virtual founder showcase where teams will have the opportunity to present to regional startup community, business leaders and potential investors.
Program Series Outline
Startup Innovation – 4 Sessions
Participants will learn and practice the ILT Innovation Framework, in order to focus on actual problems, explore market opportunities, and articulate possible marketable solutions.
- Identify new startup opportunities
- Deconstruct ideas, refine ideas, and explore new ideas
- Develop a clear and concise 30-second pitch for each opportunity
// Benefit to Participants
Participants will learn and practice the processes and techniques to define and refine an idea’s core problem, solution, customer, and the potential opportunity surrounding that idea.
Customer Driven Innovation – 5 Sessions
Participants will learn and practice advanced customer interviewing methods to gather, analyze, and discover insights to ensure the right problem is being solved with the right solution for the right customer in the right context.
- Start a lean business model canvas
- Define target market, target customers, and customer segments
- Interview target customers
- Develop a strong 5-min customer thesis presentation
// Benefit to Participants
Participants will learn and practice advanced customer interview methods to ensure they are solving the right problem, with the right solution, for the right customer, in the right context. Participants will develop a strong customer thesis presentation, ensuring a fuller understanding of their lean canvas.
Founder Showcase
Participants will craft a 5 minute video presentation and share their lean startup concept and business idea with an actionable plan to move their business forward.
- Iterate and finalize a lean canvas (business plan)
- Develop a lean startup action plan
- Develop and executive summary of your busines idea
- Develop a business abstract for furture investment and grant opportunities
- Develop clear and concise presentation for their lean startup concept
// Benefit to Participants
Participants will learn and practice lean startup action planning, develop their founder story and present a clear and concise pitch in front of local and regional community and business leaders.
Recent Graduates
Co-Founders // Ryan Graham (CEO), Cathy Nguyen (Director of Public Relations),
& Vassey Konneh (Director of Product)
“The magic of this course is that it works to build your ability to gather and decipher meaningful customer feedback. I learned new ways to share my idea and have a community of people provide new insights and feedback for me to take in.”
Ryan Graham
Co-Founder and CEO, Aromic
Co-Founders // Mattias Kostov & Jeremias Thiel
“The best part was learning about other MN entrepreneurs and building relationships with people you can learn from and support. This gives entrepreneurs a way to both develop their ideas and connect with other thinkers and makers.”
Jeremias Thiel
Co-Founder, Scobium
Co-Founders // Elaine O’Keefe & Tom Duenow
“This program provided a supportive and collaborative environment to get our startup idea off the ground. We had no idea there was a process to share our idea, get feedback from our peers and quickly test it in ways that aligned us for more successes from ideation to pilot launch.”
Elaine O’Keefe
Co-Founder and Transitions In Nature
Founder // Teri Market (CEO)
“This was a very unique learning environment that allowed me to grow as an entrepreneur and practice my startup skills. In a very short amount of time I learned new methods for idea generation, product and market exploration, and how to validate my idea with the confidence to move forward.”
Teri Market
Founder and CEO, Marketable Social Media
Founder Stories
“Attending ILT’s customer discovery class was a game-changer for Otrafy. The skills that ILT shared with us helped us create our discovery funnel, which allowed us to find product-market fit and build a pipeline of priorities for our development.”
Lucas Cunha
Co-Founder and COO, Otrafy
Co-Founders // Nhat Nguyen (CEO) & Lucas Cunha (COO)
Co-Founders // Allison Borum (CEO) & Abby Henstein (COO)
“Having ILT Academy’s support in our business has been a great experience for Virtuwoof. We have gained so much useful knowledge we’re able to directly apply to our business strategy. The activities we completed built up our confidence and were critical to our success in launching our first startup!”
Allison Borum
Co-Founder and CEO, Virtuwoof