We used to teach entrepreneurship with case studies, and advised early stage entrepreneurs to create an HR department as soon as possible. What's changed? Now we know that startups are not "small big companies", but temporary organizations searching for a business model. Paul Freet explains it all.

Episode 5: Tough Love for Entrepreneurs

Startup Gauntlet introduces a focused path to entrepreneurship called Customer Discovery.  This six-week long program covers the process of identifying the core of a startup business. Anyone may enter the class, with or without a concept for a business, and learn how to make and test assumptions about a potential business, by performing in-depth Customer Discovery. The result will be a business model based not on an entrepreneur's guesses, but on facts learned directly from potential customers. Sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation, since May 2012 Startup Gauntlet has been taught to more than 120 teams in eight cohorts.
(June 2013)