Organizational use
CASE STUDY: Prepare4VC
Goal: Enhanced engagement and connection through better asynchronous
sharing of solutions and peer feedback.
ABSTRACT
Accelerator program supports entrepreneurs with peer learning
LEADER: Jason Kraus, Founder/CEO
PARTICIPANTS: multiple cohorts between 5 and 15 entrepreneurs
ORGANIZATION: Prepare4VC
Goals:
1) Better collaboration & learning between live sessions.
2) Archived growth - for the cohort and each company
3) develop a stronger sense of connection and community
This case study explores how Huddle Up Learning impacted the way that entrepreneurial accelerator, Prepare4VC, helped its users collaborate and learn from each other to enhance engagement, progress, and connections within the cohort.
BACKGROUND
How can we build a learning community?
Introduction: "Our goal is to support entrepreneurs in achieving their goals faster.”
With his entrepreneurial acclerator in its 3rd year of operation, Founder and CEO Jason Kraus of Prepare4VC was looking for a solution. He wanted to better support the entrepreneurs he works with by leveraging the ability of learning from each other throughout the 12-week accelerator.
We were looking for more technology to engage our audience in between each (of the Zoom/live) session."
Jason’s previous cohorts collaborated via email, Slack, and Mighty Networks. He turned to Huddle Up Learning. And while those platforms enhanced messaging, it was often superficial and was difficult to organize for the entire group as the accelerator program grew. He knew he needed something more.
Kraus elaborates, "[We wanted a solution] where users can actively submit responses to, engage with, and get peer feedback from the rest of the group throughout the program."
Prepare4VC Platform evolution:
From Slack/emails to Mighty Networks to Huddle Up
IMPLEMENTATION
Shared solutions help everyone
Our Pain Points: Interaction and Organization
For his last two cohorts, Jason has turned to Huddle Up Learning to share the resources for how to create important start-up assets - items such as an elevator pitch, competitor analysis, and unique selling proposition. Within Huddle Up, the “how to” resources can be easily shared along with the actual user responses - all easily organized and archived so that everyone gets a chance to share their ideas and give feedback to one another asynchronously.
"Being able to reference other peoples' work
has been really helpful"
the biggest difference in using Huddle Up
RESULTS
“With Huddle Up, changes happen a few weeks earlier and that allows other goals to be met much earlier."
Kraus sees the benefits. Initially, the organization of the platform not only makes it easy to collaborate during the accelerator, but it acts as an archive of progress for each user (and the cohort as a whole). This allows Kraus and his team to make adjustments dynamicallly during the program, or to modify aspects for the future.
A surprising beneift of Huddle Up comes not only from collaboration with his team, but from others as well. "We work with founders, and it's really important not just to learn from advisors, experts, and mentors in different industries and sectors but also from your (own) group."
"[Huddle Up] brings the cohort closer together where they're able to get to know each other really well."
the benefits that Huddle Up has brought to Prepare4VC
NEXT STEPS
Learning through collaborative action - with a focus on data
Kraus continues to see big potential for growing Huddle Up within his program. He's especially intrigued by Huddle Up's ability:
1) to make learning active & interactive, with a focus on shared solutions.
2) to be used as a stand-alone platform or integrate with existing platforms.
3) to adapt his program for future use easily and quickly.
"It can be a tool to use with other tools, or it can be a stand-alone for the whole program."
Adapting Huddle Up for future programs