blackbox connect

blackbox connect is an intense educational program for born global startups that want to dive into Silicon Valley's ecosystem.

For 2 weeks 12 founders stay together in the blackbox mansion where they learn from, and connect with, a curated network of thought leaders, investors and successful entrepreneurs.

Tim Draper Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Tim is the Founder and a Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He serves on the boards of DoAt, Glam, Meebo, Prosper, SocialText, and DFJ Plug 'N Play companies.
Dave McClure 500 Startups

Dave is a greedy venture capitalist & founding partner at 500 Startups. He's been geeking out in Silicon Valley for over twenty years, and has worked with companies such as PayPal, Mint, Founders Fund, Facebook, LinkedIn, SlideShare, Twilio, Simply Hired, O'Reilly Media, Intel, & Microsoft.
Forest Baskett New Enterprise Associates

Forest has been a General Partner at NEA since 2004. NEA's committed capital has grown to $11 billion and they’ve funded more than 650 companies in the Information Technology, Energy Technology and Healthcare sectors.
Janice Fraser LUXr.co

Janice was cofounder of design firm Adaptive Path and served as the company’s first CEO. During her tenure, Adaptive Path tripled in staff and revenues, developed and sold a product to Google, coined the term Ajax, and transformed Adaptive Path from a lifestyle partnership to a high-growth firm.
Matt Sanchez SAY Media

Matt co-founded VideoEgg, now SAY Media, with two Yale classmates in late 2004. Prior to VideoEgg he co-founded a production company focused on helping non-profits develop cost-effective public service announcements.
Sharon Wienbar Scale Venture Partners

Sharon invests in Mobile and Internet companies at ScaleVP. She sits on the boards of Actiance, BeachMint, Everyday Health, PlayPhone, Reply.com and uTest.
Rajat Paharia Bunchball

Rajat founded Bunchball in 2005. Bunchball is the industry leader in gamification and works with some of the world's leading brands and media companies, including Warner Bros., Comcast, and Hasbro. These companies use Bunchball's gamification platform, to create actionable and scalable user experiences for consumers.

The Program

blackbox connect is a fire start into the innovation scene of Silicon Valley for a selected group of 12 exceptional software startup founders.

While you are here you experience the secret sauce of Silicon Valley: its people. For two weeks you will live in blackbox mansion and experience an intense agenda of meetings and workshops with inspiring serial entrepreneurs, investors, experts and executives who will discuss:

How they launched, and built successful startups in Silicon Valley
How to interface with the investment community and raise funds from Silicon Valley VCs
How to establish a co-existing US based operation for your startup
How to apply qualitative research frameworks in your product development
How to develop great products with lean UX

Program Highlights

Detailed programs are to be announced. You may check out previous blackbox connect speakers and blackbox connect videos.

Talks:

Basics of Venture Capital
Raising Money in Silicon Valley
Equity & Stock Options for Startup Founders
Legal Issues with Born Global Startups
First Hand Founders Success Stories
…and more to be announced

Get out of the building:

Meet with Silicon Valley potential customers and users
Join Startup Crawls and visit local Silicon Valley startups
Attend networking dinners held at the blackbox mansion and around Silicon Valley
Learn how to pitch for the Demo Day with invited investors

Workshops:

Understanding your customer: Lean Persona generation, identifying assumptions about your customer and turning them into hypotheses, validating these hypotheses, and understanding your customers' needs. Dump and sort methods, persona sketching, and essentials of user interviews.
Acting on Customer Needs: Ideation around how customers could use your product to meet their needs, validating those uses and deriving and prioritizing features from them. 6-up sketching, dot voting, 2x2 prioritization grid.
Metrics: An introduction to qualitative vs. quantitative research. Lightweight frameworks for qualitative research.
Pitch your startup and improve your presentation skills

Apply now!

Program FAQ

What does a typical day of the program look like?

Though the program agenda will be very packed, we make sure that you have time to keep your hand on the pulse of your startup and do what needs to be done. The mornings here are for you to tend to your business, have meetings, or connect with your team back home. The program schedule for talks and workshops begins each day around noon and goes through the afternoon and early evenings.

What is the venue like?

Talks, workshops and accommodation are all in the beautiful blackbox mansion in Atherton, just around 10 minutes car ride away from Stanford, Palo Alto and/or Sand Hill Road where other lectures and workshops will be delivered. There is a pool and jacuzzi, and California sun, so bring your swimsuit:) The participants stay in shared rooms, and sleep on bunk-beds either in a pool house, where there is a separate kitchen and bathroom, or in the main house.

What if I want my own private room?

Several hotel options are available at your expense, hotel rates range from $100 to about $500 per night.

Is transportation provided?

No, but you may rent a car and parking is available for free. Public transportation such as train and buses are available, but not frequently. Taxis are available by calling them; they charge ~ $5/mile.

Is food included in the price?

Coffee, tea, light breakfast and lunch are provided daily. Some dinners are included at scheduled events.

I need a visa to come to the US. Will blackbox help me obtain one?

For accepted participants, we will send a personalized formal invitation letter so you may include it with your visa application at the consulate where you apply.

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How to Apply?

To ensure the highest value possible for all participants, not all applicants are accepted. In addition, only first 12 participants may stay at the blackbox mansion for free. All applications must be completed and submitted as specified on the eventbrite form here.

Apply early!

Apply by February 15th and get a FREE week stay voucher for the blackbox mansion, valid for your next visit between now and April 30, 2013 (subject to availability and 30 days advance booking).

Apply now!

Timeline:

February 15: deadline for early application. Get a FREE additional 2 weeks stay at the blackbox mansion!
March 15: final application deadline
April 2 - April 15: blackbox connect

What's included:

Lectures, Workshops and all Learning Materials
Accommodations in blackbox mansion in Atherton during the program (April 2nd - April 15th, 2012) including breakfast and lunch each day and some dinners.
Organized visits to successful Silicon Valley startups & tech companies
Demo Day with invited investors

Airfare, visas and transportation from and to the airport are not included!

Testimonials

See previous blackbox connect »

My visit to blackbox and participating in blackbox connect gave me more than I expected. I realized a lot, and restructured and repositioned within my project. Now I won WebReady and TechCrunch within one week and grew from 2k to 60k within this week). I have line of Investors and Clients! Eugene Barulin, resumup.com

blackbox proves that there is a formula that startups can follow and be successful. Furthermore blackbox provides valuable connections in the startup ecosystem. Lona Duncan Alia, StylePal

blackbox is offering a unique and powerful resource for startups. I know the advice, support and guidance of blackbox, has given my company a huge advantage at a critical early stage in its development." Heather Heine, Cellonx