How to Build Entrepreneurial Information Environments: Tools of the Trade

Once the idea of entrepreneurship is in people’s brains, they begin to seek out what kind of company their idea will become

They need to have the right tools to shape their idea.

If people are taught that they need to build an app, they will build an app. If they’re in consulting, they’ll build a consulting firm. Etc.

The library of the University of Michigan as such a special place because there were just a lot of cool tools — -audio equipment and cameras and 3D printers that students could fiddle with. Low barrier to entry — -you didn’t need to

Stories:

• People being scared to share their stories, so they do not get feedback, and they then get fed up
• The students at Stony Brook who were thinking about building a business when they say that they are building a start-up. There isn’t much venture capital in the area, and so not a lot of models of what fast, venture-backed companies can look like.

What programs should do: provide maker spaces for students, or partner with local libraries. Even, if they cannot, give them different techniques that they can use with paper and pencil

What to give them: “Tools of the Trade” board with prototyping, personas, business model templates, lean canvas, how to create a logo, basic skills to start a website “landing page” to test customer interest, interviewing people. Grouped into Stages of Ideation, Prototype, Test, Prototype 2, etc.

When they should use it, why they should use it, and links to more in-depth tutorials.