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Futureworks Incubator
August 23, 2019

Futureworks Incubator: What We’ve Been Up To

 

This year’s Futureworks Incubator program is soon coming to a close! While we’ll miss working with our tight-knit cohort of entrepreneurs; community is at the heart of what we do at Futureworks– so the support doesn’t stop here. After official programming ends, we continue to engage with our community by supporting new endeavors, making introductions, and sharing crowdfunding campaigns, to name a few. Inflection points make great opportunities to reflect on the incredible year we’ve had working with startups in our network, so here’s an update on what we’ve been up to recently.

 

The Futureworks Incubator ‘Workshop Your Business’ Summit

On Wednesday, July 31st, Futureworks and Uncommon Goods hosted 18 teams at the Brooklyn Army Terminal for a full day of intensive business workshopping. Teams came ready to share the greatest challenges they were facing in making progress with their business. Topics ranged from finding the perfect first pilot customer to technical manufacturing issues to the loneliness of being a solo founder. Roundtable sessions encouraged both mentors and fellow entrepreneurs to share their advice and experiences. 

Taking time out of scheduled work days and endless to-do lists to discuss big-picture issues is no easy feat– we commend our entrepreneurs for showing up prepared, being open to feedback, and actively helping others. The teams left with plenty of new strategies, actionable next steps, and considerations for how to move forward.

 

The Futureworks Incubator ‘Customer Acquisition Channels’ Workshop

On Thursday, August 15th, the Futureworks teams gathered at St. Francis College in Downtown Brooklyn to discuss Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Customer (B2C), and Crowdfunding strategies. Facilitators at each table led their group through a high level overview of what these terms mean and their experience engaging in different strategies– what worked and what didn’t. The group then dove deeper into each team’s businesses and how these topics relate to reaching new customers. Each team participated in two sessions and left with three key takeaways:  knowing more about who their customers are, where to find them, and how to best engage with them.

 

Upcoming Futureworks Incubator Workshop

Just one workshop remains for this edition of the Futureworks Incubator. There, teams will come together to learn more about grant writing, including the pros and cons of dedicating time to this process as well as which grants and opportunities are available. Stay tuned for more updates from the Futureworks Incubator team. If you’d like to get involved with the next edition of the Futureworks Incubator, please reach out to us here!

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