On September 3, 2020, Women in Big Data kicked off the Entrepreneur series with Micah Bladwin on “Ideation and Funding”. Micah mentioned how this Conversation in the lifecycle of a business is the most fun. You spend your time thinking about what “can be”, you are not yet dealing with the things that “are”. 

Micah started his first business when he was 9 years old and sold his last company in 2014. He then went on to work for AWS and later joined Grasshopper to build a bank for startups. He has been a part of the startup ecosystem for a long time. 

In his talk Micah focused on Venture backed businesses and the “move fast, fail fast and grow fast” mindset and how the outcomes for startups can be large (a big exit), but also tricky. In some cases even though the company might exit for a large amount of money, the founder may or may not make a whole lot. He spoke about things to keep in mind as you are building and growing your company. 

A few important topics covered during the conversation were:

• What is needed for a Big Company 
• Finding a great market 
• How to build a great founding team 
• What makes a great idea 
• How to come up with an idea 
• Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept 
• Raising funds and storytelling 
• A Problem/Solution approach 
• What is your solution and why is it the best 
• How will everyone make money
• Sources of capital 

Click here for Micah’s presentation.

I would highly encourage you to watch Micah’s talk! 

Thank you, Micah! Grateful for your time.