The Lean LaunchPad is an entrepreneurship curriculum that evolved to address the unique development needs of startups. In place of traditional business school models, the Lean LaunchPad classes teach students how to identify and deal with the uncertainties and unknowns inherent in the startup world.

In life sciences, the Lean LaunchPad program teaches scientists and clinicians in startups how to do a real-world assessment of their idea or technology to see if it can actually serve as the basis for a business. Students are trained to determine their product’s market viability, regulatory risk, potential clinical utility, and likely financing vehicles before making actual investments in research, design, and manufacturing. As in science, Lean LaunchPad serves to validate the product before commercial development is considered.

Our speakers, Karl Handelsman and Allan May, are instructors in the Lean LaunchPad for Life Sciences program at UCSF and will also teach the course at NIH this fall; Karl in the Therapeutics cohort and Allan in the Medical Device cohort. Both Karl and Allan are seasoned, accomplished life science entrepreneurs with many years of experience, and they will join us to discuss their experiences teaching the Lean LaunchPad program.