This past January, I had the honor of being selected to be part of Lehigh Silicon Valley, an experiential entrepreneurship class where 50 students fly out to California to learn about the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem firsthand.
As part of the course, my classmates and I were able to meet and speak with professionals from some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names in the start-up, product design, law, and venture capital spaces including Andreesen Horowitz, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Lunar Design. We also got the opportunity to be part of live case studies with entrepreneurs working on ventures from seed stage to fully established levels, going through Q&A and problem solving sessions to address needs for their businesses.
The capstone to our trip, however, came with our final team projects to deliver a go-to-market strategy for the NASDAQ Milestone Makers, a small group of entrepreneurs selected by NASDAQ as major up-and-comers in the startup world today to receive specialized mentorship to further themselves and their companies. Working in small teams of 6-7, we were tasked with creating a solution to a problem our Milestone Maker was having, much like a short-term consulting engagement.
My team and I devised and presented a go-to-market strategy for our Milestone Maker, a founder leading a company focused in the B2B logistics and transportation management application space looking to launch to a larger customer base. After months of market research, collecting direct customer feedback from a variety of target industries to sell the app to, and developing and concept testing various solutions, we presented our strategy to our founder and staff from the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center to positive feedback.
Lehigh Silicon Valley was an amazing experience, and probably the highlight of my Lehigh career, getting to get hands-on with founders, funders, and the people that make the startup world what it is today.
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