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Stage 2: Solution Shaping
From Insight to Value Creation
Stage 2 asks a central question:
“What solution actually creates value for this problem?”
At this stage, the focus shifts from understanding the problem to testing how effectively a proposed solution addresses it.
Founders are shaping, testing, and refining the smallest meaningful solution that creates value—learning what users actually need, what they respond to, and which assumptions about the solution hold up in practice.
The goal is to develop enough evidence to know what is worth building, delivering, and improving.
A validated problem does not automatically create a valuable solution.
Stage 2: 🛠️ Tools
Users Try It Once and Don't Come Back: Slides and Workbook
CSE Founder Krystal Rogers delivers an action-oriented diagnostic session with next step tests for startup growth.
Stage 2: Chicago Organizations
2112
Serves: Creators and founders in music, media, and creative technology developing early products and refining their value proposition
Fit: 2112 provides mentorship, resources, and industry access to help founders shape offerings, test with real users, and build toward early traction.
Chicago Early Growth Ventures
Serves: Founders with early traction preparing for seed capital and institutional feedback
Fit: Supports capital-ready companies by backing disciplined growth, validating revenue signals, and aligning early traction with an intentional capital path
Chicago Urban League: Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Serves: Black founders and entrepreneurs building and formalizing early-stage businesses
Fit: Provides structured programs, coaching, and capital-readiness support that help founders move from validated ideas into viable solutions and early revenue generation.
Founder Institute Chicago
Serves: First-time and early repeat founders building venture-scale startups
Fit: Structured pre-seed accelerator helping founders turn validated problems into MVPs, positioning, and early solution clarity.
mHUB
Serves: Hardtech, manufacturing, and physical-product founders
Fit: Provides labs, pilots, and applied programs that help founders shape and test real-world solutions before full GTM.
UIC Innovation Center
Serves: University-affiliated founders, researchers, and applied innovators
Fit: Supports solution development, prototyping, and commercialization for founders translating research or ideas into testable products.
Stage 2: 🧠 Resources
How to build an MVP
Y Combinator Group Partner, Michael Seibel, explains how to build a minimum viable product (MVP) for your startup idea.
How to find Product Market Fit (PMF)
A practical breakdown of how founders should think about starting a company, weighing personal readiness, risk, timing, and tradeoffs before committing fully to the startup path.
Forget the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Build Minimal Viable Runway first
A practical breakdown of how early founders should evaluate ideas, pressure-test assumptions, and avoid mistaking enthusiasm or feedback for real customer validation.
426: How to create a successful pilot program for your startup
Our workshops and talks provide opportunities to learn new skills and techniques. Enhance your knowledge and stay ahead of the curve.
