Authored by David McFarlane, the presentation describes, in general terms, the mentoring process applied in the Venture Development Center and the methods/models applied when mentoring startup founders. David McFarlane has a history of successful IPOs, M&A exits and long term quarterly execution in the software industry. Most recently he was CEO & Co-Founder of Akiban Technologies. Before that, he was COO responsible for worldwide sales, marketing and services of Imlogic which was acquired by Symantec for $90MM. He was also President & COO of Xchange Inc., which IPO'd. He is an investor at CommonAngels.

1. Venture Development Center
Mentorship Process

2. Lean Canvas: Business Model
A succinct, universal representation of any business model
2

3. Lean Stack: Market and Customer
Validation
3

4. Setting the Goals
4

5. VDC Mentorship Process
5
VDC
Application
Join VDC
Day 1
Business
Model
Problem/
Solution Fit
Product/
Market Fit
Customer
Validation
Freshman
30 Days
Junior
90 Days
Senior
270 Days
Graduate
18 Months
A B C
Mafia: Interviews leading to an offer they can't refuse
Lean
Canvas
0
Lean
Canvas
1
Lean
Stack
2
Lean
Stack
3
Lean
Stack
X
A
B
C
Experimentation
Smoke: Teaser that causes 'opt in' with email
Pre-order: Design Partners or contingent orders

6. Tracking Experiments to Validate
Hypothesis
6

7. Detailed definition of each customer
validation test
7