What does Customer Discovery mean for your business?
Customer discovery is finding an audience that you think shares the same problem, and then asking that audience specific questions to see if they have identified your idea as a potential solution.
Top 3 Startup Founder Resources
At every stage of your entrepreneurial journey you will need support. One of the hardest lessons I, as a founder, have learned is to accept guidance and support. Learning that lesson has taught me to not only accept the support, but to seek it. I encourage you to seek the support you need to strengthen your skill set, define your goals and to create meaningful growth for your business. As you go looking for resources to support your startup there are a million different options, let’s take a little time to sort through the different types of resources available so...
Need Some Inspiration? 7 Branded Podcasts That Can Help
They say that content is king. If your brand is looking to create content so you can be king, here are a few ways to get inspired about how to boost your brand by creating content rather than just advertising or marketing your product or service.
2021 GEW Sessions You Don’t Want to Miss!
This annual event gives residents a chance to get to know Fort Worth’s local community of innovators, while also providing aspiring entrepreneurs with a variety of informative sessions and networking opportunities. Participants can take part in-person and virtually. Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) returns to Fort Worth Sunday, Nov. 7 through Friday, Nov. 12. This popular event offers a variety of workshops, panel discussions, informational sessions and networking events that showcase Fort Worth’s entrepreneurship community while also engaging with larger industry trends. During 2020, Fort Worth’s Global Entrepreneurship Week was the largest celebration of its kind in the world with 93 sessions, more than...
5 Reasons Your Business Needs a Podcast
Podcasts are a booming medium right now. According to Edison Research and Triton Digital’s Infinite Dial 2021 study, 80 million Americans ages 12 and older listen to at least one podcast a week, with the average listener enjoying five shows in that time. The number of podcasts grew to 2 million in 2021 (Winn, 2021) and advertisers are expected to spend over $1 billion on podcast campaigns this year alone (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2020). Here are five reasons your business should ride this wave and consider starting its own podcast: Podcasting is a functional medium. They can be listened to while doing other activities, like driving or house chores. This means your busy audience...
Business Relocation Spotlight: SmartAction
Gary Davis, the President and CEO of SmartAction, recently made an appearance on the Innovate Fort Worth podcast to discuss his company’s relocation to Fort Worth. SmartAction uses artificial intelligence – or rather, algorithmic intelligence – to improve companies’ customer service. A “virtual agent” is trained to engage with customers in specific ways that are entirely driven by that customer’s typed or spoken response – think of it like an algorithmic “choose your own adventure” of solutions and answers to customer problems. Gary had hoped to return to his Texas roots after running SmartAction from El Segundo, California, for several years,...
Is a Nonprofit the right road for you?
Are you considering starting a nonprofit? Pam Cannell from BoardBuild breaks down the road map for deciding if a nonprofit is the best road for you to take. You see a problem, you think you have a solution, so you say to yourself, “I think we should start a new nonprofit.” Do you have a unique solution? First you should verify that your ideas are different from the more than 7000(!!!) nonprofit organizations already operating in Tarrant County and, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics, the 1.5 million nonprofits registered in the United States. Surely the mission and services...
12th Largest City and No Accelerators?
Fort Worth is the largest city in the country without any accelerators for entrepreneurs and startup companies and that is holding us back!
Accelerator vs. Incubator: Which One is Right for You?
An entrepreneur has several different options to choose from when it comes to getting help with their scalable startup. Sometimes they need a mentor. Other times they need a developer, an accountant, a lawyer, or funding. In the end, entrepreneurs will almost always need some kind of help to either get their business off the ground or to grow and scale it. Two commonly used options are an accelerator and incubator. You may have heard these two terms thrown around before, but what are they, and what are the main differences between them?
Accelerator
The goal of this program is to “accelerate” the growth of these companies by preparing them to be attractive to early-stage investors in a short amount of time. An accelerator is a...
Fort Worth’s First African-American Entrepreneur
What if I told you that there was an incredible entrepreneur, right here in Fort Worth, who was a trailblazer, an inspiration, and a guide to so many entrepreneurs after him? What if I told you that this man overcame incredible adversity and tragedies that we will never be able to understand or imagine? What if I told you this incredible man beat the odds and ‘made it’ in Fort Worth? No, I’m not talking about Amon Carter or some other big names you might know. I’m talking about John Pratt. Chances are you've never heard of him. Thanks to the archives of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, websites on local history, and some...
