Veteran entrepreneur goes live with Web-based training

Rudi Wiedemann has seen a lot of entrepreneurs lose out on funding, not because their ideas were no good, but because they weren't quite ready for market so close, yet so far.

Tired of watching so many near misses, Wiedemann a couple of months ago launched StartupWiz, a Web-based entrepreneurial training program that went live last week.

The program provides a forum for people to develop and test their ideas, and features a sequence of 14 modules - from "the entrepreneurial mindset" to "post-funding business building." It's self-paced, and students pay for each module as they go. Cost for the entire program is $2,900 and includes the opportunity to give a live presentation to investors.

Wiedemann has 25 years of experience starting and running companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, including BioDiesel Solutions Inc. in Sparks, which he recently sold.

He has worked with entrepreneurs as an investor and business coach and landed millions of dollars in angel and VC funding.

The modules include a workbook with PowerPoint presentations and interactive portions in which students test and contribute to each other's ideas and get one-on-one feedback from business coaches.

Wiedemann calls the interactive forum "a living laboratory" and says it's the linchpin of the program.

"Too many entrepreneur programs tend to be a great deal of lectures and studies. What they miss is taking a look at how your ideas stack up against the expectations of the world," he says. "Here's an opportunity to know how to do it right the first time. You're so much further ahead of the competition if you can do that."

Wiedemann, who is promoting the program with a targeted e-mail campaign, says he has a cadre of investors and coaches to work with students and a crew of supporters advising him on content.

Supporter Rick Normington, Sierra Nevada College's business department chair, says the program's intensity and scope make it unique. While most small-business resources offer help for portions of starting an enterprise, this program covers everything from initial idea to launch, he says.

He sees two main markets small-business owners who have hit a ceiling and don't know how to take their enterprises to the next level and corporate employees who want to strike out on their own and don't have time to go back to business school.

Other advisors are University of Nevada, Reno business dean Greg Mosier, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Center for Entrepreneurship interim director Janet Runge, and C4Cube Business Accelerator executive director Norman Smith.

Wiedemann sees potential for global reach and a boost for the economy. He says about half of 1 percent of business plans that come across the transom to investors win funding. "If we doubled that to just 1 percent, we'd have a completely new landscape."

The program's Web site is www.startupwiz.biz.