The Lean Startup Challenge is a new, early stage startup competition based on the Lean Startup, Customer Development, and Business Model Canvas methodologies. The Challenge is a six-week contest in July/August 2011 in which 126 teams will publicly launch beta versions of their business websites, and then dynamically iterate their concepts based on real time feedback from the webiverse. At... [read more]

The Lean Startup Challenge is a new, early stage startup competition based on the Lean Startup, Customer Development, and Business Model Canvas methodologies. The Challenge is a six-week contest in July/August 2011 in which 126 teams will publicly launch beta versions of their business websites, and then dynamically iterate their concepts based on real time feedback from the webiverse. At the end of the competition, the team that achieves the best quantitative results wins. During kickoff weekend, the contestants, and other interested members of the startup community, are invited to hear the first hand experiences of entrepreneurs, investors and subject matter experts who use these methodologies today. Next, the teams will be trained on the performance tracking software tools (courtesy of Performable) used during the six week competition.  Finally, there will be many opportunities during kickoff weekend for the teams to network with their fellow contestants. If you are interested to enter your startup in the competition, signup here (you still need to reserve your event ticket for the kickoff weekend). Please join us for our two day kickoff event hosted at MassChallenge in the Innovation District of Boston! Agenda: Day 1 5:30-6:00pm Networking - Beer6:00-6:30pm Welcome and Introduction to LSC6:30-7:00pm Elizabeth Yin: Build & Test Your Web Idea Without Programming7:10-7:45pm Contest Overview and Sample Reports 7:45-8:30pm Team Workshop 8:30-10:00pm Drinks at Whisky Priest Day 2Saturday, July 16 (Morning Sessions) 09:00-9:30   Coffee & Networking09:30-10:00 Welcome Remarks10:00-10:30 Brant Cooper:  Why Lean Matters10:30-12:00 Ash Maurya: Running Lean (Lean Canvas) 12:00-12:30 Lunch Break (Go Buy Lunch or Get Pre-Paid Lunch In-House) (Saturday Afternoon Sessions) 12:40-1:00 Contest Instructions01:00-2:00 Brant Cooper: Customer Development02:00-2:10 Lean Startup Challenge Kickoff - Go!02:15-3:30 Performable.com Hands-On Training *** The Lean Startup Challenge is sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark The Lean Startup is a Trademark and service mark owned by Eric Ries