Page 8 - So-What-Who-Cares-Why-You

Today, we provide a comprehensive menu of assistive programs and services.
While many of these are delivered by a team of highly experienced and
accomplished entrepreneurs-in-residence, the bedrock of our programs
and services is So what? who cares? why you? We require our clients to
participate in a So what? who cares? why you? cohort at the earliest phase
of their engagement with us. In fact, they are not assigned an entrepreneur-
in-residence to guide them until they do so. It’s a necessity, in our minds, to
prepare them for many of the arduous challenges of the start-up world.

It’s always an exciting day when Juliana Casavan – our training manager and
skillful WKI coach – assembles her most recent So what? who cares? why you?
graduates to present their first pitches. It has quickly become a tradition of
importance and celebration – the first step for many of our clients down the
path to the actualization of a dream.

The release of this second edition also coincides with our own internal reflection
on what has worked (and what has not) in the formation, launch, coaching, and
cajoling of the 50-plus start-ups that have successfully sprung from the Foundry
these past two years. Without question, we would not be celebrating this
progress had it not been for the foundation upon which those innovators
began their journey: the So what? who cares? why you? methodology.

We look forward to integrating WKI’s latest toolkit into our continually
evolving, continually improving slate of services. If past successes are any
indication of future performance – and we believe they will be – we are in
for a surge of successful new startup launches as we incorporate the new
So what? who cares? why you? why you? into our work.

Thank you, Wendy Kennedy, for all you do to the benefit of our client
companies and for innovators around the world!

John M. Hanak
Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Purdue Foundry
Director, Venture Capital and Funding Resources, Purdue Foundry
Former Statewide Director, Purdue Technology Centers
Chairman of the Board (2015/2016), National Business Incubation Association (NBIA)

West Lafayette, Indiana
September 2015

VI Foreword