Understanding the needs of your customer is one of the most important first steps in any new venture. Learn to identify your market segment and customers, and evaluate whether (and how much) those customers value your product, service or business solution. This session will help you develop questions to ask a potential customer in order to better validate your market, competitors and customers. You will be able to observe a real-time customer call in action.
Our guest speaker: Benjamin Finkelor currently serves as the Executive Director for the UC Davis Energy Efficiency Center (EEC). In this role, he manages the general operations of the organization, including the establishment and on-going oversight of strategic research collaborations between key faculty, staff and students at UC Davis. He also works to maintain and grow relationships with supporting industry partners and communicate RD&D progress to program sponsors.
Prior to joining the EEC, Mr. Finkelor served in a variety of roles within the Clean Technology sector, including Director of Business Development for a local clean energy start-up company, Interim Executive Director for CleanStart (a Sacramento-based business incubator supporting local clean energy technology ventures and entrepreneurs), and as a Cleantech Analyst for the private equity arm of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). Mr. Finkelor earned an MBA from the Graduate School of Management at University of California, Davis, where he studied Technology Management. He also earned an emphasis in Corporate Environmental Management through the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara.
This workshop is also being livestreamed here
About the Big Bang! Business Competition
The annual UC Davis Big Bang! Business Competition provides free workshops and other events from October through April and concludes with pitches from five finalist teams at an awards ceremony in May.
The competition is open to everyone and provides a forum for college and university students, faculty, staff and the the public to collaborate, develop and test business ideas. You’ll find resources for mentorship, team creation, education, networking and financing — and the winners receive cash prizes!
Participating in the Big Bang! provides a rich immersion in starting your business venture. But…you don’t have to compete to attend our workshops and build your entrepreneurial skills and network.
This event is free but registration is requested. To register, click here.
Hosted by the UC Davis Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Big Bang! is the largest annual business competition in the Sacramento region.