Blackbox Connect is a 2-week residential program for selected international entrepreneurs who want to bring their projects to the global market. 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 meet Silicon Valley standards with your pitch and executive summary
- How to develop great products with lean UX
- How to sort out US-immigration issues
The program takes place 3-4 times a year.
Learn more about Speakers & Mentors»
Program Highlights
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…
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 Pitch Day with invited VCs, mentors and business angels
Workshops:
Janice Fraser CEO of LUXr Inc., Cofounder of Adaptive Path
- Understanding your customer: Lean Persona generation, identifying assumptions about your customer and turning thstrong 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 thstrong. 6-up sketching, dot voting, 2x2 prioritization grid.
- Metrics: An introduction to qualitative vs. quantitative research. Lightweight frameworks for qualitative research.
Bill Joos Cofounder of Garage Technology Ventures (with Guy Kawasaki), Former VP of Sales at Apple
- Top Ten Mistakes Made in Business Plans
- Short Building Elevator Pitching Preparation
- Short Building Elevator Pitch Polishing Workshop
- Perfecting Your Investor Pitch
- How to Hold an Investor Meeting
- The Amazing Power of an Advisory Board
Learn more about Previous Programs»
Program Fees
- $6,495 / Founder
- $9,495 / Company (2 Founders)
What's included:
- Lectures, Workshops and all Learning Materials
- Accommodations in Blackbox Mansion in Atherton during the program
- Light breakfasts and lunches each weekday and some dinners
- Organized visits to successful Silicon Valley startups & tech companies
- Pitch Day at the end of the Program
Airfare, visas and transportation from and to the airport are not included!
Learn more about the Application Process»
