Gaining Customer Traction Fast: Tips from a Silicon Valley Vet

Paul Singh is Principal at 500 Startups (http://500startups.com/) - he helps Dave McClure and team run the show. And he just happens to be from DC.

One of the most important things 500 does is guide entrepreneurs in gaining customer traction as quickly as possible.

The event will be divided into two sections:

First, we'll have a wide-ranging conversation with Paul about customer traction, accelerators, funding, and entrepreneurial best practices.

We'll talk about the situations where accelerators work optimally for companies - and when they don't.

We'll explore what 500 is looking for in their companies.

And we'll talk about his perception of the Lean Startup methodology and whether 500 encourages their companies to apply it.

The second half of the event will be "speed consulting." We'll invite 2-3 companies to describe a decision or dilemma they're facing (not a pitch :-) - ideally about customer traction. Then, they'll get advice from Paul, Patrick and Kevin.

UPDATE:

We have several other exciting additions to the evening:

Zvi Band, the founder of local startup Contactually (http://www.contactually.com/) and current participant in 500 Startups, will discuss his experience thusfar The top two teams in the recent Lean Startup Machine DC (http://theleanstartupmachine.com/events/washington-dc-november-18/), Genomic Arts and Code Bounty, will discuss their experience immersing themselves in an intensive weekend of putting Lean Startup principles and tactics to work We'll have several copies of Eric Ries's book "The Lean Startup" available for sale at a significant discount Don't miss what's sure to be a great event.