Build Better Apps with Kauffman App Training Lab

Do you have an idea for a killer app? If the only thing that stands in your way is not knowing how to build a mobile app, get ready to break that wall down. The Kauffman Foundation is hosting an App Training Lab that will give you all the tools you need to be an app building rockstar! 

This six week event will start on Thursday, October 4^th at 5:30pm. It is open to anyone who wants to learn how to build an app. If you’re not a programmer, don’t worry! All you need to bring to the class is and iOS device and a laptop.

If you have some knowledge about programming and can’t commit to a six week course, there will also be a four week course for the more advanced students. Since each week will build off of the previous week, Kauffman asks that you are able to commit to each class. Agenda info is available here.

The best part about this whole educational series? It’s free! All you have to do is register. So don’t wait any longer.  Sign up today and learn how to build apps!  

Get Your Startup Running Lean with Kauffman Labs and Ash Maurya

Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean.

Most new products fail.  It's an grim entrepreneurial reality.  But why do these products fail?  Is it because they are bad ideas?  No.  Is it because entrepreneurs waste money, time and effort in the process? Yes.

This entrepreneurial dilemma is the reason Kauffman Labs is hosting a new workshop, Running Lean, presented by Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean and founder of Spark59.

What's Running Lean all about?
Running Lean is a 1-day, hands-on workshop here in Kansas City where entrepreneurs can learn a systematic methodology that raises their odds of building successful products.  Running Lean, developed through rigorous testing of the Lean Startup, Customer Development and Bootstrapping Techniques, has successfully been applied to dozens of products in many different industries.

What will I learn?

• How to define problems worth solving
• How to document a business model
• How to find early customers and get them to want to pay
• How to systematically test a business model
• How to build and measure what customers want 

What's the Running Lean schedule look like? 
It's a full day...make sure you get some sleep the night before!

9:00am:    Coffee, tea, bagels
9:30am:    Running Lean overview
11:00am:  Part 1: Document your plan A
12:00pm:  Lunch
1:30pm:    Part 2: Identify the riskiest parts of your plan
3:30pm:    Short coffee break
4:00pm:    Part 3: Systematically test your plan
5:00pm:    Workshop ends

Running Lean will take place at the Kauffman Foundation from 8:30am-5:00pm on October 9, 2012.  Tickets are $199 and include a copy of Ash Maurya's book, Running Lean and access to the comparison business model validation tool, Lean Canvas.

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Kauffman Sketches Kansas City as the City of Entrepreneurs

WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR

Have you ever seen a Kauffman Sketchbook?  It's a new YouTube initiative brought to you by the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City.  In the Sketchbooks, Kauffman literally draws the important entrepreneurial movements that are occurring in and around the Kansas City area.  

From defining entrepreneurial "Magic Sauce" to teaching how to play the "Money Game", the Kauffman Foundation Sketchbooks teach anything and everything that entrepreneurs may need to know in an artistic and creative way.

Narrated by Mayor Sly James and Mayor Joe Reardon, the "City of Entrepreneurs" Sketchbook provides more than KC entrepreneur education.  It tells the story of Kansas City entrepreneurship in the here and now.  From covering the Google Fiber initiative, the history of entrepreneurship in Kansas City and the companies that KC entrepreneurs can find inspiration from (for example, Kauffman Labs, Think Big Partners, KCSourceLink and many others), the video proclaims Kansas City as the City of Entrepreneurs. 

In the video, Mayor Joe Reardon may have stated it best: "What's really being built here is the worldwide platform for entrepreneurship and the bridge that will take us into the future.  Together, we are committed to making Kansas City the City of Entrepreneurs, where we celebrate those who take risks, apply new technology and have the imagination and ingenuity to create something new." 

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