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Before classes of week four of WERCBench Labs even began, teams arrived at the M-WERC offices, because this week they had the opportunity to hear mentor Ted Barthel speak at this week’s lunch & learn.  Barthel is a patent attorney at Husch Blackwell, and was able to come chat with our teams about intellectual property.  This was a great session, with lots of discussion and utilization of Barthel’s knowledge.

As always, the first thing on the schedule was to go over customer interviews for the week prior.  After teams went through their interviews for the week, we heard updates from Iconac, Sciart, Process Machine, and Terraoak.  The feedback during the updates followed the “I like, I wish, I wonder” format in order to promote valuable discussion.

After the lunch & learn and updates, teams took a quick break and reconvened for their first lesson with Dave Zachman from The Commons.  Dave’s teaching style is not to lecture, but to offer a platform for a dynamic discussion between teams and mentors.

This week’s lesson was on Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and Product-Market Fit.  During the lesson, teams also reviewed market segmentation, relationships & channels, and value propositions.  Dave also taught teams about a Leap of Faith Assumption (LOFA) and how it can be applied to their startups.

For the team breakout session this week, they worked with each other and their mentors to get feedback on their short pitch and value propositions.  After class wrapped up, many teams and mentors stuck around to continue discussion on their startups.

Stay tuned for weekly blog posts on the progress of teams at WERCBench Labs, as well as regular team updates and mentor features.  For more information on WERCBench Labs, visit www.wercbenchlabs.com.