The last few days have been quite a blur! I arrived back in Singapore the day of our first session. Before the start of the session, I was fortunate to get a 45 minutes, one on one meeting with Adeo Ressi & Phil Libin, to discuss the ideas I will be working on. Those 45 minutes were truly insightful! It is at such times that you understand how great a role experience plays and how quickly and effortlessly someone with experience is able to break down an idea and recreate it based on models that actually work in the market place. Those initial 45 minutes set the ball rolling to prove that the next few months were going to be, not just a ride of a lifetime but a truly great experience.
During our first presentation we were told to refrain from excessive and specific blogging or tweeting on matters discussed during the classes. This is primarily because the mentors and your peers share a fair amount of confidential information regarding their own experiences and the lessons they have learned over the years, which quite understandably are not always for public consumption. I will do my best to update this blog and more so my twitter feed with insights that can be shared, within the above framework.
The first couple of sessions were primarily about the program and then it dived right into setting up your vision and values for the ideas you are working on. Every session has it’s set of homework assignments, failure to complete them has fairly punitively drastic consequences on your eligibility to continue. The work load is significantly higher than I expected it to be. I was under the impression that it would be around 15 hours a week. However, I think it is more like double that estimate taking into account assignments, readings and work group meetings.
The first big deadline that we have is Nov 9th, by which date we need to have crystallized our pitch and got enough support from peers and mentors to move forward with it. The two concepts that I am currently working on are:
1. Reevolo: A web service that aims to assist employers hire Gen Y effectively.
2. Lean Sparks: A web service for entrepreneurs to record and validate their ideas.
Lean Sparks has just gone live in it’s alpha stage. I would like feedback, as also readers of this blog to use it and if possible provide me with feedback on what you think. Also, if you had to decide on more information about the two ideas mentioned above, which one would you choose? What would you want or like to know?
My next posts will talk about certain topics that are discussed in class and I will do my best to share as much as I possibly can. If you have any questions or feedback please do let me know.