Welcome
A note from your instructorWelcome to the repository for 20265-SSA103-02 — Upreneur: Pre-College × Launch Pad Venture Challenge, Summer 2026.
Your NFC tag will always take you to this repository, where you will have access to the course materials we used and distributed during the class. These include videos and PDFs, and any other relevant materials that may help you learn more about entrepreneurship and start your business.
I might be adding materials and things to think about after you have all left, so make sure you check back in here every so often — or anytime you want to recall the things you learned.
If you have any questions, or suggestions on how to improve this repository, send them to etriay@miami.edu.
I hope you had a great learning experience this summer of 2026. In anything you do from now on, don't forget to NEVER GIVE UP, and always remember the AAA rule: Agency leads to Action, which leads to Achievement.
Course Activities
The live verticalsEach team was dropped into a live business vertical — a real company, real customers, and an eight-day race to revenue. Every playbook below is the full project recipe your team executed, from customer discovery to Pitch Day.
MCAT Education Platform
Evaluate, improve, and validate an MCAT tutoring and QBank platform. Twenty-plus customer interviews, three validated personas, a pricing model, and a marketing funnel the sponsor can actually run.
Open playbook (PDF)Aura Sports Recovery Cream
Validate U.S. market demand and build a low-cost, direct-to-consumer entry strategy — landing page, influencer pipeline, and a shot at the first online sale.
Open playbook (PDF)Consumer AI App Growth
Reverse-engineer viral consumer growth mechanics, interview creators, test three growth hypotheses, and launch a real viral experiment.
Open playbook (PDF)Environmental Impact / Sargolico
Turn storytelling into supporters and customers — segment the audience into three groups, build a content calendar, and grow merchandise sales behind an environmental mission.
Open playbook (PDF)Music Marketplace Platform
Solve the chicken-and-egg problem between venues and musicians — thirty interviews across both sides, a friction map, UX recommendations, and a real event booked through the platform.
Open playbook (PDF)Embroidered Apparel Brand
Build a profitable niche brand from scratch on top of real embroidery and manufacturing capabilities — brand identity, store mockup, content strategy, and first sales.
Open playbook (PDF)Entrepreneurship Topics
Videos from the courseThe videos we watched and discussed in class. Rewatch them any time — most of them get better on the second viewing.
The Single Biggest Reason Why Startups Succeed
Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, gathered data from hundreds of companies and ranked each on five key factors. One factor stands out from the others — and it surprised even him.
Walhub Value Proposition Tested at IKEA
What happens when you test a product's value proposition on real customers, in the wild, before you build the business.
Snapchat: How the Idea Came About
Evan Spiegel in the very early days, explaining informally how the Snapchat idea was born.
Business Model Canvas Explained
The nine building blocks of a business model — the framework every team used from Day 1.
Value Proposition Canvas Explained
How to map customer jobs, pains, and gains against your products, pain relievers, and gain creators.
Purple Mattress: The Raw Egg Test
How to use a raw egg to determine if your mattress is awful — a masterclass in demonstrating a value proposition instead of describing it.
Steve Jobs: Secrets of Life
An unscripted 1994 interview by the Santa Clara Valley Historical Association. Steve talks about his values, advice to entrepreneurs, and how to best live life.
Steve Blank: Customer Discovery
Doing customer discovery is like searching for the Holy Grail. Here's why.
Steve Blank: Customer Validation
For a startup, validating product-market fit is everything. Here's why.
Frameworks & Handouts
PDFs distributed in classThe one-page references we handed out during the program. Print them, pin them above your desk, use them on your next venture.
Official Strategyzer template — the nine building blocks of any business. → PDF The Value Proposition Canvas
Official Strategyzer template — match what you offer to what customers want. → PDF How to Use the Value Pyramid
Ranking the elements of value your product delivers — the higher up the hierarchy, the better. → PDF Summary of Findings from Bill Gross
The five factors of startup success — the written companion to the TED talk above. → PDF How to Reach Customers (Starburst)
A one-page map of direct and indirect customer acquisition channels. →