On Saturday, October 26, student entrepreneurs and alumni mentors reconvened on campus for a daylong session focused on customer discovery and making forward venture progress. This was the second of six on-campus weekend sessions for this year鈥檚 TIA Incubator.
Customer Discovery with Mentor Marvin Vilma 鈥14
The morning session focused on customer discovery, facilitated by Marvin Vilma 鈥14, an entrepreneur and social impact strategist. Marvin spoke about how his entrepreneurial journey began as a student participant in TIA with an idea for an event planning company. Marvin credited TIA for unlocking his entrepreneurial potential and building skills that he has used throughout his professional career.
Marvin began the customer discovery session with a panel discussion featuring student entrepreneurs Porter Comstock 鈥26, Vivian Jiang 鈥26, and Bill Luo 鈥26 and alumni mentor and entrepreneur Andres Echenique 鈥83. Each shared unique perspectives and methods for understanding customer needs and motivations:
- Andres emphasized the importance of seeing through the eyes of others. 鈥淯nderstanding someone else鈥檚 perspective is fundamental; you can鈥檛 be the only person that will buy all of your products.鈥
- Vivian encouraged attendees to embrace outreach, advising, 鈥淵ou need to put yourself out there,鈥 starting with friends and expanding to broader networks.
- Porter addressed the reality of facing rejection, saying, 鈥淚t can be uncomfortable to hear someone say no, but it鈥檚 getting you closer to your answer.鈥 He offered practical tips, like testing out cold-calling skills within the 含羞草传媒 community to build confidence.
- Bill reminded participants of the value of honest feedback, sharing, 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e speaking to people, you鈥檙e looking for their honesty. Take all information as analytically as possible.鈥
Marvin then segued into customer discovery basics with interactive exercises where participants practiced key elements of customer discovery. They began by writing down assumptions about their target audience, structuring questions to verify these assumptions, and reflecting on how to collect and organize responses. Marvin shared his golden rule for follow-ups: 鈥淎lways ask, 鈥榃ho else should I reach out to?鈥欌
Venture Pitches and Breakout Discussions
After the customer discovery workshop, participants dove into a Shark Tank-style session featuring ventures Telemetree, founded by Chris Cherniakov 鈥24, and Farmstead 1868, founded by local entrepreneur Monica Cody. They each presented to a panel of mentors: Madeline Bayliss 鈥76, Alex More 鈥99, Peter Bertone 鈥20, and Marvin Vilma 鈥14. This rapid-fire session allowed founders to practice their pitch in a real-life setting and offered everyone a close-up look at pitching under pressure.
The day concluded with mentoring breakouts, where venture participants and mentors engaged in focused conversations. These smaller, more personal discussions provided a chance for attendees to deepen connections, share reflections, and set actionable next steps for their ventures.
We are grateful to our mentors, participants, and organizers who made this day so impactful. Whether it was exploring customer insights, refining pitch skills, or simply connecting with like-minded individuals, every attendee left with renewed energy and a clearer path forward.