Author and serial entrepreneur Bob Dorf to speak at SU on Wednesday

SYRACUSE — The Department of Entrepreneurship & Emerging Enterprises at Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management will host author and serial entrepreneur Bob Dorf on Wednesday evening, April 23,  for a presentation, entitled “Let Your Customers Design Your Startup: Putting Lean Startup Principles to Work.”

The event will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. in room 202 of the Whitman School at 721 University Ave. A networking session takes place before the presentation from 6 to 7 p.m. in Whitman’s Milton Room, room 411. Both events are free and open to the public, according to a Whitman School news release.

Dorf travels the world helping startups, incubators, governments, and established corporations learn how to effectively deploy customer-development processes through speaking engagements, workshops, and intensive hands-on startup boot camps, the Whitman School said. He teaches customer development and business modeling in full-semester and weeklong classes at Columbia Business School, where he is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship.

In March 2012, Dorf collaborated with Steve Blank to publish “The Startup Owner’s Manual: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Great Company.”

Dorf left a lucrative broadcasting job at the age of 22 because he had a passion to start his own company, which he did seven times over three decades, according to the news release. He has invested in, coached, or advised more than two dozen startups over more than a decade.