[Harvard CSSA Venture Club] Entrepreneurship Training 2

How to Do Efficient Market Research?

Speakers:

James Ryan（Founding partner of Farpoint Ventures）

Xuan Yang（Data Scientist in GoAhead Tours, an EF 英孚 company）

Time：Jan 29^th（Wednesday）, 2014, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Place：Pierce Hall 209, Harvard University

Address：29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138

Language：English

<Event Brief>

Two sessions followed by panel discussion.

Session 1:

It may seem counterintuitive to a founder who is contemplating spending valuable time, energy and money to create a business, but in my experience too much market research can be counterproductive. I have seen many startups spend years tweaking their product based on market research and competitive analysis, and never focus on an all-out sales effort. The most important factor that determines success or failure of a venture is not the product but the execution, which comes down to the team. Market research is essential, but HOW you do it is the key!

<Bio>

James Ryan has spent the past 20 years building global markets for US-based telecommunications and enterprise technology companies. Mr. Ryan exitedfive startups（2 IPOs, 2 acquisitions, 1 Chapter 11）and now uses his expertise as one of the founding partners of Farpoint Ventures helping startups from the US quickly build global sales channels and bring in revenues from overseas markets. Mr. Ryan has closed over $1B in export business recently.

Mr. Ryan holds a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Master’s degree from Osaka University. He has climbed Mt. Rainier three times, finished the Boston Marathon and Cape Cod Marathon, climbed Mt. Washington in all four seasons and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 10 times. He holds a Private Pilot license and enjoys flying his Cessna 172 around New England and beyond.

Session 2:

In a B2C company, there are often at least thousands of potential customers. The marketing team will have to decide whom they should send a promotion to; and the sales team will be facing a long queue to make sales calls. All these decision making processes are time and resource consuming if they don’t know which group of people to be targeted and reached. How does Data Mining help decision makers quickly go to and react to the market, improve salesachievement, and in the end, maximize financial performance?

In this presentation, Xuan Yang will share her best practice in EF and show you how to use Data Mining to drive business.

<Bio>


Xuan Yang is currently a Data Scientist in GoAhead Tours, an EF（英孚）company. She utilizes data mining to prioritize sales opportunities, optimize marketing & sales resource allocation. After earned Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Central University of Finance and Economics, in 2010, she went to Rice University to pursue Master’s degree in Statistics.

Xuan Yang is an innovator in her blood. She enjoys innovating recipes, creative traveling, and of course, creating models.

Please RSVP here：http://goo.gl/nvpHne

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About Harvard CSSA Venture Club

Harvard CSSA Venture Club is dedicated in preparing Harvard students and affiliates for a career in entrepreneurship. For those who have brilliant ideas and are ready to actualize such, Harvard CSSA Venture Club is the perfect platform where one can find access to extensive entrepreneurial resources and networking opportunities and, ultimately, kick-start his/her own business. It is our goal to spark innovation and idea exchange among the vibrant Harvard community. To achieve these missions, we offer the following opportunities for our members to learn and to advance their career:

Entreprenuership Training series.

Start-up Camp series.

Venture Insight series.

We look forward to have those who are interested in entrepreneurship – YOU – to join us or to offer your valuable feedback towards our activities. Please don’t hesitate to email us at HarvardcssaVentureClub@gmail.com, with your name and information.

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