Epyllio Business: Outline

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Outline

Technology Entrepreneurship, 2012
Charles Eesley, Assistant Professor, Stanford University

For help in finding a team go to http://venture-lab.org

The course is divided up into 2 main sections and each section has a team project in the form of a writeup and presentation. The first section is the Opportunity Analysis Project, here you will test whether the startup idea you have is worth pursuing and customers agree with the problem you are solving. The second section is the Opportunity Execution Project, here you test the rest of the aspects of the business model. Each session corresponds to one week. Each session gives you a different aspect of the business model that you should test for that week. Your team should update a blog each week with the hypothesis you tested, what experiment(s) you ran, and what the outcome was.

Due dates:

4/16 - assignment 1 (brainstorm best/worst ideas - discuss in teams, submit individually)
4/23 - assignment 2 (commercial - team submission)
May 12th for Identifying the market opportunity and testing your value proposition.
5/20 - Opportunity analysis project (team submission) - Your team will brainstorm an idea to work on for a startup project and test that idea with customers and market analysis. You will work on that idea (or you can switch to a new one throughout the remainder of the time.
6/19 - Opportunity execution project (final team submission) - same teams and 2nd phase of the OAP, here you will be testing your solution and the rest of the business model
6/23 - Personal business plan

Segment 1

Session 1

Course Overview: Silicon Valley and Key Frameworks

Videos

Video 1 - Overview (Recommended reading Ch. 1.1, 1.2, 1.5)
Business models
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5: Building the Team
Instagram cofounders on Startup Ideas

Recommended Reading

Ch. 2.1, 2.4
The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Komisar, Prologue, Preface, and Chapters 1-3

Additional Resources (optional)

"The Secret History of Silicon Valley," Steve Blank, Nov 20, 20008.
It's Not the People You Know. It's Where You Are, Randall Stross, NYT, Oct 22, 2006.
"When it Comes to Innovation, Geography is Destiny," Pascal Zachary, NYT, Feb 11, 2007.
"Growth of a Silicon Empire", Henry Norr.
Fred Terman at Stanford
More videos on ECorner on team and culture

Session 2

Creativity and Improvisation

Videos

Assignment

Submit first assignment at http://venture-lab.org or in the comments on these posts "best" ideas and "worst ideas" by 4/16, 12:00pm noon PST (UTC-8)

Recommended Reading

Ch. 3.1-3.4, Ch. 5.3-5.5, 6.2, 6.3
Brainstorming Rules, Stanford Design Institute, Jul 26, 2009.

Additional Resources

Brainstorming Fundamentals, Stanford Design Institute
More videos on ECorner on Creativity

Segment 2

Session 3

From Idea to Opportunity:

Videos

Recommended Reading

Ch. 4.1, 4.4-4.6, 4.8, 9.3-9.4

Assignment

Submit 2nd assignment (commercial for another team's worst idea) at http://venture-lab.org by 4/23, 6:00pm (18:00) PST (UTC-8)
Startup the OAP project
Your team should update a blog each week with the hypothesis you tested, what experiment(s) you ran, and what the outcome was.

Additional Resources

More videos on ECorner on opportunity recognition

Session 4

Customer Development and Lean Startups

Videos

Assignment

Work on OAP (update blog)
Talk to as many potential customers face to face as possible
Create a low fidelity version of your website with a splash page and email signup
Next Deadline: May 12th for Identifying the market opportunity and testing your value proposition