George Washington University Business Plan Competition

Companies like Apple are famous for figuring out what really matters in a product, and then doing a great job delivering on those features. Apple makes it look easy, but anyone who has developed a product can tell you it’s not. The challenge is figuring out what’s important to your customer and what’s not. With innovative products, customers themselves often can’t tell you what they want because they don’t know what’s possible. In the end, only a few key features deliver the majority of the product’s value. The better you are at uncovering those valuable gems, the more successful and efficient you will be. This workshop explores product strategy, product road-maps, and guiding principles for analyzing the costs and benefits of feature trade-offs. The workshop's leader is John L. Funge, Entrepreneur, Executive, and Advisor. John has co-founded and built two successful technology firms, both of which were acquired by larger public companies: Clara Vista acquired by CMGI (1999) and Pickle.com acquired by Scripps Networks (2007). Currently, John is CEO and co-founder of BrightContext Corporation. As well, John advises and invests in early-stage Internet and digital media ventures. Earlier in his career, John worked at Sapient and Verizon. John started his career as a systems engineer and holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from INSEAD. This event is FREE and open to all GW students, faculty, staff, and alumni!