Growing to 100,000 Customers with 0 Rounds of Funding

Overview

Register for Course

Details

Guest speaker Hanson Grant will share his story growing a dorm-room startup from a $10,000 idea on Kickstarter, to a 100,000 customer company with clients as large as Amazon, WeWork, and Tesla.

After this meetup, you will walk away with an understanding of the drivers of both success and failure in bootstrapping a new venture, and inspiration to climb up any wall you create for yourself.

ThinkBoard is an inexpensive, versatile whiteboard replacement that is cloud connected through Rocketbook. It has been featured on NBC, Entrepreneur Magazine, BuzzFeed, QVC, and the Today Show, and Hanson has not run any investment rounds since founding the company in 2014. After two Kickstarter campaigns and years of sweat-equity, ThinkBoard has become a notable player in the productivity space.

AGENDA:

6:00-6:30: Free Dinner and Networking

6:30-7:00: Open interview with Hanson, livestreamed on Instagram & FB

7:00-7:15: Entrepreneur 'Open Mic' Night

7:15-8:00: Networking

LIVE STREAM:

As usual, we'll be streaming this event over Facebook Live. For the first time ever, we're going to also post the interview on Instagram TV! If you come in person, you'll have a chance to pitch your startup on air.

If you can't make it, you can join us right from your phone or computer.

To see the stream, follow Dylan Husted on FB or Instagram, or look out for a link on the night of the event.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dylan.husted
Instagram: @_lastmillennial

GETTING THERE:

Space Provided by First Republic Bank at 160 Federal Street. Between the Downtown Crossing, South Station, and Park Street stops, you really can't go wrong with taking the T.

For those who drive, there is a pay parking lot at 100 High Street. We unfortunately cannot validate.

GETTING IN:

Please make sure to check in with security in the lobby when you arrive. They will swipe you through to our floor.

*NOTE* If you plan on attending, please make sure to RSVP. This is the official guest list that will be presented to security in advance.

• ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Hanson started Think Board as an undergraduate student at Babson College in 2014. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Hanson had refined his manufacturing, pricing, and product messaging, and earned a spot on Amazon Prime's holiday shopping guide.

With smart marketing decisions on Amazon's platform, Hanson steadily grew his business each quarter, secured promotional spots in a wide variety of publications (NBC, Entrepreneur Magazine, BuzzFeed, QVC, The Today Show, and more), and additional ecommerce outlets, like The Grommet.

With each phase of growth, Hanson found unique challenges that he could only get by through hard work and smart partnerships. After years of effort, Hanson found his company in a complete 180. Its longtime beloved fans had grown annoyed with the product's shortcomings, and ThinkBoard had to reinvent itself yet again to stay alive.

Hanson has more than earned his stripes as an entrepreneur, and has lived both the extreme pain and joy of bootstrapping your dream.

• ABOUT THE GROUP

Are you actively working on a side project and wondering how to get traction? Are you also wondering how that traction can (one day) turn into a disruptive, powerful business?

Then you're the right person for Nano Entrepreneurship. Nano was born out of one simple concept: people shouldn't need to be crazy to become entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs shouldn't need to be lucky to succeed.

Instead of throwing an idea on paper and betting the house, use Nano to build a real business in a small market, and then raise capital to bring your innovation to a large market when you're truly ready.

In short, Nano is the evolution of Lean.