The Founders Night Out – SPECIAL EVENT – A Hands-On Experience

Getting Into the “Mind of the Customer”
– A Hands-On Experience

Founders Night Out is hosting an exciting evening for entrepreneurs, aspiring business owners, and startup enthusiasts. This event is dedicated to answering a key question about “How do I design my business to meet the Mind of the Customer”? Attendees will learn about effective methods to design your product or service to really connect with your customers using a proven methodology called the Value Proposition Canvas.

As a founder, entrepreneur, or innovator looking to sharpen your ability to design products and services that truly meet customer needs? Join us for a special Founders Night Out, where we’ll go beyond theory and dive into a real-world customer discovery session in action.

This event is more than a discussion—it’s an interactive experience. We’ll be stepping into an actual app focus group session led by one of Tech-Prize’s previous winners, Rachel Gage, as she develops her startup, Caregiver Compass. The app is designed to improve the caregiving experience, and like every great product, it must be built around deep customer insights.

Why You Should Attend

• Learn by Doing – Participate in a structured focus group process to see firsthand how startups gather customer input and refine their product vision.
  
• Help Shape a Real Startup – Your feedback will directly impact Caregiver Compass, ensuring it aligns with real-world user needs.
• Apply These Lessons to Your Own Startup – Walk away with a clear roadmap for running your own customer discovery sessions, from structuring focus groups to capturing valuable insights.
• Network with Like-Minded Founders – Engage with entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts who are passionate about product design and market validation.

Who Should Attend?

• Founders and product builders looking to enhance customer-driven design strategies
• Investors and startup mentors who want a deeper understanding of customer validation
• Anyone interested in app development, UX research, or problem-solving through innovation
• Individuals who want to support an emerging startup and contribute valuable feedback

 What Will You Experience?

• An inside look at a startup’s focus group process – Understand how structured customer feedback shapes product decisions.
• A chance to contribute ideas – Even if you’re not a caregiver, your insights as a potential user, entrepreneur, or innovator can help refine the app’s usability and experience.
• Expert-led discussions – Learn from industry professionals guiding the session on how to optimize software applications based on customer pain points.

Tech-Prize and Founders Night Out are excited to bring this hands-on session to our community—an opportunity to not just hear about product-market fit, but experience how it’s done.

Join us, bring a friend, and take part in this unique learning experience!

Come and hang out on Thursday, April 10th to learn the latest methods for creating products that customers want. There will be great opportunities to network and ask all the questions you have to design your business to meet customers needs effectively.

Choose Your Session – if you can’t make it Thursday night, we’ll also have an online session available (sorry, no BBQ from Dragon!):
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🎟️ In-Person Event
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📅 Date: Thursday, April 10th, 2025
🕒 Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
📌Location: Uncorkt, 240 Main St, Racine, WI
🍕 Dinner and Drinks Provided
⏲️Duration: Approximately 2-3 hours

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🎟️ Virtual Event Details
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📅 Date: Saturday, April 12th, 2025
🕒 Time: 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
📌Location: Virtual via Zoom (link to be provided)
⏲️Duration: Approximately 2-3 hours

How to Sign Up:
IMPORTANT – Confirm your spot by completing this quick sign-up form: 👉 Sign-up Here!

After signing up, you’ll receive a welcome letter and a short pre-session survey to help us tailor the discussion. The survey allows us to streamline the session while still gathering your valuable insights.

Invite Others:

❓ Know someone else who might be interested? Feel free to forward this email! The more voices we hear, the better we can serve the caregiver community.

❓ Interested to share in the journey, but don’t have time to attend the session? Take the Caregiver Survey and share your experiences! 👉 Take the Jobs Survey

Thank you for considering this opportunity. Your experiences and insights are invaluable in shaping Caregiver Compass into a tool that truly supports those who give so much to others.

Feel free to invite others in your caregiving network who might be interested! Just forward this post to them and they can also signup at the link above!

About Caregiver Compass

We want to especially thank Rachel and her team and the many participants in the Focus Group session for allowing Tech-Prize the opportunity to witness and participate in such a fascinating opportunity! 

Caregiver Compass is a platform dedicated to simplifying caregiving by leveraging technology to address the most pressing challenges faced by caregivers. It is designed to provide intuitive tools and resources that support daily caregiving tasks, coordination among caregivers, and emotional well-being. Through user-centered design and insights gathered from diverse focus groups, Caregiver Compass aims to offer a comprehensive, user-friendly solution that improves the quality of care and reduces caregiver stress. The platform is built to adapt to the varied needs of family caregivers, professional aides, healthcare providers, and anyone involved in caregiving roles.

Rachel Gage, CEO, is a previous winner of Tech-Prize!  We’re so happy to see her business ideas finding fruition and look forward towards contributing to the applications design and the company’s success.

Here’s to innovation!

Date:               Thursday, April 10th

Time:               6:00-9:00 PM, networking starts at 5:30

Location:        Uncorkt – 240 Main Street, Racine WI

Drinks & Dinner Provided: Come and enjoy a libation and a BBQ from Dragon Pit BBQ!

Parking:           Available on street, or in the parking garage at the corner of State & Main

Reserve Your Space Now at Eventbrite!

Thank you to Uncorkt for hosting this event! 
And a big Thank you to Caregiver Compass for the BBQ!

Here’s to Innovation and helping local people that are starting and scaling businesses.

• Tech-Prize: We are about helping ideas find fulfillment and we’re all about moving futures forward. We seek out great ideas in our various Competitions, and Founders Night Out events where we bring opportunities to learn more about the entrepreneurial process, access to resources available to help you through integrate them into your business and a place where you can network with like-minded individuals already on the path. Whether just thinking about starting the entrepreneurial journey or looking for funding, Tech-Prize is here to help you get there.  We’re more than an incubator and idea aggregator. We involve all participants in our mentorship and success process, meeting them wherever they’re at in their professional journey. We work on providing the secret sauce to success – the things they don’t teach you in the classroom. In our last competition series we awarded over $80,000 in scholarships and cash to local and global participants. Learn more: www.tech-prize.org.

• The RCEDC BizStarts program is a transformative initiative designed to help aspiring and new business owners successfully launch or scale their ventures. Through six expert-led classroom sessions, one-on-one mentoring, and consulting support from Carthage College students, participants gain hands-on experience and practical insights into strategic thinking, financial management, marketing, operations, and leveraging resources. Following the coursework, participants receive a full year of mentorship to guide their entrepreneurial journey. The program, which has proven successful in Milwaukee, is now available in Racine at Gateway Technical College. Enrollment costs $500, with scholarships available based on need.

  Learn more and apply at RCEDC.org/BizStarts.

• Founder Institute: The Founder Institute (FI) is the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage founders build impactful and enduring technology companies. Through a structured, part-time program led by experienced mentors and industry experts, participants receive hands-on guidance, a global network of support, and resources to transform their ideas into successful businesses. FI operates across six continents, supporting innovation in over 200 cities worldwide. Learn more about how the Founder Institute empowers entrepreneurs to turn their vision into reality by visiting Founder Institute.

• gBeta (part of Gener8tor): gBETA runs multiple times every year in cities across the United States. Up to five companies from a range of verticals are selected from a competitive applicant pool to participate in the free seven-week program. Participating companies receive coaching, mentorship, access to investor and help with pitch development. Ongoing post-program support and gener8tor community involvement and offerings. gBETA’s goal is that graduates will go on to participate in an investment accelerator or raise a seed round. You can see gBETA’s progress against these goals here. Learn more about the local Kenosha branch at: gBeta Kenosha