SEMESTER: Spring 2020

 

COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA295T.3

 

COURSE TITLE: Startup Lab

 

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2

 

INSTRUCTOR: Arman Zand and Whitney Hischier

 

E-MAIL ADDRESS: hischier@berkeley.edu, armanzand@berkeley.edu

 

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME:

 

PREREQUISITE(S):

 

CAREER FIELD:

o    This course is valuable to anyone interested in either working in a startup or creating their own startup

o    The course also provides a core set of consulting tools which can be applied more broadly to most organizations

 

CLASS FORMAT

The Startup Lab is a 2-unit semester- long project- based experiential learning course in which students teams (3-5 students each) will be required to independently manage their startup projects. Faculty instructors will be intimately involved in assisting student teams with project management through frequent in-class 1:1 (instructor/team) strategy sessions.

                                                                       

Class time will consist of two parts: 

●       6:00 - 7:15pm application of a relevant consulting tool to the project

●       7:30 - 8:15pm dinner break

●       8:00 - 9:30pm team work on the project with 1:1 Faculty coaching                                                             

All deliverables are directly related to the project scope agreed upon with the startup client.  Thus, it is essential to solidify the project scope and project plan early on in the semester.

 

REQUIRED READINGS

n/a

 

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE

Initial Project Scope and Project Plan: 5%
​Mid-Project Presentation: 20%
Final Project Presentation: 40%
Class Attendance and Participation: 15%
Team Evaluations: 10%         

Client feedback: 10%

 

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

Startup Lab is a project-based experiential learning course that pairs Haas students with early stage technology startups based in Silicon Valley with institutional venture capital support. The goal is to identify, frame and address strategic business challenges. Throughout the course, students will gain experience working within agile and dynamic startup environments while applying their academic knowledge in an entrepreneurial context. This course is meticulously structured to provide the best possible learning experience for students given the dynamic nature of startup clients.

                                                                       

Startup Lab will give students the opportunity to actively engage with C-level management on projects scoped in one of the following three areas:

●       New market entry strategy

●       Product-market fit

●       Pricing

                                                                       

Relationship building is an integral part of the Startup Lab experience. Instructors handpick curated projects through a rigorous selection process. Projects are scoped and designed to serve as an opportunity to develop highly coveted relationships with promising companies and founding teams as well as within the broader technology industry. ​Please note that this is a project-based consulting class, not an internship. The companies have been requested specifically to not put students in a functional role but rather to carve out a specific consulting project within the predefined scope areas.

 

Projects

The startups selected to work with this class must be backed by institutional VC firms, early stage (generally seed or Series A), local to the SF Bay Area (so you can meet with them in person), and the CEO has committed to be directly involved in the project.  Project sponsors must commit to meeting with the team by phone weekly and spend up to one hour per week on the project (this may include a mix of a team phone meeting, reviewing documents that the team has put together, and/or sending documentation or setting up meetings for the team).

 

Projects will fall into one of three areas of scope:

●       New market entry strategy

●       Product-market fit

●       Pricing

 

In previous years, Startup Lab students completed successful projects for startups in industries including sensor technology, agriculture, childcare, fintech, biotech, inventory management, drones, collaboration software, food delivery, and virtual reality.

 

Teaming and Project Matches                                

Projects will be presented to the students by the CEO/Founders during the first and second classes in a demo day format. During this time, students will self-form teams of approximately 4 people (no more than 5).  Teams may put in their request for their top 3 project choices at any point up to February 4th.  Project matches are made on a first come, first serve basis.  However, if a team member drops the class at this point, the team will be dropped to the bottom of the request list for their top project. Committing to teams and projects early enhances your chances of matching with desired projects.

 

Teams will be notified on Feb 4th of their project match and will then meet at their client during class time on Feb 5th. 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Whitney Hischier​​ is a lecturer at Haas in strategy and entrepreneurship; she also teaches in the iSchool and Masters in Development Practice program at Berkeley. Outside of Berkeley, Whitney is a partner in Red Team Thinking, a group which teaches strategy stress-testing tools developed by the military.  Whitney is also faculty for the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program, and has developed and teaches a short version of Lean Launch for the World Bank in Eastern Europe.  Previously, she was the Assistant Dean for Executive Education at Haas where she built a $20m organization. Prior to Haas, Whitney was a consultant in the US and Europe for KPMG, ABN Amro Bank, and Deloitte on systems implementation and change management. Her first job out of undergraduate was with a toy manufacturing startup based in a pool-house in Woodside. She holds a BA in International Relations from Stanford University and an MBA from Haas.

                                                                       

Arman Zand​​ has more than 20 years of experience in technology and venture finance. He is currently Head of Finance at Farmstead, an AI-powered grocery delivery startup based in SF. Prior to joining Farmstead, Arman was with Quona Capital, a fintech venture capital fund focused on financial inclusion in emerging markets. Prior to joining Quona, Arman was Director of Business Development at RocketSpace, Inc. where he helped advise on corporate open innovation with Fortune 1000 brands. Arman spent the previous 15 years at Silicon Valley Bank in the US, India, U.K, the Middle East, and Asia, helping expand the SVB globally including 7 years in China where he helped co-found China's first joint venture technology bank. Arman is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and is a part-time professional faculty member at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. In addition to Startup Lab, he teaches IBD and SIB at Haas.