Venture Building for Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs

Catalog description

The future is fast, complex and in flux. Markets are being reshaped at an unprecedented pace, creating a world where disruption is common-place and innovation is not only expected but increasingly necessary. Every player is entering the race to win with the next big bet - entrepreneurs working at start-ups and venture studios, and intrapreneurs, working within corporations, all vying for a piece of the rapidly changing market. Building new ventures, as an entrepreneur or intrapreneur, has become a coveted skill. This course focuses on teaching that skill, de-mystifying the process and the complexity of creating new ventures and delving into the core steps, techniques and tools that transcend industry and objective. The goal of the course is to prepare students with navigating the uncertainty inherent in building new products, services and lines of business, regardless of their path as venture builders. Students will immerse in the venture building process through the hands-on creation of their own idea, learning how to identify and size a market opportunity, segment customers and define a unique value proposition and business model. Individually or in groups, students will select a project path: venture building for themselves (entrepreneurs) or from within an existing company (intrapreneurs). They will learn, from in-class lecture and detailed case studies, how to move from initial hypothesis to proof of concept, and then apply those learnings to their own idea. Students will be asked to share and evolve their work, in response to feedback and external forces, as occurs in the real world. As the course progresses, so will their ideas, following the arc of venture building and allowing students to absorb the core tools necessary to determine and stress-test their path forward as entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs.