I had the pleasure of participating in the White House
Business Council Startup Global Design Workshop today in
the Indian Treaty Room at the White House.
As part of the president’s National Export Initiative (NEI), the
administration is encouraging US businesses to export their products and
services to global markets. Startups are
seen as particularly a big opportunity because even though they create jobs and
spur innovation, only about 1% export their offerings and of that 1%, over half
only export to one country.
The Startup Global Design Workshop was an innovative
approach to finding solutions to how we could help more startups export their
offerings. Working with the Department
of Commerce, the workshop brought together startup founders, innovators from
the private sector, and public policy leaders from the government to develop
20-30 testable ideas. Intuit was asked
to facilitate the workshop given our special relationship with startups and our
innovation methodology.
We used Intuit’s Design
For Delight process where we listened to startup founders as they related
their experiences going global and then brainstormed several solutions
ultimately narrowing to a small set targeted for lean experiments as a follow
up. Thanks to Michael Masserman and the
Department of Commerce for their partnership.
Thanks to my colleague Lindsey Grossman for her key role in organizing
the event and to Lindsey, Lionel Mohri, and Max Seaman for facilitating the
workshop.
Listening to a startup founder.
With colleagues Max Seaman, Lionel Mohri and Lindsey Grossman.