Too many founders treat financials like a black box - only checking in when asked by investors, tax preparers or worse - when things go wrong! But understanding your financial statements is a superpower that can help you make smarter decisions, attract investors, accelerate growth and build a more resilient business.
In this hands-on session, we'll break down the three core financial statements (P&L, Balance Sheet, and Cash Flow Statement) in layman's terms. You’ll learn how to read them, what key metrics to watch, and how they all connect. We’ll also cover how to spot red flags early and use your numbers to tell a compelling story to stakeholders.
No finance background needed - just curiosity and a willingness to take control of your numbers.
What You’ll Learn: 1. How to read and actually understand your financial statements 2. The 3-5 KPIs every founder should track 3. How to connect your numbers to business strategy 4. Common financial mistakes and how to avoid them 5. Tips for working smarter with your accountant or bookkeeper
Who It’s For: founders, startup operators, and small business owners who want to level up their financial literacy and lead with confidence — no spreadsheet wizardry required.
Dive into the core techniques behind building and evaluating AI agents. This workshop will cover how to design effective evaluation frameworks, test agent behavior, and iterate quickly with confidence. You’ll walk away with practical tools to improve reliability, performance, and usefulness—whether you’re just starting or scaling production systems.
Presenters will be Jeremy Silva, Sarah Niemeyer, and Morgan Cox
Forget the myths and hype cycles of “lovemarks”, “1,000 True Fans”, and “Growth Hacking”. Shoppers, brands, and ads all follow regular, empirical, predictable patterns (aka scientific laws). Sadly, most business owners and marketers don’t know these laws — much less how to use them — and end up wasting massive amounts of time & money on fruitless things. In this workshop, you’ll learn the most important of these Brand Laws for startups, and we’ll go through ways to apply them to your business so that you can grow efficiently & effectively. Session Learning ObjectivesLearn the 3 most important Laws of Brand Growth for startups (it’s unlikely you’ve ever heard them).Learn practical, useful ways to apply Brand Laws to your own business.Learn the limits of how Brand Laws impact you — which is where Brand Levers come into play.A little about EthanCross a scientist with an improv comic, and make him do marketing for 20 years for some of the world’s great brands, and you end up with something like Ethan Decker. Through his company Applied Brand Science, Ethan teaches business leaders the “new science” of how people really shop, how ads really work, and how brands really grow. He makes complex ideas simple, useful, and sticky. Ethan was voted “Best session at SXSW” in 2023, has 12,000 followers on LinkedIn, and his TEDx talk is among the top 1% most-viewed TEDx talks of all time. He’s also a nice guy & easy to work with.
Innovation Unleashed: The Power of Customer Discovery highlights the vital role customer discovery plays in truly understanding and shaping a successful business. Through insightful panel discussions, attendees will explore how customer discovery is essential for validating market fit, refining strategies, and driving sustainable growth. Panelists will share firsthand experiences of how customer discovery helped them refine their business plans, pivot effectively, and build stronger, more customer-centric ventures. This event underscores why deeply understanding customer needs is not just beneficial, but fundamental, to startup success.Drawing on the expertise of NSF I-Corps Hub West founders and instructors, we will explore the intricacies of identifying target customers and key decision-makers as innovative ideas progress toward commercialization.It's okay to pivot (REALLY IT IS)! Through real-life examples and experiences, the panelists will provide insights into the process of pivoting in startups, including the factors that necessitate a pivot, the strategic considerations involved, and the potential outcomes.
