Introducing Stanford Embark, a New Online Toolkit For Entrepreneurs across the Globe

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Stanford Embark can be accessed by entrepreneurs anytime, anywhere | Anastasiia Sapon

In its commitment to furthering global reach and meaningful impact, Stanford GSB today announced Stanford Embark, an online self-paced resource to help guide entrepreneurs through each stage of their business venture.

Stanford Embark is an interactive membership-based toolkit for emerging and established entrepreneurs. The resource is designed by Stanford GSB’s world-class faculty and successful entrepreneurs, combining high-level insights on building ventures with tactical steps necessary for launching or validating a sustainable business.

Entrepreneurs across the globe will have access to and utilize Stanford Embark’s flexible modules and interactive tools to evaluate their progress and develop a personalized “startup canvas,” that will act as a roadmap and help apply what they learn directly to their venture. For the first time, Stanford GSB will make its proprietary entrepreneurship-centered content and teaching accessible to a wider audience through this set of tested tools.

“Stanford Embark enables the GSB to reach a whole new community of entrepreneurs all over the world,” said Stefanos Zenios, the codirector of Stanford GSB’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, and the Investment Group of Santa Barbara Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Operations, Information & Technology. “Building a business can be isolating and overwhelming; we wanted to simplify the process and support entrepreneurs during their journey with research-based, founder-proven resources.”

Stanford Embark adds to Stanford GSB’s entrepreneurship-centered courses and program offerings. The demand for content that cultivates a better understanding of the issues facing the entrepreneurial community has steadily increased since the school established the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies in 1996.

Stanford Embark’s curriculum draws on more than two decades of teaching and research on entrepreneurship. This new online toolkit adopts frameworks used in Stanford GSB classes to equip entrepreneurs with the actionable content they need to launch and grow their businesses. A group of test users, each in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey, have been exploring Stanford Embark over the past four weeks and utilizing its tools to develop and grow their businesses.

“Prior to using Stanford Embark, I didn’t have the one tool that helped me stay organized and allowed me to look at my business plan holistically,” said Nibi Lawson, a Stanford Embark beta user who is building a business that will be a one-stop solution for natural Afro hair, called Kinky Apothecary. “When I went through the individual modules, I learned how important, and necessary, it is to include customer personas in my plan. Embark not only helped me recognize that gap but also showed me how to address it.”

Stanford Embark users will have access to all modules, which will enable them to:

• Identify target customers and build personas
• Develop a prototype
• Create value propositions
• Define a go-to-market strategy
• Determine the right profit model

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Stanford Embark dashboard | Stanford GSB

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The ‘Get Started’ module | Stanford GSB