Welcome to the Program!

[Founders]

Meet your fellow founders, startup teams and the Accelerator team! Learn everything you need to know about what's in store for the next 10 weeks!

Welcome "Brunch" & Cohort Get to Know You

[Founders]

Inviting our cohort founders to lunch as we kick off the inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator: Voice AI.

OKRs Lab 

 [Founders + Team] 

OKR Basics Training Webinar: History, Creating OKR, OKR Success Factors.

OKRs | Working session with Mentors

[Founders + Team] 

Prepare a draft of your program OKRs with the help of your dedicated Google for Startups Accelerator mentors. (Please set up time with your dedicated mentors for OKR drafting - to be scheduled ideally during this block / before feedback session.)

Meal Time! ( ft.Startup Showcases)

[Founder] 

Hear from your fellow founders and the companies they have built over a meal! 

OKR Office Hours & Feedback

 [Founders] 

In roundtable fashion, one team will present & review their OKRs

OKR Presentations + What's Next

 [Founders + Team] 

“If no one ever knew your OKRs, did they really happen?” We conclude the content of the week with a final presentation of program OKRs by each of our startups... because #accountability. We will then discuss the following 10 weeks of the program and how to ensure you and your team success in achieving your OKRs. 

Meal Time! (ft.Startup Showcases)

[Founders] 

Hear from your fellow founders and the companies they have built over a meal!

Community Building Activity

[Founder] 

Join us for our first community events as we connect and get-to-know the cohort, mentors, and leadership team! 

Product Labs: Roadmapping + Intro to Conversation Design

[Product Leads] 

This session will be focused on Product Roadmaps, defining what they are, what purpose/audience do they serve and going through practical examples of how to build and evolve your roadmap from scratch.

Meal Time! (ft.Startup Showcases)

[Founders] 

Hear from your fellow founders and the companies they have built over a meal!

Product Labs: Office Hours

[Optional] 

This is a HOLD for GFSA: Voice AI - Product Labs: Roadmapping Office Hours.

Voice AI - Design / UX Labs: Voice User Interfaces

 [Product Leads] 

"Focus on the user and all else will follow.” Building great products first requires getting a deep understanding of the people you are designing for and the challenges they face. Following a people-centered approach to design allows you to build empathy and find innovative and effective ways to meet the needs of your users. This session will teach you the principles of Design Thinking and Google’s approach to innovation.

Tech Labs: A Conversation on Humor, Trust, and Voice AI

[Product Leads] 

Recognizing that companies are often held back not by technical challenges, but human ones, Naomi and Jennifer have focused their work on helping executives and their teams mitigate or dissolve those barriers to progress through thoughtfully crafted, interactive experiences.

Design / UX Labs: Office Hours

[Optional] 

This is a HOLD for GFSA: Voice AI - Product Labs: Design/UX Office Hours.

Product Labs: Designing Conversations w/ Conversational Experts

[Product Leads] 

An open conversation on conversational design featuring a diverse group of industry expert guests.

How to Become a Great Startup Storyteller

[Founders] 

Simply put, storytelling is an essential skill for any founder or CEO. A story is evocative and clear, blending passion and relevant information. It’s one that helps the listener understand how the world has shifted, the opportunity that has been created, and how we uniquely solve it.  

Design / UX Labs: Office Hours

This is a HOLD for GFSA: Voice AI - Product Labs: Design/UX Office Hours.

Raising our Next Fundraising Round

[Founders] 

Raising capital is a discipline that, when mastered, can fuel a startup’s potential; and when ignored, can doom a venture before it starts. Contrary to most of what a young entrepreneur reads, there is a method to the madness of fundraising... and it involves a great deal more than just a pitch deck. Enjoy The Work has guided more than 100 fundraises totaling north of $350M of venture capital. Our group session will cover revealing topics such as the “the 28 questions all investors ask” and what represents a “minimum viable investor funnel.” We will discuss and provide the frameworks from which to construct a successful raise, no matter if your startup is barely off the ground or well beyond product-market-fit.

Leadership Lunch Series with Adam Cheyer

[Founders] 

Adam Cheyer sharing his personal experience as a leader in voice in a casual lunchtime session.

Tech Labs: Cloud 101 + BigQuery

[Technical Leads]

In this session, we will cover Cloud 101 and BigQuery.

Tech Labs: Firebase + DialogFlow

[Technical Leads] 

In this afternoon session, we will talk about Firebase and DialogFlow.

Tech Labs: Intro to Cloud AI/ML with AutoML and NLP

[Technical Leads] 

ML Labs introduce startup participants to a design-thinking approach to framing even the most complex machine learning problems facing their business / product. In this first session, we will explore Cloud AI Services: What they are and how to use them - with a focus on AutoML and NLP.

Tech Labs: Applying AutoML and NLP w/ Qwiklabs

[Technical Leads] 

In our afternoon session, we will combine hands on labs and group discussion to explore practical application of Cloud AI / ML technologies - specifically AutoML and NLP.

Tech Labs: Actions on Google (AoG)

[Technical Leads] 

Actions on Google: Are you prepared for the next type of search?

Voice is quickly becoming the new standard for search and most businesses are not ready for it. Using Actions on Google, developers are able to design, build, and distribute fully-customizable conversational applications.

Leadership Lunch Series with Johan Schalkwyk

[Founders]

Johan Schalkwyk sharing his personal experience as a leader in voice in a casual lunchtime session.

Tech Labs: Office Hours

[Technical Leads] 

This is a HOLD for GFSA: Voice AI - Tech Labs: Office Hours.

Leaders Lab: How to Win Demo Day

[Founders] 

You’ve dedicated yourself to learning as much as possible during your time in the accelerator. You’ve obsessed about the little stuff, the big stuff, and everything in between. You polished your business where you could and swept other parts out of the way for now. And, of course, you did this all with an eventual goal in mind - to court investors. Welcome to Demo Day! Demo Day is a right of passage for any founding team. Show up well and it can serve as an accelerant for the months and years ahead. It's a prime time to meet investors, partners and new recruits. But show up unprepared and it could become a regret you’ll carry with you straight to the therapist’s couch. 

AI Shark Tank with Peter Norvig

[Technical Leads / Founders] 

Peter Norvig is a Director of Research at Google; previously, he directed Google's core search algorithms group. He is co-author of Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, the leading textbook in the field, and co-teacher of an Artificial Intelligence class that signed up 160,000 students, helping to kick off the current round of massive open online classes. He is a Fellow of AAAI, ACM, the California Academy of Science, and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Fundamentals of Advertising on Google 

[Growth/Marketing Leads] 

Fundamentals of Advertising on Google - This interactive one day training covers digital marketing fundamentals, and how to use Google Ads and Analytics products to reach your business goals. The Growth Lab is led by product experts from the Google Business team, and covers growth marketing fundamentals, paid search, YouTube, apps, analytics, and mobile strategy.

Google Analytics

[Growth/Marketing Leads]

As a founder you've invested countless hours in validating that your offering solves a problem for your customers. Learn how to continue that process with Google Analytics so that you can uncover how your customers are engaging with you, and how to more efficiently reach them.

Market Expansion & International Export

[Growth/Marketing Leads] 

Join us as we walk through a framework for international expansion including a walk-through of new Google tools, best practices and case studies. Opportunity for live Q&A following the content to answer any questions you may have about entering new markets.

Leadership Lunch Series with Bret Kinsella

[Founders]

Bret Kinsella sharing his personal experience as a thought leader and growth expert in the voice ecosystem in a casual lunchtime session.

GFS Sales Academy Session #1

[Sales Leadership]

Google for Startups Sales Academy focuses on preparing your sales leadership for excellence. With sessions tailored to the Accelerator cohort, these sessions will focus on helping you to achieve your startup’s upcoming sales targets.

GFS Sales Academy Session #2

[Sales Leadership]

Google for Startups Sales Academy focuses on preparing your sales leadership for excellence. With sessions tailored to the Accelerator cohort, these sessions will focus on helping you to achieve your startup’s upcoming sales targets. 

How the Assistant Investment Program Can Help Fund Your Startup  

[Founders / Optional] 

We're looking to invest and work closely with early stage companies that are moving the Voice and Assistance ecosystem forward or are helping other businesses succeed within the ecosystem. In particular, we want to hear from you if you're developing technologies that focus on new helpful solutions for the smarter home of tomorrow, including family coordination, health and wellness, and productivity.

Leaders Lab: Effective Founders

[Founders] 

Leaders Lab helps founders explore their leadership style and understand why it's never too early to think about leadership, culture, and values in your startup. What makes an effective founder? To kick off Leadership Week, Jeremy will lead a discussion on what we’ve learned in helping hundreds of the most promising startup founders across the world deal with their toughest people challenges. 

Leaders Lab: Working Session

[Founders+Team] 

Blocking off time for you to complete some independent exercises and reflection before our Day 2 sessions. 

Leaders Lab: Expectations of Co-Founders

[Founders]

Leaders Lab helps founder(s) explore their leadership style and understand why it's never too early to think about leadership, culture, and values in your startup.

Leaders Lab: Founders Circle

[Founders]

Founders Circle. We will close out Leadership & People Week with our Founders Circle Community Building Activity. While most would expect self-confidence to grow as expertise develops, our data suggests that the most effective founders are not nearly as self-confident as the least effective. It's important to know how to ask for help and be vulnerable about weaknesses.

Actionable Ideas for Building Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

 [Founders + Team] 

This session walks you through a philosophy and action plan for creating inclusive teams and products.

Leadership Lunch Series with Scott Huffman

[Founders] 

Scott Huffman sharing his personal experience as a leader in voice in a casual lunchtime session.

Community Building Activity

[Founders] 

We’re thrilled to be coming together as a cohort of founders from all throughout North America, to expand and connect our network of amazing Voice AI startups. In this session, we’ll introduce you to a network of amazing founders from our Assistant Ecosystems and Google for Startups Accelerator networks.

PR & Spokesperson Training

 [Founders] 

For startups looking to build their public profile, this session will teach the basics of public relations including how to pitch media, how to nail an interview, and key strategies to create and deliver your company’s key messages. 

OKRs | Working Sessions with Mentors

[Founders + Team] 

Grade your program OKRs with the help of your dedicated Google for Startups Accelerator mentors. (Please set up time with your dedicated mentors for OKR grading - to be scheduled ideally during this block / before feedback session.)

OKRs: Presentation + Final Debriefing

[Founders] 

We conclude the program with a final Debriefing & Retrospective of Program OKRs - Review Scoring, Assess Learnings, and Celebrating Wins

Virtual Demo Day Viewing Party

[Founders + Team] 

We are excited to have you join us for our DEMO DAY VIEWING PARTY! No need to join if you'd prefer to watch on our own, but for those of us who'd like to enjoy watching the session together - let's tune in and enjoy a fun time behind the scenes together!

Graduation 

[Founders + Team] 

And with that, the Google for Startups Accelerator Voice AI cohort 1 comes to a close! Join us for some final celebrations, well deserved callouts, and an overview of how you can stay connected with Google ongoing.