Customer Success (CS) isn’t just for mature companies - it’s a game-changer for early-stage startups looking to drive retention and growth. This hands-on workshop is designed for founders new to CS, offering a streamlined introduction to the essential building blocks of an effective customer success strategy.
This session will cover the core elements of CS that every founder should know, including:
The key functions of CS - what you can’t afford to ignore, even with a small team
Setting up essential metrics with minimal tools and effort
Creating a simple customer journey map that supports product adoption and growth
Low-cost or free tools to monitor customer interactions and health
Building feedback loops that align customer insights with product improvements
You will leave with a mini-CS roadmap tailored to your startup’s stage and resources, helping you build a scalable and effective CS foundation. This workshop includes guided exercises, real-world examples, and practical takeaways you can implement immediately.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for founders wearing multiple hats, very early-stage teams (pre-seed/seed) looking for the basics, and anyone needing a do-it-yourself playbook in the absence of a dedicated CS hire.
Building a tech startup without a technical background? This session will give you the tools to make smart technology decisions, hire the right developers, and avoid costly mistakes - all without needing to code. You’ll walk away with insights into:
How to assess your startup’s tech needs and choose between custom or off-the-shelf solutions
When (and if) you need a technical co-founder
Managing tech projects effectively: budgets, milestones, and scope creep
Leveraging AI and automation tools that actually matter for startups
Building credibility with investors as a non-technical founder
The best no-code and low-code platforms for building and scaling an MVP
You’ll gain the confidence to make strategic tech decisions and lead your startup to success, even if you don’t know how to code.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for early-stage founders without a tech background, entrepreneurs navigating hiring decisions, and startup teams looking to avoid technical pitfalls.
Customer Success (CS) can be a game-changer for early-stage startups - but when and how should you start building a CS team? This panel will dive into the strategic side of hiring and growing a CS function, helping founders and startup leaders make informed decisions about structuring and scaling their teams.
This session will cover key insights on:
When to hire your first CS professional and how to spot the right fit
Defining CS roles and responsibilities in a small, resource-constrained team
Scaling your CS team over time as your startup matures
Crafting clear career paths to keep CS talent engaged and motivated
Essential skills for early-stage CS roles and how to evaluate them during hiring
Setting up success metrics that align with business outcomes and team growth
Panelists will share real-world stories about establishing early CS roles, aligning them with company goals, and nurturing long-term success in lean environments.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for founders making their first CS hire, startup leaders unsure how to structure CS roles, and anyone interested in building career development pathways within a fast-growing startup.
Building a strong network of advisors and mentors can accelerate your startup’s growth and help you avoid costly mistakes.
This session will cover how early-stage founders can find the right advisors and mentors, structure these relationships effectively, and maximize their impact, including:
Why advisors and mentors are critical for early-stage success
How to identify the right advisors and mentors for your startup’s needs
Best practices for approaching and onboarding advisors
Structuring advisor relationships: equity, compensation, and expectations
Avoiding common pitfalls when building an advisory board
How to maintain a productive and lasting relationship with advisors
This session is part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is ideal for founders seeking strategic guidance, first-time entrepreneurs looking to grow their networks, and startups considering formal advisory boards.
From streamlining property management to reshaping real estate investment strategies, Proptech is transforming the way we buy, sell, and manage property.
In this fireside chat, industry leaders will explore how technology is driving innovation in real estate, including:
How Proptech startups are changing real estate investment and management
The challenges of integrating Proptech into traditional real estate practices
Ensuring data security and privacy in Proptech solutions
Emerging trends in Proptech that investors and developers should watch
You’ll leave with a better understanding of how to navigate the evolving real estate landscape and leverage Proptech to stay competitive.
This session is part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for Proptech founders, real estate developers, property managers, and investors exploring opportunities at the intersection of real estate and technology.
Handling demanding customers and endless feature requests is part of the startup grind - but how you respond can make or break customer relationships. This tactical session will help you turn challenging customer feedback into valuable product insights, strengthening customer trust and long-term retention.
This session will cover practical strategies for:
Calming heated customer demands with the right language and tone
Tactfully saying “no” to feature requests without alienating customers
Creating frameworks to turn negative feedback into positive product momentum
Knowing when (and how) to escalate issues to the right team member
Using proactive communication to prevent conflicts before they start
You will leave with a clear process for handling feature requests and customer conflicts, plus real-world insights on how to balance customer feedback with strategic product decisions.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for founders on the front lines of customer complaints, early-stage CS and support staff looking to sharpen their soft skills, and product managers overwhelmed by urgent or unrealistic feature demands.
Understanding how to structure and manage equity is essential for setting your startup up for long-term success.
This session will break down the fundamentals of equity management, from dividing shares to setting up vesting schedules and managing your cap table, including:
How to fairly split equity among co-founders and early hires
The relationship between equity ownership and decision-making power
Why vesting schedules matter and how to structure them
Managing equity for advisors, early hires, and investors
Tools for tracking and managing your cap table
How equity decisions impact fundraising and long-term growth
This session is part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is ideal for founders negotiating equity splits, early-stage entrepreneurs setting up cap tables, and first-time founders seeking clarity on equity basics.
Turning customers into collaborators starts with listening - and acting. A well-designed Voice of the Customer (VoC) program helps you gather meaningful feedback, implement improvements, and build stronger customer relationships that drive long-term growth. This session will walk you through the key steps to creating a VoC program that fits your startup’s stage and resources.
This session will cover essential strategies for:
Starting a VoC program from scratch - core components and best practices
Choosing the right feedback formats (surveys, interviews, advisory boards) and cadence
Prioritizing feedback without overwhelming your team
Closing the loop effectively - ensuring customers see their input reflected in product changes
Building organizational habits that keep your VoC program thriving long-term
You will leave with a structured plan for launching and sustaining a VoC program, plus actionable insights on how to turn customer feedback into a strategic advantage.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for founders seeking a structured way to implement customer feedback, early-stage CS, product, or marketing teams building feedback into company culture, and anyone eager to foster deep customer relationships without big budgets.
Bridging the gap between product-market fit and sustainable revenue is one of the biggest challenges for early-stage startups.
This session will provide practical strategies for validating your product idea, identifying paying customers, and implementing effective monetization strategies, including:
Identifying key indicators of product-market fit and revenue potential
Choosing the right early-stage monetization strategy for your startup
Using customer feedback and data to iterate on your product and increase revenue
Knowing when (and how) to pivot based on revenue insights
Balancing user growth with early-stage revenue generation
You will gain insights into turning early traction into sustainable business growth, understanding how to measure success, and avoiding common early-stage monetization mistakes.
This session is part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for early-stage founders with an MVP, technical founders with limited sales experience, and teams under pressure to show traction within the first 12–18 months of funding.
Spotting at-risk customers early can save your startup time, money, and momentum. This panel will cover practical, no-frills methods for tracking customer health - even if you don’t have a dedicated analytics team—so you can predict churn before it happens.
This session will cover key strategies for:
Defining simple health metrics that early-stage startups can track easily
Setting up a basic health score without expensive tools or complex systems
Identifying red flags - the usage and engagement trends that signal churn risk
Knowing when (and how) to intervene with high-risk customers
Collaborating across product and CS teams to align on churn prediction and prevention
Panelists will share real-world examples of how startups have built effective health-scoring models with limited resources - and how those insights have driven higher retention.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for founders needing to prioritize resources, early CS hires tasked with building health-scoring models, and product and data teams working without a full-blown analytics stack.
Securing pre-seed funding as a first-time founder requires more than just a great idea - it’s about selling the vision.
This session will provide a roadmap for early-stage fundraising, helping you communicate your startup’s potential with confidence, including:
Crafting a compelling pre-seed pitch deck
Understanding SAFE agreements and when to use them
Identifying and targeting the right early-stage investors
Presenting key metrics and milestones without significant traction
Managing equity strategies for early-stage growth
You will gain insights into approaching the right investors, handling early-stage risk, and creating a pitch that resonates even before you have significant traction.
This session is part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for first-time founders preparing for their first funding round or looking to sell their vision to early-stage investors.
Building a great product isn’t enough - your customers need to see and experience its value at every stage of their journey. This tactical session will demystify the concept of “Value Frameworks,” showing you how to define, measure, and communicate the value your product delivers across the entire customer lifecycle.
This session will cover the key elements of building and implementing a Value Framework, including:
What exactly is a Value Framework and how it differs from standard KPIs and metrics
Tailoring Value Frameworks to different customer segments and use cases
Onboarding best practices - from welcome emails to milestone markers and health tracking
Identifying critical “aha moments” during onboarding to drive faster adoption
Retention strategies rooted in customer value - ensuring customers experience benefits at every touchpoint
Operationalizing Value Frameworks without overwhelming your lean team
You will leave with a clear blueprint for creating a Value Framework that strengthens customer engagement, drives higher retention, and fuels long-term growth. This session includes real-world examples, practical quick wins, and actionable insights to help you immediately enhance your customer success strategy.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is perfect for early-stage founders looking to build a repeatable retention strategy, Customer Success leaders seeking to communicate ROI more effectively, product managers aligning roadmaps with customer outcomes, and sales teams aiming to highlight product value during the buying process.
Markets change - successful startups adapt. In this fireside chat, a seasoned entrepreneur will share hard-earned lessons and real-world strategies for navigating market shifts and positioning your startup for future success.
You’ll learn:
How to build a culture of adaptability and innovation
Lessons from past market disruptions and how to apply them
Balancing short-term needs with long-term positioning
Strategies for anticipating and preparing for market shifts
Common pitfalls in responding to changes - and how to avoid them
You’ll leave with actionable insights to help your startup stay resilient and seize new opportunities, no matter how the market evolves.
This session is a part of Startup Boston Week 2025 and is ideal for early-stage founders, entrepreneurs navigating dynamic markets, and startup leaders looking to build long-term adaptability.
