SEMESTER: Spring 2020

COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 295A.11

COURSE TITLE: Entrepreneurship

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 Units

INSTRUCTOR: Sharat Raghavan

E-MAIL ADDRESS: sraghava@berkeley.edu

PREREQUISITE(S): None

CLASS FORMAT: Mixture of cases, lectures, in-class projects, and guest speakers

REQUIRED READINGS: Readings and other materials will be available on study.net

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Grades will be based on participation, an in-class exam, case questions, and group projects.

CAREER FIELD: This course will benefit anyone who seeks to bring an entrepreneurial mindset to their current professions. Students who intend to start their own startups or want to work with entrepreneurial ventures will especially benefit.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES

Entrepreneurship prepares you for the challenges in starting an innovation-focused business. You will study the strategic frameworks entrepreneurs use to start, finance, and guide their businesses. There are opportunities in every market, but not every opportunity can be successfully identified and turned into a profitable business. A major tenant of this course is that experimentation plays a central role in entrepreneurial success. Failure is common and we will see that it is often through failure that sustainable businesses are created.  Entrepreneurs must often contend with the “fog of war” as correct strategic responses are not always evident in dynamic environments.  An important part of this course is hearing “stories from the field” and we will accomplish this through notable guest speakers from the startup and venture community. Students will also participate in team projects that will involve interaction and collaboration with entrepreneurs and investors.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Sharat Raghavan is a Lecturer at the Haas School of Business, where he earned his PhD from the Business & Public Policy Group. Sharat also has been a visiting professor at INSEAD and the National University of Singapore, where he was recognized multiple times for his teaching. His academic research focuses on venture capital and contractual issues between investors and entrepreneurs.

Before Sharat completed his doctorate at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, he co-founded a venture capital fund that raised money from several strategic investors including Ericsson and Merrill Lynch. Sharat also started L+R Quantitative Strategies, which is a quantitative investment firm based on over two decades of research in data science and probability that raised seed capital from well-known executives in finance and technology.  He also provides economic advisory work to firms in the technology industry. Sharat earned his BA from Dartmouth College and his PhD from University of California at Berkeley.