How to Start a Startup

​Building a startup is exciting, but the early decisions you make can save months (and money) later. This event is a practical, founder-focused session designed to help you start with clarity, validate the right problems, and set up strong fundamentals before you scale.

​​You’ll hear short, honest stories from 4 founders who are currently building their own businesses. They’ll share what they did right, what they wish they knew earlier, and the real steps they took to go from idea to execution.

​​What we’ll cover

• ​​Choosing the right problem and validating demand early

• ​​Defining your ideal customer and sharpening your value proposition

• ​​MVP thinking: what to build first (and what to skip)

• ​​Early go-to-market basics: traction, pricing, distribution

• ​​Team, roles, and founder alignment from day one

• ​​Common early-stage mistakes and how to avoid them

​​Who should attend

​​Aspiring founders, early-stage startup teams, students, makers, freelancers exploring a business idea, and anyone curious about entrepreneurship.

​​Format

​This session will be highly interactive, featuring successful startup founders and builders sharing their journeys, experiences, and key lessons from building startups. Instead of traditional presentations, the event will be structured as an open conversation where speakers discuss different stages of the startup journey.

​The audience is encouraged to actively participate and ask questions throughout the session, making it a practical and engaging discussion rather than a one-way talk.​Walk away with a clearer next step, practical frameworks you can apply immediately, and connections with people building in the same direction.

​Pegah Khaleghi
Founder, Bookiewand
Pegah will share insights from her journey raising startup funding and navigating investor conversations as an early-stage founder.

​Simon Russell
From Agentic Workflows to Production
Simon will talk about building agentic AI products and what it takes to move from a promising PoC to a production-ready system.

​Dr. Sam Donegan
Medical doctor, Software Engineer, and serial entrepreneur working at the intersection of AI, startups, and innovation ecosystems.

​Scott Bennett
Startup builder and operator sharing lessons from the earliest stage of the startup journey, from identifying the right problem to building an MVP. Scott will focus on how early ideas take shape and what it takes to turn a problem into a first product.

​​Limited spots. Register to save your seat.