If you’ve ever spoken to someone about business, chances are you’ve likely heard, or maybe even thought to yourself “this is a fantastic idea!” or “their idea sounds interesting, but who would actually use it?” One of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur can make is assuming that their idea will become a great product everyone wants and that this product will turn into a successful business. We’ve all either seen or experienced founder bias at one point or another. This can often lead entrepreneurs to jump into a business idea, only to have it fail after months of passionate work.

How do you figure out how to turn your passion and ideas into a product and business that has real market application? Discovery. Discovery provides entrepreneurs with tools, perspectives, and techniques for idea generation and risk. Instead of jumping from one business idea to the next without an idea of whether it will actually be successful, discovery helps you learn what makes an idea a good one and which one you should work on versus one that will lead you to a dead end.

Julia Byrd and James O’Conner will be leading an Innovation Within Discovery workshop for SC Accelerator program members on January 21st. This course will help you identify your critical assumptions about the customer problem and needed values, give you access to and knowledge on how to use Innovation Within's platform to build an inventory of insights and data points, triage potential ideas in terms of least to greatest potential for success, customer interview best practices, and more. Participants will get free access to use the Innovation Within Discovery tool used by leading organizations like Rutgers and the NSF, give you the opportunity to receive feedback on your canvas, and be surrounded by a community of entrepreneurs.

SC Accelerant, Noé Lomeli, took the course last year and mentioned, “Before taking the Innovation Within course, I felt lost and clueless about what I needed to do, but Julia Byrd and James O'Connor shared with me the information that I needed and the tools to continue moving forward. The thought of being an entrepreneur is less daunting now because of the knowledge and experience I have gained in this course.”

SC Accelerant Allison Paradise also took the course and remarked, “The Discovery course provided a great mirror to uncover aspects of our business that I'd not seen before. James and Julia pushed us all to challenge our assumptions and in doing so strengthened our businesses.”

About the Instructors

Local entrepreneur James O’Connor founded Innovation Within after a number of experiences with startups and working with Steve Blank’s Lean Startup methodology to help entrepreneurs use the battle-tested, scientific methodology for validating ideas and products. It has helped hundreds of companies save time, money and energy by validating business ideas before building products no one wants, or is willing to pay for.

Julia Byrd is a Program Manager for Columbia University’s NYSERDA Entrepreneur-in-Residence program where she helps pair promising climate tech startups with paid mentors to assist in a variety of tasks. Previously, she was Associate Director of PowerBridgeNY, an accelerator program for cleantech companies coming out of the partner universities that ran for 8 years. She applies her lessons learned from running entrepreneurial programs to her consultancy, Byrd Consulting, which services clients who are starting new programs for startups and are looking for assistance with curriculum development and instruction during the early years of their programs. Julia has a BA from George Washington University in Russian and Environmental Studies and an MS in Sustainability Management from Columbia University.