UNM Rainforest Innovations

During the months of July, August and September, the New Mexico Rainforest, a U.S. Economic Development Administration University Center, held three mentoring office hour sessions with the various University Center (UC) mentors and hosted six webinars on a variety of entrepreneurial topics. Twenty-two Entrepreneurial Capabilities Certificates were earned through the UC program, including certificates by participants from the New Mexico Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NM EPSCoR) as well as the City of Sanda Global Entrepreneurship and Osaka Prefecture University Global Entrepreneurship Programs in Japan.

Recordings of the training webinars and corresponding handouts are available online at: http://loborainforest.com/nmrainforest/videos/ . Each webinar has a related quiz that allows you to earn your way to an Entrepreneurial Capabilities Certificate.

The five webinars include:

Raising Capital in New Mexico  by John Chavez, Managing Director, NM Start-Up Factory

Learn strategies and the basics of raising capital in the state of New Mexico.

Valuation and Term Sheets by John Chavez, Managing Director, NM Start-Up Factory

Join us for this special webinar with John Chavez where you will learn about the important topic of Valuation and Term-Sheets for your start-up.

How to Grow and Promote Your Business Using YouTube by Julianna Barbee, Small Business Development Director, Northern New Mexico College

There is no better time than now to utilize YouTube to help market your business. In this zoom share training session learn what basic equipment you need to produce your video and how to create a simple storyboard to plan your video story. Julianna will also share best practices on how to frame your shots and use lighting and sound and introduce Free editing tools and music available. Julianna will share the top10 ways to promote your YouTube videos.

Raising Capital: How to engage with investors and the process of raising early-stage investments by Mike Freeman, CEO, Innosphere Ventures

When it comes to raising capital for your startup, certain types of investments will work better for your company than others depending on the stage of your company. This presentation covers: available funding options for early stage companies; steps to take in order to identify and attract an investor; what to expect in your capital raise timeline; and pragmatic advice on what it takes to attract investment.

Values-based Entrepreneurship by Allie Armitage, Emotional Intelligence Consultant/Coach

How can you build a business that stays true to your values, without getting lost in the pursuit of success, scale or growth? This is an essential question for anyone creating a new business in our culture today. In this workshop, we’ll explore new paradigms for business that go beyond profit and innovation alone. This session can help entrepreneurs at any stage gain perspective on growing their business thoughtfully. We may cover themes like how to: lead mindfully, center relationships, understand your role within an ecosystem, develop an intentional culture, and root into your purpose.

Your Customer Discovery Journey! Talking to Your Customer: The Why and How  by Susan Cornelius, Principal, Accelerate2Solutions

Learn how to conduct market research, carry out customer discovery and navigate the development of your start-up in the virtual world of Covid-19. This workshop will give you strategies so that you can continue to develop your company and cater to the right customers in this new “virtual world.” This webinar will allow time to bring up ideas about strengthening your business model and get feedback from the instructor and participants. We will then use this information to design how to get feedback from your customers.

Earn a certificate in Entrepreneurial Capabilities: http://loborainforest.com/nmrainforest/entrepreneurial-capabilities-certificate/

The following UC events are upcoming this fall:

For more information about the NM Rainforest EDA University Center Program and other entrepreneurial resources, contact Cecilia Pacheco at cpacheco@innovations.unm.edu.

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