Startup Strategy: Building Your Strategic Playbook

Classroom

What You’ll Learn

A good strategy is crucial to the success of your startup. You're operating at 100mph, with constrained resources, and a limited runway - being 100% clear on your company's direction will ensure you're moving the needle on long term goals while you stay focused on hitting nearer term milestones.

Who should be taking this course?

This is an intermediate level course geared toward startup founders (or soon-to-be-founders) and anyone in a business development or similar strategic role. In other words, if you're kept up at night hashing out your company direction and vision, this course is for you.

What will you learn?

Over the course of 3 weeks you'll identify, design and articulate your company strategy.

We'll cover what strategy is and isn't; how to translate it into a viable business model; how to identify your competitive advantages; and how to translate your strategy into an actionable playbook.

What will you do?

The course will very much be about learning by doing. Every week you'll workshop different project to ladder up to your finalized strategy playbook.

Before Class: I'll share out case studies and other resources to prepare us for the workshopping we'll do in class and that week's project.
In-Class Feedback: Class will begin with feedback from classmates on the previous week's project. Expect to give and get plenty of feedback from myself and your fellow students along the way!
In-Class Review: I'll review key learnings and takeways from the week's resources and open up the floor to Q&A.
In-Class Workshop: We'll dive into the next phase of our project.

What will you walk away with?

Your own fully baked Strategy Playbook and an understanding of how to rinse and repeat for any future ventures.

Intermediate Level

About Your Teacher See Full Bio

Abigail Besdin · partnerships + bizdev at skillshare.

I'm part of the Skillshare Team, working on Partnerships and Business Development. Pre-Skillshare, I worked on the Partnerships team at Meetup. And before ever landing in startup world, I was working towards a PhD in Philosophy, around meta-ethics. I dare you to read my thesis.

Abandoning the PhD route, I still find myself incredibly interested in strategy and systems and love applying what I've learned about both to business (and TV). This course will focus almost entirely on the former.