Man, I am so excited to announce the launch of a partnership that’s been long in the making with The Hatchery Chicago, a non-profit food and beverage business incubator located near Chicago’s East Garfield Park. I met Natalie Shmulik, CEO of The Hatchery last year at an event at Rutgers University and we just seemed to hit it off. Natalie is absolutely incredible (check out her feature in Forbes!), and what they’re doing at The Hatchery makes my heart sing for food entrepreneurs looking for resources on how to grow and scale their food businesses. They are currently hatching (ha, get it?) a $30 million facility in an initiative launched by a joint venture between Accion Chicago, IFF and Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago launch and scale food businesses and create jobs within the greater Chicago area. One of the many resources available to entrepreneurs inside of an incubator is the education and programming that is typically provided on a monthly or weekly basis.

The Hatchery and I have teamed up to provide an awesome 2-hour workshop titled, “The Lean Startup Methodology & Value Proposition Design Workshop.” Check out their write up below, and if you’re in the Chicago area during the week of September 10th, I encourage you to drop by!

The Lean Startup Methodology & Value Proposition Canvas Workshop: September 13th, 6 – 8pm

Our special guest, Jessica Korthuis, Founder of Sohuis and creator of the Sohuis Framework, is coming all the way from the sunshine state to deliver a special, interactive workshop on The Lean Startup Methodology and Value Proposition Design Canvas.

For the first portion of this workshop, Jessica will be giving an introductory overview of the Lean Startup – the movement that has completely transformed how products are built and launched. Specifically, she’ll be debunking the myth that Lean Startup principles are only applicable to startup companies. She’ll also cover key concepts applicable to “being Lean”, some of which include: how Lean Startup helps you speed up customer value creation, the basis of “Leap of Faith Assumptions”, validated learning, how to design an MVP (minimum viable product), the “Build, Measure, Learn” concept, Innovation Accounting, among other key Lean Startup concepts.

“Lean Startup isn’t about being cheap [but is about] being less wasteful and still doing things that are big.” – Eric Reis, Author of The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

For the second portion of the workshop, Jessica will walk participants through a deep-dive of the Value Proposition Design Canvas – a powerful tool that is often used in conjunction with Lean Startup and other modern management tools. The Value Proposition Design Canvas is a simple way to help you master your value proposition by better understanding your customers’ needs, and it ultimately helps you design products/services that your customers will actually want.

In preparation for the workshop:

All participants are encouraged to bring their ideas to the table and be ready to work through their value propositions. Your participation is not required, but highly encouraged! And this workshop is for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial enthusiasts of all skill sets and levels. Everyone is welcome to attend!

About the presenter:

Jessica is a senior brand strategist with 10+ years of experience working in marketing and communications with a particular focus on value proposition design and customer-focused collaboration. Having worked with designers, technologists, senior leadership and founding teams, Jessica has collaborated with many influential brands including Red Bull, TedxWomen, Girls Who Code, Florida Institute of Technology, Rebuild Globally, the International Business Innovation Association, and Stanford University. She has taught many workshops on various marketing concepts and has facilitated panels for the Startup Champions Network, Full Sail University’s B.O.L.D. Leadership Summit, and Orlando Women’s Conference; she’s also been a returning moderator for TedxWomen Orlando.

Jessica is a coffee enthusiast, Netflix junkie, advocate for women in leadership, supporter of diverse working environments and lover of social enterprises and socially conscious companies. She is also an advisor for the Social Enterprise Alliance and was named Central Florida’s “2016 Women to Watch” by the Orlando Business Journal, and this year, she’s been nominated for the 2018 40 Under 40 Award by the Orlando Business Journal.

More information on The Hatchery’s new space:

• Space for 75-100 food industry entrepreneurs in a 67,000 sq. ft. facility
• 56 private food-grade production spaces
• Cold and dry storage, loading docks, and food truck allocation
• Shared kitchen
• Ideation and event space
• Co-working, office, and meeting rooms
• On-site service providers
• Training, coaching, and industry-specific support for entrepreneurs
• Headquarters for Accion Chicago, who will be an anchor tenant at the facility and provide access to loan capital to the tenants and members

If you’re going to be in the Chicago area on Thursday, September 13th, I hope you’ll attend! 

To learn more about The Hatchery, click here.