It feels overwhelming at times, but it is very useful. It's at the heart of what makes TechStars an accelerator. You get instant feedback on your ideas from great mentors.

You're right that it's hard to build much during the first month. But when the first month is over, you feel very confident about what you need to do. That makes the next month and beyond incredibly productive on product and customer development.

The first 4 weeks is very intense on the business/market/sales plan side of things. It is hard to get work done, you have to squeeze it in whenever possible (night, weekends, etc). The idea is that you probably shouldn't do a ton of work before you have a solid plan in place. After that things slow down and you can focus on coding/traction.