Tech Startups
This self-paced, online course equips you with real-life tools and methods to test if your idea is worth pursuing before you create the solution. Avoid the common pitfalls that cause most tech companies to fail and test the potential of your idea with us!
Why 120-Day Startup Primer?
Most startups fail because they develop products that customers don't actually want to buy. The 120-Day Startup Primer is designed to help you validate your ideas using proven tools and assessments before investing time and resources into the wrong thing.
In this self-paced, online course, you'll learn from experienced tech entrepreneurs and coaches to ensure your idea has the potential to become a successful business. You'll progress through modules that build upon each other, learning new methods for testing the desirability, viability, and feasibility of your tech idea. By the end of the course, you'll have gained clarity about your idea and acquired a new set of tools to continue developing your business or potentially discover your next big idea worth pursuing!
Successfully completing the 120-Day Startup Primer is a prerequisite for acceptance into the 120-Day Tech Startup program where we'll help you further validate your business model; design, develop, and demo a prototype; acquire customers; and prepare to raise pre-seed and angel capital to launch your company.
We accept applications for 120-Day Startup Primer on a rolling basis, allowing you to start at any time and work at your own pace. Most participants complete the program in 2-4 weeks.
Why It Works
Utilizing the LeanStack platform and methodology, you’ll learn new concepts and apply them in real time to your tech idea. Combined with live workshops and personalized coaching and feedback, you’ll work through step-by-step activities each week to produce new data-backed insights as you progress through the program. Consider these four weeks a foundational investment into your self as a tech entrepreneur. Sound exciting? We think so! Let’s get into it!
Before you waste time writing a business plan or rushing out to seek support for your solution idea, we’ll help you deconstruct it into a set of assumptions you can test. Your business model describes how your product creates, delivers, and captures Monetizable Value from its customers.
Most business models fail due to false assumptions about customers. If you guess wrong about the desirability of your solution up front, everything else falls apart. We’ll help you laser focus on customer segments, the lack of existing satisfactory solutions to their problems, and understand what causes them to switch to your product.
The financial forecasts in most business plans are little-more-than wild guesses. We’ll help you rapidly test variants of your business model to determine if it can meet the minimum success criterion to be viable and attain the financial benchmarks required by you and your potential investors.
Now that you've stress-tested and refined your business models, you’re ready to show the potential of your business! We’ll help you chart a realistic traction roadmap, built on a high-level, go-to-market strategy, that clearly defines key milestones and becomes the backbone for your business model story pitch.
120-Day Startup Primer, In a Nutshell
100% Virtual
Self-paced
1:1 Office Hours
Tools for a Lifetime
120-Day Startup Primer is for You if:
- You're in the ideation phase, but you're not sure if your idea can be successful yet
- You're looking for additional resources and support to start your tech company the right way
- You can keep yourself accountable as you work through the self-paced content
- You're open to feedback and coaching
- You've got the passion and drive to work hard!
- You're ready to commit to finding a desirable, viable and feasible business model
We accept applications on a rolling basis.
What Others Are Saying
“There was a lot of value in the program. The Codefi team helped us identify our blind spots related to our strategy and assisted us in crystallizing the value proposition. We also tightened up our customer segmentation which was powerful in strengthening the positioning of our solution. We walked out of each week with new takeaways.”
- Shawn Finger, Owner of Third Story Studio and Allison Cash, Chief Commercial Officer of Finlays
“When we started Vendoor, a SaaS suite for retail and construction vendor management, we looked at all of the entrepreneur support organizations and tech ecosystems on both coasts and in between. We feel confident in saying that the Codefi team is an amazing resource for aspiring entrepreneurs across southern Missouri and their impact on the local technology industry is why we founded here and why we are growing here.”
- Adam Davis, Co-founder of Vendoor
“I moved to Springfield in 2004 from what is known as the tri-state area – the intersection where Wall Street meets and sleeps at night at Greenwich, CT, and Bernardsville, NJ. Some could have said at the time that I was leaving one of the most innovative, resource-rich locations in the country. What could I possibly find in the Ozarks?” Mark continued, “What I’ve found, years later, is Codefi and their startup resources. It was worth the wait and just in time for this new venture. Codefi is exactly what we need to help us turn our concept into a full-fledged business.”
- Mark Steiner, Co-founder & CEO of GigSalad
Application
120-Day Startup Primer is the required pre-work for entry into the 120-Day Tech Startup program. If you are eligible and decide to apply, your application for 120-Day Startup Primer will also be used for the 120-Day Tech Startup program. Admission is limited.
Not sure if 120-Day Startup Primer is right for you? Schedule time with our startup team. We're happy to help you find the right program for your startup journey!