GRAND RAPIDS – West Michigan Startup accelerator, Momentum, kicks off its 2011 program with The Michigan Lean Startup Conference May 19 at Grand Valley State University’s Eberhard Center where entrepreneurs will rapidly prototype new business models.

Eric Ries is creator of the Lean Startup Methodology and keynote speaker. Other speakers at the Lean Startup Conference include Dan Martell of (Strategies for Fast Growth Entrepreneurs), Rob Walling (Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer?s Guide to Launching a Startup), Patrick Vlaskovits and Brant Cooper (The Entrepreneur?s Guide to Customer Development). A Founder?s Panel and an Investor and Legal Panel will share insight on what it takes to build a successful lean startup.

?The Lean Startup is a disciplined approach to building companies that matter,? said Ries. ?It?s designed to dramatically reduce the risk associated with bringing a new product to market by building the company from the ground up for rapid iteration and learning. It requires dramatically less capital than older models, and can find profitability sooner.?

Local tech companies , as well as organizations from throughout the state, partnered with Momentum to stage the conference. Conference committee members Shawn Crowley and Mike Marsiglia of Atomic Object, Dan Morrison and Brian Ryckbost of Collective Idea and Dug Song of Ann Arbor?s A2Newtech are playing a crucial role in planning, recruitment of speakers, and promotion of the event.

?We want to introduce Michigan’s entrepreneurs, investors and educators to a more efficient way of proving out new businesses,? says Bill Holsinger-Robinson, Director of Momentum. ?The speed at which we can know a business? viability has accelerated, and traditional launch plans waste time and money.?

Cost of the conference is $150, which includes a lean startup book bundle. The Momentum Kick-off Celebration directly follows the conference, where the Momentum 2011 companies are introduced.

Momentum is Grand Rapids based seed accelerator started by Rick DeVos that provides early investments, intellectual capital, and extensive mentorship to internet technology start-ups. Each year Momentum invites up to five companies to participate in a 12-week lean startup bootcamp where coaches help entrepreneurs develop their product, test customer adoption, refine their businessmodel and connect them to resources that can help them quickly accelerate to market.

For more information, click on leanstartupmi.com

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