The PennWest Clarion Small Business Development Center, in partnership with Ben Franklin Technology Partners, is hosting a powerful new speaker series led by entrepreneur and investor Brian Slawin. This monthly series runs through March 2026, offering real-world insights, hard-earned lessons, and actionable strategies for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Each session—ranging from topics like challenging industry norms, raising capital, and scaling innovation to lessons learned from the startup journey—is filled with practical tools and interactive discussions.

Each event is scheduled as a one-hour webinar, except for the final networking-focused master class taking place in person on March 19, 2026, from 12:00–1:30 p.m. in Oil City, Venango County. 

In this Real Talk Series for Small Business on Commercializing Ideas for Growth, we will discuss How to Start Your Startup as a Non-Technical Founder.

Most startup founders do so by finding a problem they believe needs to be solved. By first falling in love with that problem, the challenge becomes how to explain the solution to the people who can build that and help go to market. This presentation helps non-technical founders understand the step-by-step process needed to go from idea to product-market-fit and do so in a way that helps explain the product goals in a way that make it describable, buildable and saleable. From this presentation, non-technical founders will:

• Understand the difference between ideas, passion and business.
• The importance of the 80%/20 Rule
• Knowing how to measure the difference between motion and progress
• What is more important than goals.
• How a paper-based UX/UI walkthrough can save time, money and frustration.

Future sessions include: 

Thursday, January 22, 2026 – How to Hook Investors to WIN (Webinar)

Thursday, February 26, 2026 – Don’t Quit Your Daydream (Webinar)

Thursday, March 19, 2026 – NETWORKING (In person – Oil City, PA)