Education

Education

As a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, I teach a variety of courses on topics such as: Lean Entrepreneurship, Business Model Canvas, Customer Discovery, How to Pitch for Investment, and many others. I also...
Community

Community

Innovators face unique challenges every day. They must take on and execute a diverse number of roles within their business to be successful, often with no place to turn to get unfiltered and honest advice. To put it simply, they are expected to have all the answers,...
Accountability Partner

Accountability Partner

The Impact of an “Accountability Partner”: The American Society of Training and Development found that people are 65% likely to meet a goal after committing to another person. Their chances of success increase to 95% when they build ongoing meetings with a partner to...
Mentorship

Mentorship

Innovation is a critical component to any organization’s success. Building new and valuable solutions to solve customer problems is priority one, but how do you do it? I’ve been an entrepreneur and innovator for almost 30 years and have seen it all and am ready to...
Post-Disaster Recovery

Post-Disaster Recovery

Post-disaster, business owners find varied paths to recovery Communication is a key element for those whose firms have been leveled by disasters big and small.  A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to contribute my thoughts in an associated press article about how...
Entrepreneur In Residence at CMU

Entrepreneur In Residence at CMU

What it means to me to be an Entrepreneur In Residence One of the core tenants behind building this community at StartUp BreakDown was to provide an avenue for accessible mentorship for budding entrepreneurs. This is a role that I play both online and offline, as an...
Understanding the Differences Between Features and Benefits

Understanding the Differences Between Features and Benefits

Once you’re satisfied that you have identified a meaningful problem in your market and have created a game-changing solution, it’s time to start thinking about how to describe and promote your idea. One of the classic mistakes made early in the process is...
Don’t Create a Solution Looking for a Problem

Don’t Create a Solution Looking for a Problem

A Better Mousetrap The old adage, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” has created more problems for aspiring entrepreneurs over the years than perhaps any other. It’s extremely hard to push a new idea or product out...
Is it Time to Take the Leap?

Is it Time to Take the Leap?

Welcome to the Startup Breakdown blog.  We will be posting regular updates with the goal of providing you with tidbits of information, tips, tools and ideas that will help you along the path of entrepreneurship.  We look forward to this interaction and hope that you...