AgTech Entrepreneurship

Catalog description

Recommended Preparations: Completion of AGBM 308 or Completion of MGMT 215 or ENGR 310 New firm creation and venture funding within food, agriculture and biorenewables (AgTech) is occurring at a record pace. Venture capitalist have invested billions of dollars in business start-ups that address pressing needs in food, agriculture and bio-renewables. New firm formation and venture funding are expected to significantly increase over the coming decades. Numerous stakeholders recognize the transformative power of entrepreneurship and innovation in agriculture. AgTech entrepreneurs are viewed as powerful change agents for our next innovative age in agriculture as we seek to provide for humanity and our ecosystem while addressing the constraints of population growth and resource scarcity. The proposed course will provide students with an introductory overview of entrepreneurship opportunities in AgTech, basic understanding of entrepreneurial concepts and address whether an entrepreneurial career suits their interests. Students will be guided through several self-evaluation exercises to identify their professional strengths, weaknesses and interests. In addition students will develop their business research, evaluation, writing, presentation and critical thinking skills. In order to simulate a realistic preview of entrepreneurship this course will allow students to practice self-organization skills for opportunity effectuation where few guidelines are provided. Several core entrepreneurial concepts will be reviewed in this course and contextualized within AgTech when possible. Topics are founder/team dynamics, value proposition, business models, market research, financial analysis, funding sources/considerations, business ethics and intellectual property. Each topic will be presented in a summative format with access to additional resources for better in-depth understanding. After completing the course students will have improved general business knowledge that is contextualized for new firm creation. The course utilizes a blend of lecture content, student discussion, interaction and hands on exercises that help build student comfort with ambiguity, uncertainty and complex problem solving. Students will also be required to work on projects in teams. Student teams will conduct a start-up due diligence project and lead one class discussion on an AgTech subsector topic of their interest. Students will also be required to prepare a formal eight-minute business idea pitch with accompanying investor prospectus brief.