Startup assistance
Startup adviser available to meet with entrepreneurs at no cost each Tuesday
11:09 a.m., March 10, 2014--Effective Tuesday, March 11, the Horn Program in Entrepreneurship will sponsor a startup adviser who will be available free of cost every Tuesday through May 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., to advise University of Delaware students, alumni, faculty and staff working on startups.
John Currie, a senior executive and entrepreneur known for creating value from disruptive technologies, will offer his services on a first come, first served basis at the new Venture Development Center, 132 E. Delaware Ave.
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He will provide startup advisory services in an effort to help students, faculty and staff determine how to turn their ideas into companies, and he will work with them to help make it happen.
Specific items Currie can help with include: translating the founder’s vision into a testable business model using Lean Startup Principles; devising interview scripts and experiments; building a sales funnel; and testing go-to-market strategies with actual teams. He can also offer advice on business strategy and pitching to investors, especially for science and technology-based businesses.
Currie is the founder of ITERATE Ventures, established in 2005. ITERATE’s strategic partnering services involve taking innovations to new markets, or finding innovations to fill a company’s product pipeline. ITERATE’s clients span a number of industry segments, including information technology, specialty chemicals, materials, medical products, media and entertainment and consumer products.
Prior to founding ITERATE, Currie served as technology commercialization director at Sarnoff Corporation, the former RCA Laboratories, from 1994 to 2004. In this role, he worked on over 40 major commercial projects – next generation products and services – and helped to raise $45 million of technology seed funding. He also played a key role in creating and spinning out five new technology ventures based on Sarnoff’s innovative technologies.
Currie currently leads a monthly seminar for tech venture CEOs, “Attracting Technology Investors.” He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Drexel University and an MBA from Villanova University.