Reid's DukeGEN Blog

A wise Dukie answered me privately with the following: Regarding HireVue, I suggest your student watch some videos on YouTube as they tell you how to prepare. This one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KtYjWIt8DU gives tips including: - Learn operation of the HireVue website before your interview so you are comfortable - Take the “practice interview” offered by HireVue https://practice.hirevue.com/signup/3m4pjuhLArd6v5kvbT6BHv/ - Prepare with a quiet location, good connection, good lighting and computer charged or plugged in - Learn about the company by reading the latest news on social - Learn about the job by reading the job description and build elements of the job description into your answers - Prepare & rehearse 3-minute answers for the usual questions such as “introduce yourself,” “why are you interested in this job?, “what qualifies you for this job?, “what are your strengths?, “what are your weaknesses?, “tell a story about a time where you failed at something?, “what will ...

If you’re leading a “growth stage enterprise startup,” Microsoft can help you meet customers via a new program called the Pegasus Program. Learn more here: https://startups.microsoft.com/blog/connecting-startups-to-customers-with-the-microsoft-for-startups-pegasus-program/

For all of us launching, working at, and advising startups, I encourage you to add to your “personal learning plan” the time to watch the videos below used by many programs on entrepreneurship including the National Science Foundation (NSF) program called I-Corp. https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/i-corps I recommend that you first watch the Steve Blank videos on Customer Discovery, the process of interviewing people in possible target markets to test your business hypotheses. I was doing these interviews incorrectly, hence my strong endorsement of these: https://www.midatlanticicorps.com/explore/startup-resources Then watch Steve Blank’s series, The Lean LaunchPad, How To Build A Startup, which consists of 220 lectures in 9 sections that follow the Business Model Canvas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZvgj6B2JZs&list=PLAwxTw4SYaPnxzSuovATBMrNowGaaEBmW

How to find a summer internship You are not alone as nearly every student struggles to find an internship that is meaningful to their major and career plans. So what can you do? Fight like crazy to find one! That’s how everyone does it. Start by creating a network map aka a list of possibilities - Peers - ask ‘em as you never know who they know OR who their parents or other contacts know - Parent(s) - your parent(s) will be eager but may also have trepidations - tell ‘em its easy - you know I am amazing, so just have them tell all their friends, “My amazing student is seeking an internship - who should they call?” And then you call all of those referrals and ask them for referrals - Relatives & Neighbors - same as parents - School Career Center - check with your school’s career center and pursue their suggestions - School Handshake or similar - find your school's networking software and use it - School Alumni Network - schools often have alumni groups on LinkedIn, Facebook,...

 If you are fundraising, you should check out this “curated” list of VCs https://www.vcsheet.com/ Use the DukeGEN or other network to get warm introductions to these investors.

 A wise associate of mine shared this and I thought you might find value: If you have issued European patents or applications in process, this will impact you. This may have a material impact on portfolio valuations or strategies on how you protect your holdings as well. What. On June 1, 2023, the Unitary Patent will launch throughout the EU with the goal to create a single patent authority for all participating member countries. Currently, a EU patent holder or applicant must apply to have a patent individually “validated” by specific European countries in order to receive patent protection within the validating country. The Unitary Patent system (UPS) is intended to streamline this process and provide protection across all participating countries with a single patent. Beginning on March 1, 2023, entities that hold issued European patents or pending applications will have the opportunity to “opt out” of the UPS. If no action is taken, all patents which issue after June 1, 2023 wil...

 Here’s a treasure trove of 38 secrets to create advertising that sells by David Ogilvy. My friend, Mike Malloy, at McDonough SOB at Georgetown pulled out a few of his favorites that he shared: 1) The most important decision is how should you position your product. 2) The second most important decision is what should you promise the consumer. 4) Your advertising must be built on a big idea to jolt the consumer out of his indifference. 11) Go for the whole hog because it pays to boil down your strategy to one simple promise, and then deliver on that promise. 12) Testimonial commercials are almost always successful - if you make them credible. 13) Problem-solution (don’t cheat!) works by setting up a problem that the consumer recognizes and showing how your product solves that problem. But don’t cheat because the consumer isn’t a moron. She’s your wife. 17) Commercials using on-camera voice do significantly better than commercials using voice-over. 25) 5X as many people read the he...