The NYC Ecosystem is Real, Growing Fast, but Different

What happens when you ask your network for help?

Here’s the first thing I learned when teaching Lean LaunchPad at NYU ITP. The structure and blueprint as taught at Stanford was essential to strengthening the ecosystem: a large group of Advisors as lecturers and helpful participants, and individual Mentors assigned to each team. The Mentor ask was big in a town filled with busy people – come each week for the full 3 hour class, and then host additional time with the teams to keep them progressing through the Business Model Canvas, and the course.
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There was skepticism that NYC, and NYU, and ITP was ready for this level of commitment, on a volunteer basis. Would we really get people to show up every week? I was skeptical of my own network – I had spent my career based in NY, but often tethered to the Bay Area. Did I have in my own network the former founders, investors, and experts we’d need to structure the course? Could I compel these people to give so much time?

Learn more on our class blog – and a big thank you to all of the mentors and advisors who joined us!