CEO Start

Validate your business idea and get started in CEO Start

CEO Start powered by CO.STARTERS is a 10-week group-learning opportunity that prepares aspiring and existing entrepreneurs with insights, relationships, and tools to turn their ideas into viable businesses.

Peer groups of 10 to 15 entrepreneurs will work through the nationally recognized curriculum focused on testing ideas and identifying key assumptions through interviews, peer-to-peer conversation, research, and facilitated discussions on key foundational elements.

Participants who complete the program will walk away with a solid foundation of business fundamentals, access to resources, a community of support, an understanding of their next steps, and the confidence to move forward with their idea.

This program is powered by CO.STARTERS, in collaboration with Hennepin County and the cities of Brooklyn Park and Bloomington.

A framework for validating business ideas

Through this hands-on workshop, entrepreneurs will turn their passion into a tested concept ready to launch.

In this training, a group of entrepreneurs will:

Build community and peer-to-peer relationships
Gain business knowledge and learn to keep it simple
Follow a focused path to develop and fine-tune their idea using the CO.STARTERS lean business model canvas
Critically examine their idea through real-time collaboration and expert feedback

Participants will leave the program with a deeper understanding of how to create a sustainable venture, articulate their models, and repeat the process with their next great idea.

Hours of commitment per week will be one evening of 3 hours in person and 2 to 5 hours of independent work to be completed outside of course time.

Eligibility

To qualify for CEO Start, participants must:

Be a resident of Hennepin County
Have an idea or an existing business in an early stage
Be willing to question, shape and fine-tune that idea
Be willing to talk about the idea with others
Non-profit ideas and organizations are not currently eligible

About the facilitation team

CEO Start is powered by the CO.STARTERS curriculum in collaboration with Hennepin County and the cities of Brooklyn Park and Bloomington.

CO.STARTERS is a nationally recognized community-based approach to economic development, beginning in 2008 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, as part of a five-year revitalization project. Founders recognized a growing need to provide business support to entrepreneurs just getting started. Today, the CO.STARTERS network consists of thousands of success stories around the world.

National program results

24,700 entrepreneurs served
1,620 leaders trained
95% of participants continue working on their venture after one year
70% have generated a profit
150% increase in gross annual sales

Based on 2022 data from CO.STARTERS

Apply

Applications for the 2024 opportunities are now closed. Applications for the 2025 sessions will open in January.

Interested entrepreneurs can also sign up to receive updates for CEO Start and other opportunities by signing up for the business support newsletter below.