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EVENT DETAILS |
AWS Startup Day is designed for people who are ready to take an idea & turn it into a company - not just a product.
If you are still in the idea stage, Startup Day will help you test & validate that idea. For those who have already taken an initial swing at building a company, you'll hear how to take it to the next level.
At AWS Startup Day, you'll learn from AWS experts, VC's, & your fellow startups about how to go from that initial intellectual spark to MVP, & what it takes to land seed funding. You'll get a glimpse into the challenges you'll face early on, along with the do's & dont's. Startup Day is also an opportunity to meet your people, the other builders in your backyard, to share ideas, founder hacks, & the inspiring moments that keep everyone sprinting forward.
Who should attend
Early stage entrepreneurs who are pre-seed or bootstrapped & interested in understanding what it takes to get funded.
What you will learn
How to approach Customer Driven Development
Best practices for building your Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
The Essentials of Fundraising
The "How To's" of Building your Pitch Deck
What investors are looking for
Schedule
9:00AM -10:00AM
Registration & Breakfast
10:00AM - 10:20AM
Welcome to Day 1
More startups have launched on AWS than anywhere else in the world. There's a reason why the biggest names in the startup world have been building on AWS for the past 13 years. Startups take on enormous challenges with limited resources. They leverage the latest technology to make a team of 1 perform like a team of 10.
These startups have paved the way & have helped pioneer the technological path for the next wave of entrepreneurs. We've learned a great deal helping these companies reach their 100 millionth customer, process their first billion orders, or help get their first satellite into space.
Learn how startups today are building on AWS, why now is the best time to start building, & why partnering with us will give your idea the best chance at becoming the next big thing.
Speaker: Mackenzie Kosut, Startup Evangelist, AWS
10:20AM - 11:00AM
Confessions of a Founder
Inventing & pioneering requires a willingness to be misunderstood for long periods of time. Jeff Bezos.
Welcome to the life of a startup founder. It's all about building something the world has never seen, & then convincing the world it needs it, & wants it. For every founding team there will not just be misunderstanding, but endless advice. Pivot. Fail fast. Get lean. Raise as much money as you can. Iterate, iterate, iterate. It all sounds so logical, even easy, but as every founder will tell you, it never is. So what works, & what doesn't? Hear it straight from a founder who has been through it all, & has wisdom to share.
Speaker: Nobu Nakaguchi, Co-founder, Zola
Moderated by Mackenzie Kosut, Startup Evangelist, AWS
11:00AM - 12:00PM
Before you Build: Customer Driven Development
"Before you build anything, you should know who you're building for, in what market, & if your solution solves a problem they have.
This was Steve Blank's insight that later spawned the Lean Startup movement. In this session we'll look at the first two parts of Blank's methodology for discovering customers, & validating that enough of them will buy your product to create a viable business.
Speaker: Paul Duffy, Tech Leader - Startups, AWS
12:00PM - 1:00PM
Lunch
1:00PM-2:00PM
Tools for Building your MVP on AWS
Two of the most critical technical decisions for founders are correctly scoping what comprises an MVP & how to make pragmatic decisions on how to build it. Getting these things right will put your product in front of customers faster & give you vital feedback on how to guide your development. In this session you will get practical advice on 1) how you can make good decisions on which features should go in to your MVP, avoid scope creep, prioritize features, & determine what is the "minimum" to build, & 2) how to choose the right development approaches & select the right infrastructure options that can enable you to develop your product with high velocity & at a low cost.
Speaker: Nicki Klein, Technical Evangelist, AWS
2:00PM - 3:00PM
Fundraising Essentials for Every Entrepreneur
We'll start with a key question: Is raising Venture Capital right for you? Then we'll go into the process that serial founders execute with fundraising: How to prospect the right investors, how to make contact & frame a fundraise narrative & how to generate a sense of urgency with investors to close your round as quickly as possible. Make sure you can fundraise like the most experienced founders & avoid dragging it out.
Speaker: Mike Wilner, Pre-VC Development Associate, AWS
3:00PM - 3:15PM
Break
3:15PM - 3:45PM
The Pitch: Essentials for Success, & Blunders to Avoid
There's no perfect pitch deck. However, there are elements every investor will be looking for, & that your deck better have. If you are in the school of, Why do I need a pitch deck at all? it's time to change your thinking. A spiffy series of slides won't magically get you investors, customers, or those critical early hires. But it's a way in, especially for novice entrepreneurs. In this talk we'll cover what's critical to have in a deck, what's best left out, & how to combine everything to tell a compelling story about yourself & your startup.
Speaker: Justin Smithline, Partner, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
3:45PM - 4:45PM
Calling All Seed Investors
This panel covers the local angel & seed ecosystem. Who are the players, & what they are looking for. And at the end of the day, how you can have the best shot at getting their money. This session will end with a live Q&A.
Panelists:
Jenny Fielding, General Partner, The Fund & Managing Director, Techstars
David Goldberg, General Partner, Corigin Ventures
Moderated by Michael Copeland, Startup Strategist, AWS
4:45PM - 6:00PM
Closing Statement & Happy Hour
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