My colleague Alan and I led a week-long in-person module on “Understanding Customers” for the Nexus Accelerator in Delhi, India. The US State Department funds this accelerator, run by Erik Azulay of ACIR, which brings together promising startups from across India.
Nexus selected us for our knowledge in helping businesses expand beyond their current markets—to new cities, regions, or countries. This focus on growth across borders shaped our program.
The Cohort
Nexus has a rigorous selection process; all 15 companies were post-revenue or had raised significant capital. Companies operated in diverse sectors, including medtech, environmental solutions, and AI. For example, Shira MedTech, a National Technology Startup Award-winning company, makes surgical instruments with innovative patented designs. Another participant, UrbanBlue Technologies, specializes in advanced water and wastewater treatment methodologies using an AI-powered platform.
Program Design and Sprint Exercises
Our module covered the most important topics for scaling startups, including market sizing, international expansion, and customer acquisition.
We focused on hands-on exercises and individual attention:
Customer Acquisition Roundtable: Guided by Alan and me, founders analyzed, discussed, and reverse-engineered how they acquired their best customers to map out their next big customers.
Creating the “Customer Acquisition Pack”: Through a feedback-driven process, founders produced personalized assets like email templates and customer-validated sales decks.
Landing Page Teardowns: We projected each startup’s websites and landing pages for group review, providing actionable feedback. One startup, Ezinore, which provides an integrated platform for energy management, used these exercises to refine their messaging for international markets. They reported a 25% increase in engagement on their redesigned landing page following our session.
Office hours and one-on-one coaching sessions: The worst startup advice is “one size fits all” guidance that fails to address a company’s unique challenges. Accelerators can get to prescriptive
Success Outcomes
After a week, we saw clear progress. Inochi Care, a startup developing solutions for advanced wound care, refined their value proposition to better target international healthcare providers. BrainSightAI, combining neuroimaging and computational neuroscience, developed a more effective strategy for explaining their complex technology to potential customers.
Erik Azulay, founder of ACIR, commented on working with Actionworks: “The tools and approach that Actionworks uses lets us scale our impact so that our ecosystem partners, coworkers, and stakeholders can deliver value. I wish we could afford them for every project.”
From India to the World
The week was a celebration of actionable, founder-driven learning. For ESOs looking to enhance their programs, particularly for startups aiming for international expansion, we offer a blend of practical exercises and market expansion strategies.
Contact us to discuss how we can bring this approach to your entrepreneurship support program to help your founders and elevate your ecosystem.
Post-script: We’ve been invited back to Delhi. If you want to read my my wild goose chase story in India, read that at my personal site.