Standard 4: Technical Skills

Your mission is to quickly brainstorm and pitch three completely different business ideas. For each, define:

Value Proposition: What specific problem are you solving, and how does your product/service create unique value?

Customer Segment: Who exactly is your ideal target customer? Be specific.

Revenue Streams: How will your business make money?

Sustainable Competitive Advantage: What is your unfair advantage that makes your business hard to copy?

Prove or disprove a core assumption through direct user interviews.

Identify a Problem/Persona: Define the specific problem and the exact type of person you need to talk to.

Present Open-Ended Questions: Design 5-7 "ask" questions to uncover true pain points.

Reveal the Pivot: Based on your results, explain one major change or "pivot" you would make.

Solve a local problem by defining the opportunity, a quick fix, and market size.

Identify a Friction Point: Pinpoint something in the Waukee community causing annoyance or inefficiency.

Low-Fi Solution: Propose a simple, easy-to-implement solution that could be built in a weekend.

Potential Market Size: Estimate how many people are affected and potential revenue/savings.

Practice high-stakes pitching in a fast-paced environment.

3-Minute Pitch: Deliver a concise, powerful pitch of your current business idea using your existing deck.

"Hot Seat" Q&A: Immediately follow with a challenging Q&A session designed to pressure-test your assumptions.

Identify and mitigate the biggest threats to your business.

"Pre-Mortem": Present the top 3 reasons your current business idea could fail in the next 12 months.

The One Move That Saves It: Propose the crucial strategic pivot you would take to save the business.

Use public feedback to find a hidden business opportunity.

Find a Recurring Complaint: Identify a common complaint in local 1-star Google/Yelp reviews.

Pitch a Fix: Propose an actionable fix for the business, or pitch a new competing service that solves it better.

Step into the role of a Venture Capitalist to analyze a real-world investment.

Analyze a Funding Round: Choose a startup that recently announced a major funding round.

Would You Invest?: Present a compelling argument for why it was a brilliant move or a costly mistake.

Get into the detailed math of how a business generates profit.

Deconstruct a Sale: Select a consumer product/service and break down its financial components.

Calculate: Determine the COGS, Gross Margin, and estimate units needed to hit Breakeven.

Identify opportunities to streamline business processes using AI tools.

Identify a Manual Process: Choose a repetitive, time-consuming process in a common business setting.

Pitch an AI Workflow: Propose a specific AI tool/workflow to automate it, and calculate estimated savings.

Follow the real-world trajectory of a pitched company.

Research a Pitch (2+ Years Ago): Select a company that appeared on Shark Tank at least two years ago.

Where Are They Now?: Did the deal close? Track the company's progress and current status in the market.

Practice critical analysis of digital product design and functionality.

Identify Friction: Find a local company's site and identify two moments where UX causes confusion.

Present a Fix: Propose one specific UI/UX fix and explain why it drastically improves the user journey.

Understand how "free" products actually pay for themselves.

The "Hidden Engine": Pick a popular product/service that seems free or too cheap (TikTok, Spotify).

Detail the Model: Explain the non-obvious ways the company generates revenue (data licensing, ad exchanges).

Design the foundational tools for an efficient project.

Pitch a "Stack": Select an APEX project and curate 3-5 software tools necessary to execute it.

10x Faster: Justify your choices by explaining how these tools maximize efficiency and speed.

Analyze the mindset and critical moments of a successful entrepreneur.

Summarize a Founder's Journey: Listen to an episode of "How I Built This" and summarize their story.

Identify Their "Tipping Point": Pinpoint the single critical decision that propelled the business to success.

Identify and champion an underrated business.

Pitch an Obscure Brand: Find a small, niche brand you admire (under 50k followers).

Why It Works: Break down why their specific marketing strategy or community is so effective.

Learn from a story of entrepreneurial resilience.

The "Near-Death" Moment: Research a local Iowa entrepreneur when their business was nearly bankrupt.

Their Comeback: Detail the creative move they made to pivot, survive, and find success.

Develop skills for making impactful professional connections.

Present Your Target Mentor: Identify a successful person in your desired field you want to connect with.

Your "Hook" Email & Offer: Draft the email. It must have a "hook" and state specific value you can offer them.

Research the foundational growth of an Iowa institution.

Research the "Day 1": Choose a massive Iowa-based company (Casey’s, Hy-Vee, Vermeer) and research its beginning.

Their Scaling Secret: Identify the key strategy that allowed them to scale from a small venture to a major player.

Synthesize your career learning and next steps.

Updated Career Thesis: Reflect on recent interviews and present a revised thesis about your desired role.

The "Reality Check": Share the most unexpected or surprising piece of information you discovered.

Research how to leverage local entrepreneurial resources.

Research a Resource: Choose an institution dedicated to supporting startups (Gravitate, IEDA, Techstars Iowa).

Pitch How to Use It: Present an actionable plan for how a startup could use their resources in the next 3 months.