This summer’s DifferenceMaker Boot Camp is coming to a close, with this past Monday being the final session for the teams. While we are sad that we won’t see them every Monday anymore, we are beyond proud of the progress that they have made over the past month, and are excited to see each business grow. Each team updated the room on what they’ve learned about their business’ customer segment, and talked about how they’ve tested their business models. We then had an Open Advisory Session, where a group of distinguished advisors came in and talked to the different teams individually, adding specific insight to help the teams better develop their ideas. By the end of this session, the teams felt confident and hopeful for the future, excited and ready for Demo Day.

Professor Hunter Mack advising Edwin and Robinson from ETRALock.

Bernard Tay from TAP getting advice from Tufts Professor Kevin Oye.

Here the invisaWear team is helping advise Dan Falcone from Personalized Learning.

DifferenceMaker would like to thank Rajia Abdelaziz, Erin Keany and Brent Shell for the extraordinary help and support that they have provided the teams with for the past four weeks. Their efforts were greatly appreciated!

• Brent Shell
  • Professor – Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences
• Erin Keany
  • Vice President/Co-Founder of Nonspec
• Rajia Abdelaziz
  • Co-Founder of InvisaWear

Thank you to our Open Advisory Session guests!

• Michael Ciuchta
  • Business Professor, UMass Lowell
• Jon de Alderete
  • CEO, Nonspec
• Ray Hamilton
  • CTO, invisaWear
• Hunter Mack
  • Engineering Professor, UMass Lowell
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow
• Kevin Oye
  • Professor, Tufts, EforAll Mentor

This past Monday marked the third session of our DifferenceMaker Boot Camp, and the progress that these teams have made in the last couple of weeks is remarkable. Near the start of the session, the teams presented their improved business models to the room and received input from their peers and the mentors, as always. Since the groups are now further along in process, the discussions have been even more complicated and detail-oriented. This was followed by a lecture on “Creating and Delivering the Solution”, which gave our entrepreneurs even more insight which they will use to further develop their business models. Guest speaker Rajnish Kaushik, Assistant Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization, then came in to talk about IP, including patents, copyrights, and the like. The information that the teams learned in this session will prove invaluable later on in the development of their businesses.

Thanh and Trung from Dexter presenting their business model.

Jack and Pat from Mass Heartbeat talking about how their business model has changed since last week.

Guest speaker Rajnish Kaushik talking to the teams about intellectual property.

Thank you to the session’s advisors and special guests!

• Brent Shell
  • Professor – Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences
• Erin Keany
  • Vice President/Co-Founder of Nonspec
• Rajia Abdelaziz
  • Co-Founder of InvisaWear
• Rajnish Kaushik
  • Assistant Director, OTC

The second session of our Boot Camp was held this past Monday, June 11. All the teams came in with better ideas for the directions of their companies, after spending the last week interviewing possible customers. Each team presented their findings to the room, getting additional helpful feedback from their peers and the advisors. In this session, the teams were then taught about customer and value proposition. The advisors stressed that if people aren’t willing to pay the price you want for your product, it might just mean you’re going after the wrong customer segment. Advisor Rajia Abdelaziz spoke to the group about how to approach startup funding, and then guest speakers Chris McKenna and David Kantaros from Foley & Lardner LLP gave the groups invaluable information about business law, including when it makes sense to start an LLC versus a corporation.

Guest speaker David Kantaros from Foley & Lardner LLP teaches the group about business law.

Advisors Professor Brent Shell and Nonspec co-founder Erin Keaney helping teams develop their ideas regarding customer segments.

Advisor/Guest Speaker Rajia Abdelaziz talking to the teams about funding for startups.

Thank you again to the session’s advisors and special guests!

• Brent Shell
  • Professor – Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences
• Erin Keany
  • Vice President/Co-Founder of Nonspec
• Rajia Abdelaziz
  • Co-Founder of InvisaWear
• David W. Kantaros
  • Foley & Lardner LLP Partner
• Christopher J. McKenna
  • Foley & Lardner LLP Partner

This past Monday, June 4th, marked the first session of the DifferenceMaker summer Boot Camp, where the 2018 Idea Challenge Winning teams work hard to further develop their projects, define their customers and develop their business models. At 9:00am, these student entrepreneurs gathered in room 110 of the Lydon Library, ready to learn. In this session, they learned about developing detailed business models, as well as understanding more about customer segments. Soon after Ha Pho, DifferenceMaker Program Manager, gave a presentation on business models. Then the individual teams took turns pitching their business models to the group. The group gave valuable feedback and advice to help them develop an even stronger business model. By the end this first Boot Camp session, all the teams left with great ideas for improving their business models, and were extremely eager for the next session.

Guest speaker Jonathan de Alderete, CEO of Nonspec, spoke to the teams about how his company’s business model  evolved over time.

Faculty Fellow Professor Brent Shell helping teams develop their business models.

And of course, here is a special thank-you to our amazing 2018 Boot Camp advisors:

• Brent Shell
  • Professor – Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology
  • DifferenceMaker Faculty Fellow, Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences
• Erin Keany
  • Vice President/Co-Founder of Nonspec
• Rajia Abdelaziz
  • Co-Founder of InvisaWear