Apostle Incubator
The Apostle Incubator returns January 20 at 6pm in DESN 112.
Are you looking for guidance and resources to launch your business idea? The Apostle Incubator is here to support you through the process. Pursue your creative idea and launch your startup with the help of the Apostle Incubator!
About
January 20th - Workshop 1
Intro to the Art and Science of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Speaker: Walter Larkin, Serial Entrepreneur
Founders and innovators need support to take the results from ideation to market. We begin by identifying resources that support this journey. These resources include mentors, advisers, AI enhanced software, and more. Also, pitch competitions to raise funds will be presented. All of this will be followed by Walter Larkins discussing “Lessons from my Entrepreneurial Journey” including how artificial intelligence (AI) fits into the Brave New World of Entrepreneurship.
January 27th – Workshop 2
What is Your Market Potential?
Speaker(s): Randy Rawlins and TBA
Secondary research is like doing homework before launching your business - it helps you make informed decisions and reduces risks. By leveraging existing data, you can better understand who your customers are, how to reach them, and whether your idea has the potential to succeed. Come learn from our rock star research librarian, Nicollette Brant. Students will learn how to calculate the marketing potential (TAM, SAM, SOM) for their startup.
An important addition to your secondary research is the use of SparkRockets, which uses AI to summarize industry reports, spot trends across multiple sources, evaluate whether the industry is growing, stagnant or in flux through Porter’s 5 Forces, detect market signals for emerging trends, and much more.
February 3rd - Workshop 3
What is Customer Discovery and Engagement?
Speaker: TBA
Customer discovery and engagement is how student entrepreneurs learn what real customers actually need by getting out of the classroom and talking to target customers. It’s the process of continuously asking questions, testing ideas, gathering feedback, and building ongoing relationships so you’re not just guessing—but creating solutions that solve real problems and resonate with real users while creating trust, loyalty, and long-term value.
An important part to this session is to know when and how AI can be a resource to help founders. For example, AI can generate hypotheses, but founders must interview/test the hypotheses and build/engage relationships with customers. AI can’t build trust, read hesitation, excitement, understand emotional issues, build long term relationships – only founders can do this. But AI can help connect what customers say to what they do and what they ignore, which is critical for a continuous communication process between customers and founders.
February 10th - Workshop 4
What is Customer Acquisition?
Speaker: Joe Platnick, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur
Customer acquisition and engagement for student entrepreneurs is the process of attracting and converting potential users into paying customers through intentional, cost-effective strategies. It’s about testing channels, learning what works, and growing your customer base with people who truly need your solution—while laying out the foundation to create meaningful, lifetime customer relationships.
An important part of this session is learning how AI can help founders understand customer acquisition. For example, AI can make the funnel visible, measurable, and explainable, especially in the messy early stages where intuition usually replaces data. BUT AI doesn’t “acquire customers”. It reveals how acquisition actually works.
February 17th - Workshop 5
How to Price Your Product?
Speaker: TBA
For student entrepreneurs, pricing your product is both an art and a science. It requires understanding your costs, researching what similar products charge, and—most importantly—listening to what your customers are willing to pay. Pricing isn’t about guessing; it’s about testing, learning, and adjusting as you gain real-world feedback. By experimenting with different price points and aligning them with the value you deliver, you can find a price that supports your goals, fits your market, and helps you build a sustainable business while you learn and grow.
How can AI help founders develop pricing strategies? AI can help founders develop a pricing strategy by reducing guesswork, revealing willingness to pay signals, and testing pricing logic faster—but it should inform pricing decisions, not dictate them. Think of pricing as a learning system: AI accelerates insight. Customers decide the value.
February 24th and March 3rd - Workshops 6 & 7
How to develop Your Pro Forma Financial Projections
Speaker: Dean Heiss, SCE and Entrepreneur
Financial Analysis is the art of cash flow projections and leveling up your financial game. Over the course of two days, students will engage in hands-on learning using a comprehensive financials workbook. On the first day, they will transform their sales projections into detailed financial statements, gaining insights into revenue, expenses, and profitability. On the second day, students will explore a cap table tool, which will help them understand how to allocate and share company ownership among co-founders and investors, providing a practical foundation for structuring equity in their startups.
Over the two days, we will show how AI can identify business-specific cost categories, local labor rates, and similar factors.
March 10th - Workshop 8
What is Your Go-to-Market Strategy?
Speaker: TBA
A go-to-market strategy for student entrepreneurs is a clear plan for how you bring your product to the right customers, through the right channels, with the right message. In this panel discussion, late-stage entrepreneurs will share how they validated demand for their products, chose their first customers, tested distribution channels, refined their messaging, and scaled what worked - offering real-world insights into turning an idea into real traction and growth. So be where your customers are, form strategic partnerships, follow up relentlessly, deliver an amazing experience – Happy customers bring more customers! Bonus: Get paid ASAP - your first sale validates your idea!
AI can help founders understand an effective go-to-market (GTM) strategy by making the path from “problem awareness → purchase → expansion” visible, testable, and repeatable—especially when founders don’t yet have enough data or experience to trust their instincts alone. The right mindset: AI accelerates learning and clarity. Founders make strategic calls.
March 17th - Workshop 9
How to Prepare a Winning Business Plan?
Speaker(s): Dean Heiss, Frank McEnulty, Wade Martin, Ingrid Martin
In this session, students will workshop their business plans with guidance from four experienced experts who will collaborate directly with teams to refine and strengthen their ideas. The goal of the session is to ensure that all participants are well prepared to compete in the Sunstone Innovation Challenge and either confidently move forward with launching their own small business, equipped with a clear, actionable business plan or focus on gaining hands-on experience in business development without moving forward with their business idea.
AI can help founders write a winning business plan by turning messy thinking, scattered research, and partial evidence into a clear, investor-ready narrative—without pretending to replace founder judgment or real-world validation. The right frame: AI is your co-writer and analyst. You are the author and decision-maker.
March 24th – No Incubator Meeting
See you all on April 7th for “What are Winning Storytelling Techniques?”
April 7th - Workshop 10
What are Winning Storytelling Techniques?
Speaker: Ebony Utley, Professor and Entrepreneur
For student entrepreneurs, storytelling techniques turn your pitch from a list of slides into a compelling story that captures the attention of judges and investors. Instead of just sharing facts, you guide your audience on a journey - starting with a real, relatable problem, positioning your solution as the hero, and ending with a clear vision of impact and success. A strong pitch story helps investors and customers feel the value of your idea, not just understand it.
AI can help founders use effective, winning storytelling techniques by turning raw insight—customer pain, founder motivation, traction, and vision—into a clear, emotionally resonant, and repeatable narrative that works across pitches, sales, hiring, and fundraising. The key mindset: AI sharpens the story. Founders supply truth and conviction.
April 14th – Workshop 11
What are winning Social Media Strategies for Entrepreneurs?
Speaker: TBA
Effective and winning social media strategies for startups focus on clarity, consistency, and connection. For student entrepreneurs, this means knowing who your audience is, choosing the platforms where they spend time, and creating content that educates, entertains, or solves real problems. Successful startups use social media to tell their story, share progress, test ideas, and engage directly with their community - responding to comments, learning from feedback, and building trust over time. When done well, social media becomes a powerful, low-cost way to build awareness, validate demand, and turn followers into loyal lifetime customers.
AI can support winning social media strategies for founders by turning social media from a time-sink into a focused learning, storytelling, and distribution engine—without making the founder sound generic or automated. The right frame: AI amplifies clarity and consistency. Founders supply insight, voice, and credibility.
April 21st – Sunstone Innovation Challenge
What is the Sunstone Innovation Challenge?
Location: The Pointe @ the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid
The Sunstone Innovation Challenge will take place on April 21 at The Pointe in the LBS Financial Credit Union, from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. During the event, eight teams will pitch their ideas before two panels of judges, each comprised of three to four industry professionals. The competition is divided into two tracks: the first group of four teams will compete for cash awards ranging from $5,000 to $15,000, along with in-kind services designed to support the launch of their startups. The second group of four teams will pitch for cash prizes ranging from $500 to $1,500, with a focus on gaining hands-on experience in business development. While this second track emphasizes learning and skill-building, it does not require teams to move forward with launching their business ideas.
April 28th - Workshop 12
How do you Protect your IP?
Speaker: TBA
Learn directly from an IP attorney how to secure the legal rights to your ideas, inventions, and brand name or logo to prevent unauthorized use or copying. This session will guide student entrepreneurs through the basics of protecting intellectual property, understanding what can be protected, and taking the right steps to safeguard what you’re building as you grow your venture with confidence.
AI can help founders understand and manage intellectual property (IP) by making an opaque, legal-heavy topic more visible, searchable, and decision-oriented—without replacing lawyers or formal filings. The right mindset: AI clarifies options and risks. Lawyers execute protection. Founders decide priorities.
May 5th – Workshop 13
What is Corporate Entrepreneurship?
Speaker(s): Travis Taylor, P2S Engineering and Dean Heiss, SCE
For entrepreneurs who want to work in a business environment, corporate entrepreneurship is about bringing an entrepreneurial mindset into organizations. It means applying creativity, innovation, and smart risk-taking within a company to develop and launch new products or services. Corporate entrepreneurship helps large organizations stay agile and forward-thinking as they grow, while giving professionals the opportunity to innovate, create impact, and drive growth from within—just like a startup, but with the resources and the safety net of a larger company. By embracing entrepreneurial principles within a corporate structure, companies can unlock untapped potential, stay competitive in evolving markets, and ensure long-term success.
AI can be a force multiplier for founders operating inside large organizations—helping them move faster, test ideas safely, and navigate complexity without triggering organizational antibodies. The right framing: AI reduces friction, de-risks experimentation, and helps internal founders build credibility.
May 12th – Workshop 14
Experiential Exercises: What you learned & where do you go from here in your Career?
Speaker(s): Dean Heiss, Wade Martin, and Frank McEnulty
Hands-on, experiential exercises will help you bring everything together. Building on the workshops from previous weeks, these interactive activities are designed to help you actively apply what you’ve learned to your own idea. You’ll work in small groups and teams through guided reflection, discussion, and real-world scenarios that challenge you to think critically, solve problems, and communicate effectively. Through exercises like testing assumptions, refining value propositions, practicing customer conversations, and giving and receiving peer feedback, you’ll strengthen practical skills used across startups and established organizations alike. By the end of the program, you’ll have a polished, real-world business plan while developing in-demand skills such as strategic thinking, collaboration, innovation, and adaptability that prepare you to launch a startup or excel in industry roles that drive corporate entrepreneurship, innovation initiatives, and new job creation.
August 26, 2025: Creativity & Design Thinking
Come learn the process of how to create an innovative startup based on the technique of Design Thinking.
September 2, 2025: Framing Your Challenge
Students will propose startup ideas and form teams. Community members are welcome to join in.
September 9, 2025: Connect with your Potential Customers
Learn to connect with your potential customers and understand their needs and wants.
September 16, 2025: Vision Statement & Customer Discovery
Let’s learn what our customers want to guide the vision of our startup idea and define our competitive advantage.
September 23, 2025: Understanding Your Target Market
What are the right questions to ask your potential customers to ensure that your startup idea is the perfect solution for them? We will benchmark the competition and find the hole in the market.
September 30, 2025: Use Market Insights to Uncover Opportunities
How can you broaden your perspective by asking the right questions that bring you closer to giving your customers what they want?
October 7, 2025: Think Outside the Box
We will analyze our marketing research to form multiple potential solutions for our customers.
October 14, 2025: Evaluating and Refining Your Ideas
Let’s learn how to analyze market trends and competitive forces to find the perfect solutions for your customers.
October 21, 2025: The Value of Prototypes
How can you engage your customers through the creation of mock-ups or prototypes that are a real solution to their problem?
October 28, 2025: Lean Model Canvas (LMC)
November 4, 2025: LMC v. BMC
November 11, 2025: BREAK (no meeting)
November 18, 2025: LMC - Part 2
Students will define the key problem, solution, existing alternatives, and key metrics, all of which are part of the competitive analysis.
