Bob Dorf
The Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises (EEE) at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management will host author and serial entrepreneur Bob Dorf on Wednesday, April 23, for a presentation titled “Let Your Customers Design Your Startup: Putting Lean Startup Principles to Work.”
The event will be held from 7-8 p.m. in room 202 of the Whitman School. Prior to the presentation, a networking session will take place from 6‑7 p.m. in Whitman’s Milton Room, room 411. Both events are free and open to the public.
“Syracuse University is extremely excited to have Bob Dorf visit the SU campus,” says Alex McKelvie, associate professor of entrepreneurship and department chair. “Bob’s work on customer development has been fundamental for helping entrepreneurs get their companies up and running quickly and efficiently. His methodology has entrepreneurs get operational while also keeping the customer in the middle. His approach and story are inspiring and informative for students.”
Dorf travels the world helping startups, incubators, governments and established corporations learn how to effectively deploy customer development process through speaking, workshops and intensive hands-on startup boot camps. His training comes in many forms, including speeches, workshops and consulting. He teaches customer development and business modeling in full-semester and weeklong classes at Columbia Business School, where he is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship.
In March, 2012, Dorf collaborated with Steve Blank to publish “The Startup Owner’s Manual: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Great Company.” The book offers parallel customer development pathways for companies in the web and mobile channels, as well as traditional physical goods and enterprise software startups; it also includes in-depth web marketing tutorials.
Dorf left a lucrative broadcasting job at the age of 22 because he had a passion to start his own company, which he did seven times over three decades. He has invested in and coached or advised more than two dozen startups over more than a decade.
