Thank you for believing in my IDEAS, professor!
This one line brought me so much joy this week!
This week, one of my students at a University that I teach said this to me! It may seem like such a simple line but let me tell you a little back story. Last month Anshul and I announced that New Founder school will be FREE for any aspiring founder. WHY? Because there can’t be a fee on daring to be innovative! As simple as that. We can’t give the privilege of creating solutions only to those who pay the price of going to ivy league schools, accelerators and who have rich networks! Because ideas are born in every mind! And lastly, we CAN’T afford to miss on THESE unheard voices!
Now let’s come to this line: ‘Thank you for believing in my IDEAS, professor!’. As many of you know I teach at 2 business schools in San Francisco. This week, a student from one of the classes I teach enrolled in our FREE ideathon that is happening this weekend. (Register here for the next 12 hours here if you want to start your founder journey.) He reached out and I interviewed him to see if he was the right fit. As at New Founder school, we ask founders to pay in 2 ways: Accountability and Sweat Equity! So I wanted to see if this student was really ready for the commitment to be a founder. And that’s when he shared his story with me:
He told me how he is the son of immigrants in the US who do manual labor. He has lived all his life in the bay area and only knows how to do manual labor. He loves the skill he has but has been thinking of a few ideas and wants to try to see if he can make something out of it. But sadly all programs are expensive, take a LOT of equity if you get selected which is RARE and finally, if they are FREE then they are really LOW Quality. He told me how he has shared his ideas with many people but didn’t get any next steps. I invited him to New Founder School to test out his ideas and see what happens. And he said: ‘Thank you for believing in my IDEAS, professor!’
Now here is the thing! We live in a world where we tell aspiring founders that ideas DON’T mean much and fail 99% of the time and I agree! BUT here is the thing: Ideas are the precursor to EVERY Successful startup out there. That is how it all started! Just with an IDEA! Yes ideas will fail, pivot, change but that is the intrinsic motivation that will help a person take their first step and that is why I believe in EVERY IDEA and the HUMANS BEHIND THAT IDEA.
I can’ tell you the number of times my ideas were rejected, laughed at or not taken seriously. But it was because of some AWESOME mentors who believed that my ideas could change the world that I continue to pursue that path.
So if you are someone who is really serious about your ideas or know someone who wants to give their ideas a chance then I want you to join me this weekend to take your first step at New Founder School’s Ideathon. On Feb 5th and 6th, from 10 am to 12 pm PDT, I will take you through:
The basics of startups to help you make the decision whether this life is for you or not.
Go through frameworks of research for your ideas.
Work on activities to get clarity on your ideas.
If you finish the deliverable of the weekend, you will graduate to level 2 at New Founder School called the IDEA SCHOOL, a 12-week program to validate your idea with REAL users and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for FREE. We are still offering sports for the next 12 hours for the ideathon! Go get your spot now because we believe in your ideas and in YOU!
Love and light,
Arjita