Entrepreneurship-Syllabus

Harvard Extension School MGMT S-540: Introduction to Entrepreneurship Summer CRN 35157 Tuesdays, Thursdays 6:30-9:30pm 22 June - August 2021 COURSE INSTRUCTOR Professor Email: LinkedIn InMail Office Hours: Mike Grandinetti, BS Engineering, MBA mgrandinetti@g.harvard.edu https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegrandinetti/ Tuesdays/Thursdays 9:30-10:30PM or by appointment INSTRUCTOR BIO Mike’s been continuously active in the fields of innovation, entrepreneurship & human-centric design as an operating executive, consultant and an educator since earning his BS Engineering degree He has spent his entire career in the world's leading innovation clusters of Silicon Valley, Boston, NYC, Austin & Tel Aviv He's a successful serial tech entrepreneur, multi-award winning (Financial Times global Professor of the Week, Professor of the Year, Most Inspiring Professor, Most Engaged with Students Peer Awards, etc.) He was an early team member & CXO of VC-backed tech startups Two went public on the NASDAQ & were subsequently acquired by large strategics including ATT, IBM, Iron Mountain, Oracle, Symantec & Synopsys He co-led a NASDAQ IPO roadshow & a subsequent secondary roadshow Previously, he was a strategy consultant at McKinsey and an engineer with HP in Silicon Valley He’s a professor in the practice (or equivalent) of entrepreneurship, innovation, design & marketing at Brown, and Rutgers & is on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley executive course, Engineering Leadership Professional Program, where he’s also Program Development Fellow for the UC Berkeley Innovation X- Labs He’s been on the faculty of the MIT Founder’s Program on Entrepreneurship for over a decade, and previously was a Senior Lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management for 10 years He teaches Marketing Management and Introduction to Entrepreneurship at Harvard.He’s taught courses on Leadership at the MBA/EMBA and Executive Education levels since 2010 at U California Riverside, California State University, San Francisco State University, George Washington U, and many others He’s also written case studies for UC Berkeley Haas School of Business He’s an innovation consultant (clients include Accenture, Capital One, Dell, Ferrari, Maersk, McGill University, Medtronic, Nestle, Nike, Pirelli, Worthen Industries, Zimmer Biomet), board member, hackathon & design sprint leader (IBM, naviHealth, Nestle, MIT Media Lab, OpenIDEO), popular keynote speaker (TEDx, MIT CIO Symposium, International Startup Festival, TiE), podcast author & host, columnist (Forbes), pitch competition judge (MIT $100K prize, ODSC $1M prize, global Venture Capital Investment Competition, UC Berkeley Health Care / Life Sciences Accelerator , etc.), startup accelerator leader (StartupNext Techstars seed stage) & indemand startup mentor (Harvard Innovation Lab, University of California Launch Accelerator, Berkley MGMT F- 6000 Fall 2020 Harvard Extension School Blockchain, Berkeley Data X, Berkeley SkyDeck, Techstars, MIT Enterprise Forum, LearnLaunch EdTech Accelerator, etc) He was named to the National Engineering Honor Society & won the Rutgers College of Engineering Medal of Excellence Award for Career Achievement, where he graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Mechanical Engineering He was also named alumni of the year at Rutgers He earned his MBA degree with distinction at Yale, where he was named the annual Jess Morrow Johns Memorial Scholar and a Yale Teaching Fellow His LinkedIn Profile is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegrandinetti/ His web site is at http://mikegrandinetti.co/ His Disruptive Innovation podcast streams on Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-1-what-is-disruptive-innovation-who-is-getting/id1477671920? i=1000447656701 & Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3bl7ZD0UPaM2LguduT7EQM COURSE DESCRIPTION & LEARNING GOALS Course Description: This course is designed to teach fundamental principles and best practices and methodologies for creating and scaling a successful, high-impact entrepreneurial venture The course is highly experiential and action-based Human-centric design and highly iterative lean/agile methodologies serve as cornerstones for this course This includes proactively speaking to prospective early users / customers to validate hypotheses about what customers would consider valuable The course will place particular emphasis on the importance and role of experimentation and learning from failure, as well as provide access to a series of tools that can and frameworks to help an organization decide whether, or not, to continue in a specific direction or to re-direct Students are grouped into teams around common interests and the venture creation process is walked through step by step, culminating in a pitch to a panel of entrepreneurs and investors Course Goals Successful new venture creation is amongst the most challenging endeavors one can undertake in the world of business Historical failure rates of 90% plus are well known The goal of this course is twofold: To expose the student to this highly dynamic, endlessly fascinating, challenging domain To share proven, current best practices to enable a far higher likelihood of success for those who decide to start their own venture This course will cover the core principles, frameworks, and methodologies used in entrepreneurship, and requires students to apply these principles in the development of a new venture Starting from the first class meeting and running throughout the seven weeks of the course, students will work with their teams to identify, create, and pitch a startup COURSE STRUCTURE &PEDAGOGY The primary pedagogy of this course will be a mix of short polls, class discussions, short simulations and inclass exercises and workshops Because this approach relies entirely on an interactive and participative classroom experience, attendance will be required Case discussion also requires students to fully prepare each case prior to its discussion in class and to be ready, willing and able to present their analysis of each case in class The simulations are team exercises and will be an opportunity to practice, observe and analyze several of the key issues discussed in class The course learning objectives will be met through: Class meetings will generally be divided into five segments: 1) Polls – test students understanding of the assigned readings 2) Lecture focusing on the key topics, principles, concepts, methodologies and frameworks of new product development 3) Facilitated Class Discussion of the required readings and the week’s most relevant news relating to entrepreneurs, startups, venture capital on a global basis These readings are intended to illustrate the lecture topics and provide examples of best practices in deploying new product development strategies and frameworks 4) Active Question and Answer 5) Workshop/ Practicum- Team-based hands-on work on venture building from the previous week’s prework and applying the new concepts and frameworks introduced in the current week’s course topics Key Assessed Learning Outcomes Facility with a holistic new venture development process for creating, launching and sustaining a highly ambitious venture capital funded startup, applying the concepts introduced in the class Facility with human-centric design and lean startup methodologies and mindsets, including “failing fast” and failing forward” Recognizing, ideating, and validating unmet consumer or business needs that can potentially support the long-term profitable growth of the new venture to achieve a viable, sustainable business model Scaling the new venture through effective targeting and segmentation, marketing, selling, talent recruitment Effectively pitching your new venture to “risk capital” investors, including angels and venture capitalists 3 COURSE MATERIALS Required Course-Specific Course Pack: Available for purchase from the HBS Publishing website The link to the student course pack can be found here: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/811434 on the website Harvard Publishing *Please note that you must purchase your own copy in order to comply with copyright laws You cannot make a copy of someone else’s packet Failure to comply with this requirement would be a violation of the law and the school’s code of conduct Workshop materials: Student access to the various human - centric design frameworks, lean startup, value proposition and other critical canvases will be provided for each in-class workshop Optional text: “Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan that Works” ; 2nd Edition, Author: Ash Maurya, O’Reilly Publishing ISBN-13: 978-1449305178 ISBN-10: 1449305172 OPTIONAL REFERENCE SOURCES NEWS / DATA SOURCES / BLOGS/ WEBSITES:  TechCrunch ( news site)  Crunchbase (comprehensive startup data base)  Venture Beat  Pre-eminent Silicon Valley VC Andreesen – Horowitz Blog: a16z  HBR | https://hbr.org/topic/entrepreneurship  WSJ | https://www.wsj.com/ RECOMMENDED PODCASTS:  HBR Idea CAST | https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-ideacast  Disruptive Innovation: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-1-what-is-disruptive-innovation-whois-getting/id1477671920?i=1000447656701 COURSE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION Participation (20%): Refers to the quality and quantity of participation in the discussion of the assigned cases, including but not limited to depth of analysis, realism, relevance, clarity of presentation, integration of comments into the ongoing discussion (i.e., willingness to listen to classmates) Obviously, class participation is predicated on attendance One absence will be forgiven after which time absences will begin to affect your grade but you will still be required to learn the material If you miss a class, please let the professor know beforehand In - class participation will account for 20% of the participation grade or 5% of total course grade Contributions to your new venture team will account for 80% of the participation grade or 15% of total grade Peer review (- 5%) – You will not receive points for completing a peer review This will be accounted for in your class participation grade However, if you fail to submit a 360 peer review for yourself and each team member, your grade will be reduced by 5% Midterm (15%) – this will be held in - class on July and will cover ALL readings, hands-on workshop materials and class discussions through Class held on July Final Exam (15%)- this will cover only the material (ALL readings, hands-on workshop materials and class discussions) from the midterm onward Final TEAM Project - Venture Creation Business Model and Investor Pitch (50%): See below for a description of the final team deliverable COURSE POLICIES Attendance Satisfactory class contributions require attendance at every session of the course; preparation of all materials for every session; and active, quality participation in class discussions Simply attending class, however, does not constitute a positive contribution to class and will not yield high class participation scores Recognizing that you are facing complex demands on your time, we can excuse one absence during the term (for any reason) Missing more than one class session will negatively impact the participation component of your grade Accommodations for Students with Special Needs The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community The Accessibility Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities Please visit http://www.summer.harvard.edu/resources-policies/accessibility-services for more information Academic Honesty You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity (http://www.summer.harvard.edu/policies/student-responsibilities) and how to use sources responsibly Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting the wrong draft, or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Resources to Support Academic Integrity (http://www.summer.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources-support-academic-integrity) where you will find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources (https://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu) and two free online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy The tutorials are anonymous openlearning tools MGMT S - 640: Introduction to Entrepreneurship SECTION 1: COURSE INTRODUCTION & FOUNDATION BUILDING Key Concepts: Entrepreneurial Lifecycle, Opportunity Identification, Ideation, Hypothesis -Driven Evaluation and Decision Making, Business Model Design and Iteration, Risk Mitigation On your own time before first class session Class 1: Tuesday 22 June READ:  REQUIRED: Can You Crowdsource a Big Idea? WHAT IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP? WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADER? LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Understand the concept of entrepreneurial leadership Introduce the stages of the entrepreneurial life cycle, define key activities & decisions associated with each stage Identify different categories of entrepreneurial opportunities depending on the size & scope of the opportunity and risk and reward involved Learn how different entrepreneurs might be attracted to different categories Define key "discovery skills" used by successful entrepreneurs To describe the rationale for employing a hypothesis-driven approach to evaluating entrepreneurial opportunity and the processes used with such an approach READING: Becoming an Entrepreneurial Leader READING: Hypothesis-Driven Entrepreneurship WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class, incl UC Berkeley SCET / GVC Meta-Framework) Class 2: Thursday RECOGNIZING AND SHAPING ENTREPRENEURIAL OPPORTUNITIES 24 June LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Understand the process entrepreneurs use to generate ideas for new businesses and shape them into opportunities supported by a business model Compare examples of how entrepreneurs have navigated the process of recognizing and shaping opportunities Understand the difference between intuitive and analytical thinking and the role of each in recognizing and shaping opportunities Examine approaches for converting a business model to a cash flow forecast Learn approaches for managing risk and uncertainty when launching new ventures READING: Recognizing and Shaping Opportunities WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) SECTION 2: CUSTOMER DISCOVERY Key Concepts: Human Centric Design, Jobs to Be Done, Customer Pain, Testing Hypotheses Class 3: Tuesday 28 June CUSTOMER DISCOVERY (aka Primary Stakeholder Market Research) LEARNING OBJECTIVES: To help prepare students to develop hypotheses and research demand for an entrepreneurial offering through various research techniques READING: Customer Discovery & Validation for Entrepreneurs READING: Know Your Customers Jobs to be Done READING: What Airbnb knows about jobs to be Done WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) Class 4: Thursday DEEP DIVE: CUSTOMER DISCOVERY & STRATEGIC INSIGHT TOOLS & FRAMEWORKS: July CLASS PREPARATION: Review Tools and Frameworks LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Develop hands-on experience working with a portfolio of key tools and canvases WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) Human -centric design: Customer Journey Map, Persona Map, etc NABCC – Need/Approach/Benefit/Context/Competition Lean Methods: Lean Startup Canvas B2C and B2B Value Pyramids “Flevy” Value Perception Gap Value Proposition Canvas (2 versions) Box Perceptual Market (Position) Map Nielsen Brand Association Map (BAM) Feature-Benefit-Value Positioning Ladder SECTION 3: CUSTOMER VALIDATION Key Concepts: Lean Startup, Minimum Viable Product, Product Market Fit Class 4: Tuesday July LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Understand the concepts that underpin the lean startup approach Understand the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and the role it plays in the hypothesis driven approach Understand the critical concept of product - market fit READING: Experimenting in the Entrepreneurial Venture WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) SECTION 4: CUSTOMER CREATION: Go-To-Market Key Concepts: Persona, Stakeholder, Segmentation, Beachhead Market, Market Traction Class 5: Thursday SEGMENTATION & TARGETING July LEARNING OBJECTIVES:  Apply concepts of segmentation, targeting and positioning  Apply an analysis of consumer behavior to product development and positioning  Evaluate market segment alternatives in terms of cost structure, profitability and break even READING: Target the Right Market (Short Case Study Overview – pages) OPTIONAL READING: Segmenting & Targeting WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) Class 6: Tuesday MARKETING & SELLING 13 July LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Understand the factors that influence customers to adopt a new product or service offered by a venture Learn how to select potential customers for visits, conduct the visits, and use insights from the visits to refine a venture's offering Gain familiarity with a process for defining a venture's core customers Understand what makes entrepreneurial selling unique Learn key aspects of integrating selling and marketing activities in a new venture READING: Selling & Marketing in the Entrepreneurial Venture WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) Class 7: Thursday PART 1: MIDTERM ( 1.5 hours in length) 15 July PART 2: WORKSHOP (materials distributed in class) SECTION 5: SCALING THE VENTURE Key Concepts: Growing Talent, Ecosystem, Business Model Design, Strategic Partners, Financing Class 8: Tuesday 20 July Growing the Team & Building the Ecosystem LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Understand the opportunities and tradeoffs associated with attracting talent in a new venture - including co-founders, employees, and boards of directors and advisors Learn how to build a business network, or "ecosystem," of customers, suppliers, partners, and evangelists needed to develop products and get them to market Understand how to use outside resources such as incubators and accelerators effectively Learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurial negotiations and legal forms of organization READING: Attracting Talent and Building Ecosystems WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) Class 9: Thursday Building, and Iterating on, the Business Model 22 July LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Understand the key elements that comprise a company business model Understand the interdependencies and trade-offs between the elements Understand how to use the Business Model Canvas “meta framework” to create and analyze business models READING: FREE BOOK: Business Model Generation, Osterwalder (First 79 Pages Free under Creative Commons license) WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) Class 10: Tuesday Financing the Entrepreneurial Venture 27 July LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Describe the intimate connection between business models and the financing needs of ventures Provide an overview of the entrepreneurial finance landscape and the traits of various financiers Identify for students critical issues in their financing choices, such as whether VC investment aligns with their personal motivations Impart tools that students can use as they contemplate the external financing of their ventures READING: Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) SECTION 6: PITCHING THE BUSINESS Key Concepts: Business Model, Business Plan, Stakeholder Communications, Effective Pitching Class 11: Thursday 29 July Refining the Business Model, Preparing the Pitch Deck, Pitching Investors & Stakeholders Understand how to translate a business model into a well-crafted plan and pitch Decide how to select from business plan and pitch types to most effectively convey the opportunity to stakeholders in different situations Understand how potential investors and other stakeholders evaluate a plan or pitch Learn how to make the plan or pitch succinct, comprehensive, and compelling READING: Developing Business Plans and Pitching Opportunities WORKSHOP: (materials distributed in class) Tuesday August 630PM FINAL EXAM- see Harvard Summer School Exam Schedule https://www.summer.harvard.edu/resources-policies/exams/final-exam-schedules Class 12: Tuesday August Class 13: Thursday August Friday August Final Project Due: Pitch Workshop Final Team Presentations Final Team Deliverables Due-Executive Summary, Investor One Pager, Venture Pitch Deck, Business Model, Go-to-Market and Launch Plan, Team Peer Review 10 11