COURSE NUMBER: MBA295I.1

This course is cross-listed with the EWMBA Program

COURSE TITLE: Entrepreneurship Workshop for Start-ups

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2.0

INSTRUCTOR: Mark Coopersmith and John Danner

E-MAIL ADDRESS: mark@coopersmith.net ; danner@haas.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Tuesdays, 6:00PM – 9:30PM

COURSE OVERVIEW VIDEO FROM MARK COOPERSMITH 

[Course will meet 10 times over the 15 weeks of the semester, exact dates TBD.]

PREREQUISITE(S): MBA295A or consent of the instructor; must have  general understanding of the entrepreneurial process and requirements of launching  a business, and actively be investigating or developing a business; must be willing to share sufficient business details with classmates, instructor and mentors as appropriate for such a workshop class; teams of 2 or 3 or more strongly encouraged.

CLASS FORMAT: Highly interactive including much peer discussion, collaboration and input. Short lectures; guest speakers and panels; in-class working groups and problem-solving sessions; student/company presentations with in-class analysis, critique and working sessions; extensive incorporation of outside mentors and resources; student breakout groups.

READINGS: Guy Kawasaki’s Art of the Start and Eric Ries' The Lean Startup

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:

Grades will depend on the student's progress in developing his or her team project, level and quality of participation in class discussions, working sessions and presentations, and the quality of their peer‐to-peer advising and consulting for other students’ projects along with how well the student incorporates and/or responds to input from instructor, mentors and fellow students.

Venture progress – 40% of final grade. At the start of the class you will be required to describe the current state of your vision/venture/company and your goals for making progress on your startup during the semester. Your progress grade will be based on the actual work you perform and report to class in achieving goals and adapting to the changing circumstances facing your venture. Fast iteration, evolution and development of products and business models; customer discovery and development; team building; and ability to concisely present your venture will all contribute to this assessment.

Participation – 40% of final grade. Your grade for participation includes topical presentations about your company and your efforts in starting the company. You will be required to prepare presentations to the class on a number of major subject areas, and especially those that are most relevant/critical to your venture, such as Product Demo/Concept, Positioning, Business Model, and Financing. You will also be evaluated on the quantity and especially the quality of your in‐class questions and comments in instructor-led discussions and also providing feedback to your fellow students in broad class sessions and breakout groups. Attendance will be a component of this portion of the grade.

Consulting – 20% of final grade. During the semester, each student will act as a consultant to another student and venture in the course. This means that you will have the opportunity to offer insights and advice to another student and their venture. In a similar vein, all students will also be clients receiving advice from fellow students. You will be judged on the quality of the advice you provide and how you deliver it (how actionable is the advice, how comprehensive and well thought out, how creative?). You will also be evaluated on your ability to be a good client, including how you receive the advice and integrate or act upon it.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

This course takes the study of entrepreneurship well beyond business plan writing and opportunity recognition.  We will actively investigate and undertake actions and activities that create successful and scalable ventures. Students explore methods to build and evolve new ventures with activities and learnings based around businesses that each of them is actively developing. Disciplines covered include customer and market research, team development, product development, positioning, business experimentation, customer discovery and development, go-to-market activities, financing strategies and other activities related to their own venture and to the ventures of others in the class. Fast iteration and accelerated development are actively investigated incorporating “lean-startup” methodologies and activities.

This workshop is intended for students who have their own venture project already under development. Teams of 2, 3 or more class participants are strongly encouraged, though some solo projects may be allowed with the professor's approval. Students may be from any graduate degree program across campus and must have already invested substantial thinking and work into the development and evolution of the concept and business plan, intellectual property, product or service demonstrations and related materials. The venture may be in startup mode or further along in its evolution, but in any case ventures should be well beyond the “opportunity recognition” and initial “concept development” phases. In past courses students have, for example, launched and evolved products, attracted customers, generated revenues and obtained funding during the semester.

Deciding mid-semester that you don’t want to pursue your venture may impact your grade, but “failing fast” and developing a more promising “Plan B” may occur with some ventures over the semester. How well the student navigates these issues and responds to adversity and changing conditions will count substantially toward their grade. This class is – after all – about experiencing the entrepreneurial process at a fundamental level. Students must be willing to discuss their project in-depth and openly with others in the class including students, mentors and instructor(s). You should not take this course if you are not willing to share details about your venture.

This course is structured around the major elements of the business plan as a framework, and there are a number of related deliverables, although it is not a specific requirement of the course to produce a formal business plan. The course is conducted as a highly interactive workshop, exploring issues in real-time that are faced by student entrepreneurs in converting their ventures and concepts into successful companies. Each class member is expected to contribute actively in the discussions and presentation critiques. Students will also act as consultants to one another.

Guest speakers, mentors and other participants will frequently be incorporated in the class to add start-up experience, domain expertise and perspective. Attendance at the Berkeley Entrepreneur Forums and other entrepreneur and startup oriented activities both on and off campus will strongly reinforce the material presented in the class.  One or two class meetings may be held off-site in an entrepreneurial environment such as a new venture accelerator or shared workspace.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:
A leader and innovator in consumer products, technology, media and branding, Mark Coopersmith has spent more than 20 years launching, building and restructuring high-growth global businesses. As Managing Director of The Argonauts Group, Mark works with client companies, investors and other stakeholders to bring about fundamental change, accelerate revenues and drive enterprise value at companies ranging from VC-backed ventures through Fortune 100 corporations. Previously he led the $300mm Global Technology Brands group at consumer products company Newell Rubbermaid; co-founded and built a $150mm consumer products and online commerce division for Sony.; and served as President of Strategy for brand consultancy Addis Creson. He was the founding CEO of pioneer online payments company WebOrder (now part of Motorola); and earlier in his career was a strategy and M&A consultant with Ernst & Young. Mark has advised global enterprises such as Intel, DirecTV, T Rowe Price and Sony, and has also worked with and served on the boards of many innovative earlier stage companies. Mark teaches Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he also mentors many students and their ventures. He is an alumnus of UC Berkeley, where he earned his B.A. and MBA degrees.

John Danner is a Senior Fellow of The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he usually teaches the core MBA course on entrepreneurship, as well as other graduate courses on business model innovation and strategies for startups. He is Faculty Advisor to the Global Social Venture Competition, and launched UC’s campuswide undergraduate course on entrepreneurship and global poverty. He also teaches entrepreneurship in the Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA Program, and is a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Princeton University each fall. He began his entrepreneurial career as an undergraduate at Harvard, appropriately enough (for this I290 course) in a venture called IGS (Information Gathering Service); and has since been involved in startups of various types as entrepreneur, advisor and investor. In addition, he has worked as a management consultant, lawyer or senior executive in the private, nonprofit and public sectors - in fields from education and healthcare to telecommunications and energy. A frequent speaker on innovation and entrepreneurship at conferences and seminars around the world, he is also senior moderator with the Aspen Institute’s executive and global leadership programs, as well as the Federal Executive Institute. For those of you are fans of TED, he’s also the guy who came up with the idea for TED University; and gave a mini-TED talk at last summer’s TEDGlobal event in Edinburgh. He received his JD, MPH and MAEd degrees from UC Berkeley.