It involves taking a technology idea and finding a highpotential ... "Finding fertile
ground; identifying extraordinary opportunities for new ventures". Scott. Shane ...
094815 Project Course: Business Plan for the commercialization of technology based idea 3 credit points. Wednesday 9:3012:30 Prerequisite courses: 096814, 094816, elective entrepreneurship course. Teachers:
Prof. Uzi de Haan. Office hours by appointment. Bloomfield room 523.
[email protected] Mrs. Keren Rubin. Office hours by appointment. Bloomfield 6th floor. BEC center.
[email protected]
About the course: Course description: The course is the capstone course of the Technion "minor" in entrepreneurship. Prerequisite for this course are: 096814Legal and Financial aspects of new ventures, 094816Hightech Marketing and one of the entrepreneurship elective courses given by faculties. Students will learn and experience the process technology entrepreneurs go through when starting companies. It involves taking a technology idea and finding a highpotential commercial opportunity, through the process of searching for a validated business model. This process includes gathering resources such as talent and capital, figuring out aspects such as partnerships, distribution channels, revenue streams and more. Course objectives:
1. Understand and experience the process of taking a technology idea and finding a highpotential commercial opportunity. (Students can bring in their own idea (e.g., something based on technology developed in their fourthyear project), partner with other students, or partner with Technion researchers and the Technion Technology Transfer Office to commercialize Technion IP). 2. Impart an entrepreneurial mindset, by providing a methodology and tools the students can use for the rest of their careers (e.g. Hypotheses setting and testing). 3. Gain hands on experience by searching for and validating a sustainable, scalable business model 4. Learn and exercise soft skills (communication and presentation skills, small team management dilemmas, negotiation etc.). Teaching method Students will act as founders of a startup, either as individuals or as teams of maximal three students. Students will meet at least once a week with course
lecturer in weekly class sessions, will hold regular consultations with their mentors and Ad Hoc meetings with industry experts and service providers. The students can make use of the services of the Bronica Entrepreneurship Center. The course is divided up into 2 main sections: The first section is Opportunity identification and verification, in which students test whether their idea is worth pursuing. The second section is testing the rest of the aspects of the business model, according to the business model canvas building blocks. This process includes gathering resources such as talent and capital, figuring out aspects such as partnerships, distribution channels, revenue streams and more. The weekly three hours class sessions are a combination of lectures by course lecturer and industry experts, and inspirational meetings with entrepreneurs. Each session will begin with teams' presentations in which they report on their weekly progress and receive feedback. All students participating in the course, the course lecturer, TA and mentors will sign a NDA to protect IP of students. Target audience This course is designed for all Technion undergraduate students who seek to understand what the entrepreneurial mindset and its key processes are about. Topics introduced in this course are relevant for future founders of enterprises, as well as the future employees of an independent or corporate startup. Reading material "Finding fertile ground; identifying extraordinary opportunities for new ventures". Scott Shane, 2005, Wharton School Publishing, ISBN 0131423983 "New venture creation" 7th ed. J.A.Timmons and S.Spinelli, 2007, McGrawHill, ISBN 0071254382. "Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers and Challengers". Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, 2010. "The Startup Owner’s Manual, The StepbyStep Guide for Building a Great Company" .Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, 2012.
Course grading Team assignments and progress presentations in class (team grade) ,all assignments and backup material will be posted on Moodle
30 %
Final business plan presentation to class and investors (team grade)
30 %
Full business model plan and executive summary submitted two weeks after the semester, with back up annexes (team grade)
30 %
Personal assessment of entrepreneurial capabilities and career aspiration
10 %
based on personal questionnaires and course experience Schedule
1
Week
Content
Lecturers
Homework
5/3
Course overview
Course team
Submit at least three business ideas which are technology enabled and scalable to a large market. Describe the customer's hypothesized problem, your value proposition, the technology and the market size.
(short) Intro to Business model Canvas and customer development.
What type of business are you?
2
12/3
Opportunity identification (including market size evaluation: How to define a market, which tools are available (Gartner reports etc.)
BizDev of a technology incubator or corporate
Types of businesses (IP/licensing/startup/unknown)
Benny Soffer
Students' presentations and feedback.
Propose experiments to test your value proposition. How do you reach the relevant audience?
Business model canvas:
Course team
Hypotheses testing and experiment planning: definitions, methods, tools and biases. Design thinking
Nitzan Weisberg
Customers and the value chain: The difference between customer/ user/ payer. B2B vs. B2C 3
19/3
Students' presentations and feedback. Breakout- iterations and presenting adjusted work plan.
Technology management and IP
4
26/3
Students' presentations and feedback. Teams meet mentors
Nitzan Weisberg, Course team
Get out of the building, conduct the experiments.
IP attorney (Reinhold Cohen) Get out of the building, conduct the experiments (customers + channels). Run an initial patent search (go back to legal and financial aspects course material)
Business model canvas: Channels (virtual vs. physical, treating a channel as a customer: what is your value proposition to the channel? Protecting IP when speaking to partners) Breakout: What are your hypotheses regarding the channels? How will you test them? 5
2/4
Students' presentations and feedback.
Finalize the business opportunity core. Determine the required resources (physical, financial, human, intellectual). Describe the R&D plan. *For teams whose core is IP- run a
patent search Business model canvas: Resources and activities
Psychological Aspects of Entrepreneurship 6
9/4
Entrepreneurial finance: Profit and Loss account, Cash Flow statement, critical assumptions and risks, investment contracts.
7
23/4
Students' presentations and feedback.
Industry expert (PwC, EY etc.)
Prepare a financial plan, elaborate regarding the underlying hypotheses. Define Cost structure, revenue stream in the canvas.
Harry Yuklea
Correct financial parts of the program. Analyze competitive landscape and hypothesize regarding your competitive advantage. Prepare for next week's presentation.
8
30/4
Entrepreneurial finance: General overview, business valuation, funding sources (including bootstrapping and crowdsourcing)
Harry Yuklea
Midterm: Students' presentations and feedback. *
Professional panel
Translate the feedback into Canvas hypotheses , plan the experiments
Ella Miron Spector, an HR industry specialist, Inspirational founder story
Ongoing testing of the Business model.
Classes 9-12: Each class will begin with a short presentation in which teams report on their “lessons learned” from getting out of the building and iterating or pivoting their business model. 9
7/5
Startup team building: Small teams characteristics and dilemmas, maintaining team balance, motivating employees in uncertain conditions
10
14/5
Starting a company: Legal and financial aspects
Industry expert
Competitive landscape: Definition, analysis, data sources)
Industry expert (e.g. IVC, Nielsen)
11
28/5
Marketing strategy: Positioning, branding. Go to market strategies.
TBD
12
11/6
Presentation and communication skills:
Prof. Ayelet Baram, Yuval Hofshy, Uri Levine
The importance of telling a good story How to tell a good story 13
18/6
Pitching rehearsal. Feedback and points to improve towards the final presentation
14
25/6
Presenting to a panel
