a temporary organization

designed to search for a

repeatable & scalable
business model.
The
STARTUP
1
Nobel, Carmen. Why Companies Fail--and How Their Founders Can Bounce Back. Harvard Business School Working
Knowledge (2011): n. pag. 7 March 2011. Web. 22 June 2012.
2011-2012 Portfolio Partners LLC. All rights reserved.
THE BAD NEWS
Most startup companies fail.
1
THE GOOD NEWS
Common & fundamental errors can cause startup companies to fail.
Therefore, the failure of a given startup company may be preventable.
THE HYPOTHESIS
We can systematically mitigate the risk inherent in a startup company
by learning & applying fundamental principles.
BOOK The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
WHEN A 5 week course:
meeting ever y Monday
July 30 - August 27, 2012.
TIME 7 PM - 8:30 PM
LOCATION Center for Emerging Technologies
SM
Where Breakthrough Ideas Become Reality
4041 Forest Park Avenue | St. Louis, Missouri 63108
www.emergingtech.org
COST Complimentary
RSVP whittington.kevin@portfolio-university.org
OUR NETWORK portfolio-university.org
Lean Startup Principles | Business Model Generation | Customer Development
PORTFOLIO UNIVERSITY
at the Center for Emerging Technologies
SM
Entrepreneurship Innovation Startup Company Formation
Lean Startup Principles
Summer 2012 | Session III of V
Monday August 13, 2012 | 7 PM - 8:30 PM
Applying Lean Startup Principles
Israel Vicars | Associate Partner
Cultivation Capital
The Training Room & The Ralph Korte Boardroom
PORTFOLIO UNIVERSITY
at the Center for Emerging Technologies
SM
Entrepreneurship Innovation Startup Company Formation
PORTFOLIO UNIVERSITY
at the Center for Emerging Technologies
Entrepreneurship Innovation Startup Company Formation
ATTENDEES
Christoph Bausch, Ph.D., MBA
Managing Partner
Keion Group, LLC
Edward L. Bayham
President
Explor Bioventures
Mike Beckett
Next Level Athletics
Meagan Berry
Business Analyst
Dierbergs Markets, Inc.
Sriram Devanathan, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Radiology
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology
Washington University School of Medicine

Barbara A. Enneking
Vice President for Enterprise Development
Center for Emerging Technologies

Jef Forrest, MBA
Chair, Business Administration
St. Louis Community College

Michael J. Glickert, D.C.
Glickert Chiropractic & Nutrition Center

Gary Johnson
Aspiring Entrepreneur

Michelle R. King
Investor Relations Analyst
Belden Inc.

Steven Lembark
Workhorse Computing

John P. McAlister, III, Ph.D.
Program Director
Bio Entrepreneur Development Program
Center for Emerging Technologies

Sara McBride, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Washington University School of Medicine

Steve C. McCullar, MBA, MPH
Adjunct Professor, Healthcare Management
Missouri College
Jeremiah R. McDole, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Pathology and Immunology
Washington University School of Medicine
Lawrence Page
Ph.D. Candidate & Immediate Past President
BioEntrepreneurship Core
Washington University in St. Louis
Travis Sheridan
Program Administrator
Helix Center Biotech Incubator
St. Louis County Economic Council
Lester J. Smith, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Washington University School of Medicine
Sarah Spear
Executive Director
Arch Grants
Philip Thomas
Analyst
Cultivation Capital
Israel Vicars
Associate Partner
Cultivation Capital
Angela E. Vories
Director of Design
Portfolio Partners LLC
Craig R. Weilbaecher, Ph.D.
President
Emergent Sensor Technologies, LLC
Amber M. Whittington
Director of Corporate Communication
Portfolio Partners LLC
Kevin C. Whittington, Ph.D.
Founder & Scientifc Director
Portfolio Partners LLC
6:55 - 7:00pm Open | Kevin C. Whittington, Ph.D.
7:00 - 7:15pm The Lean Startup: Chapters 10-12 | Kevin C. Whittington, Ph.D.
7:15 - 7:40pm Build What? A Healthcare IT Startup Story | Sarah Spear
7:40 - 7:55pm Our Lean Devotional & Discussion | Portfolio University
7:55 - 8:00pm Feedback | Portfolio University
AGENDA | Session V | Monday August 27, 2012
Sarah Spear | Executive Director of Arch Grants - archgrants.org
As Executive Director of Arch Grants, Sarah Spear is committed to developing St. Louis
as an entrepreneurial hub by drawing upon her own startup experience. Sarah co-
founded and served as CEO of the social enterprise PharmaSecure. In this capacity,
Sarah launched a pilot in India of the companys proprietary technology to protect
patients and led the company through its $2MM Series A round of fnancing. Sarah has
also served as Vice President of Communications at Love146 and as a Clinton Fellow in
India. Sarah volunteers as a mentor for the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute and with Nepali
refugees in St. Louis. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of California, Irvine and a
B.S. from Gordon College.
Our Lean Devotional | Session V | Monday August 27, 2012
The ultimate question is how do we do high quality work during a period of
great uncertainty.
-Eric Ries | Fast Company, September 8, 2011
You cant just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them.
By the time you get it built, theyll want something new.
-Steven P. Jobs | Founder at Apple Inc.
We had the best company in the world. Period. The fastest growing, the most
proftable. But I had to learn about humility. Telling everybody we were the
best--that worked really well in the beginning and then it worked absolutely
against us in the end. If you come of as too aggressive, you risk this backlash.
The time was right to start Razorfsh because people needed the services
that we were ofering. I was like a shovel salesman in the gold rush. I didnt
care what you were trying to do with your B-to-B, or whether your VCs were
funding you, or whatever. Just pay me cash--thats how it worked.
The 1990s were about greed, lying, and stupidity. There was a very smooth
system for VC-ing ideas and then taking them through the banking pipe out
to the public market. A lot of people and a lot of institutions got really, really
rich during that time. The backlash that we supposedly saw was basically
institutions dumping their shares.
But the rules of business never changed. You have fxed costs, you have
variable costs, and you have proft margins. And thats it. If you dont have
a handle on that stuf, then theres nothing else to talk about. If there is no
proft margin, youre in trouble.
In my next endeavor, I will stay more emotionally distant from the company.
Its hard to describe loving 2,100 employees so much that youll do anything.
Youll buy $1 million of stock on the open market, like I did, to show you
believe in them. That was a dumb move, straight up. The stock was tanking.
And as a gesture to my employees, well, a million dollars is a lot of money.
-Jefrey Dachis | Co-Founder & former CEO at Razorfsh Inc.
Fast Company, March 2004
The IT-architecture frm Razorfsh, founded in 1995, had revenues of $260
million by 2000. It was acquired by SBI in 2003 for $8 million.
SCHEDULE
Session I Session II Session III Session IV Session V
July 30 August 6 August 13 August 20 August 27
Introduction
Part One
VISION
Part Two
STEER
Part Two
STEER
Part Three
ACCELERATE
1. Start 5. Leap
8. Pivot (or
Persevere)
10. Grow
2. Defne 6. Test
Part Three
ACCELERATE
11. Adapt
3. Learn 7. Measure 9. Batch 12. Innovate
4. Experiment
The Specifc Aims & The Fundamental Hypothesis
for Portfolio University at CET
The Specifc Aims for Portfolio University at the Center for Emerging
Technologies
SM
are the following: 1) to create a shared vocabulary in
the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the St. Louis metropolitan area. 2)
To be a grassroots efort to facilitate the development of community
among entrepreneurs in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Our working
hypothesis: building a community based on trust and accountability
among entrepreneurs in the St. Louis metropolitan area will stimulate
economic development. 3) To be a network of deep domain experts
expeditiously creating capital efcient and scalable startup companies.
Our Fundamental Hypothesis: we can systematically mitigate the risk
inherent in a startup company by learning and applying fundamental
principles.
Portfolio University at the Center for Emerging Technologies
SM
is a
professional development program sponsored by Portfolio Partners LLC
for entrepreneurs in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Our course Lean
Startup Principles examined The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. The content
of Lean Startup Principles was disseminated over fve sessions. A
session was held every Monday evening for fve weeks. Our frst session
commenced on Monday, July 30, 2012, and our fnal session concluded
on Monday, August 27, 2012.
2011-2012 Portfolio Partners LLC. All rights reserved.
Portfolio Partners LLC
A St. Louis-Based Technology Transfer Firm
Legacy Posterity Wealth
The process of taking an invention
from its inceptionin a laboratory
to a commercialized product.
TECHNOLOGY
TRANSFER
Kevin C. Whittington, Ph.D.
Founder & Scientifc Director | Portfolio Partners LLC
314-852-3289 | whittington.kevin@portfolio-technology.com
ABOUT US:
Portfolio Partners LLC is a startup technology transfer frm based in St. Louis,
Missouri. We conduct for-proft technology transfer. We partner with researchers
and technology transfer ofces at research universities to design and build Lean
Startup companies based on university intellectual property. We ofer on-site
technical development and business development to aggressively create value
and add value to the startup company co-founded by the university researcher
who desires to commercialize his or her innovation concurrent with their pursuit
of scholarly merit.
Portfolio Partners LLC provides the startup company with a project manager to
perform technical development. In addition, we act as business development
consultants for fundraising, the application of lean startup principles, business
model generation, customer development, the recruitment of a Startup Team,
coordination of professional services (e.g., law and accounting), intellectual
property strategy, sales and marketing, strategic
partnering, branding, corporate communication, and
professionalism. Our approach is to serially design
and build Lean Startup companies alongside their
respective researcher and university.
The brand of technology transfer ofered by Portfolio
Partners LLC is a solution to catalyze entrepreneurship
and innovation, and moreover, to stimulate economic
development in the St. Louis metropolitan area and in
the State of Missouri.
Center for Emerging Technologies | 4041 Forest Park Avenue | St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3213
2011-2013 Portfolio Partners LLC. All rights reserved.