Course Title:  Entrepreneurship Workshop for Startups

 

Course Number:  MBA 295T.1*  Cross-listed with EWMBA

 

Units:  2

 

Instructor:  Charron, charron@haas.berkeley.edu

 

Meeting Days / Time: Thursdays, 4-6pm

 

Prerequisite(s):  Entrepreneurship 295A or consent of the instructor

 

Class Format: Short lectures with presentations by student companies

 

Objective

Workshop for Startups provides students with tools and activities to create new ventures while at Haas.  Through the development of their own venture, and exposure to other student’s activities to develop their ventures, you will gain a detailed understanding of the activities required and issues faced in successfully starting a venture.  You may also have the good fortune of starting a successful new venture!

Course Description

Workshop for Startups provides students starting ventures with insights and activities that are beyond business plan writing and opportunity recognition.  Students will explore methods for developing unique information about their venture through market research, recruiting teams, product development, business experimentation, customer development, financing strategies and other activities related to their venture and the ventures of others in the class.

 

This workshop is intended for students (teams of 2 are strongly preferred) who have their own venture project under development.  Students may be from any graduate degree program across campus.  The venture may be in the startup mode, or further along in its evolution.  Ventures should be well beyond the “idea phase” as students will be required to work on the venture throughout the semester.  Deciding mid-semester that you don’t want to pursue your is strongly discouraged.  Students must be willing to discuss their project with others in the workshop. Depending on the final size of the class and the mix of project teams, a limited number of solo projects may be allowed with the professor's explicit prior approval.

 

The course is conducted as a clinic, exploring issues faced by students in converting their ventures into successful companies. Team members will be expected to develop and deliver various presentations to the class on selected aspects of their business idea. Each class member is expected to contribute actively in the discussions and presentation critiques. This course is structured around the major elements of the business plan as a framework only, it is not a requirement to produce a formal business plan per se.  Depending on availability, guest speakers may add perspective as well.  Attendance at the Berkeley Entrepreneur Forums scheduled for the spring semester will strongly reinforce the material presented in the class.  

Teaching Methods

This course does not teach entrepreneurship as a theoretical subject.  We do not use cases or reference manuals as a guide to teach the class. The material for learning comes from the companies that the students are starting and their efforts to make progress in building those companies from the beginning to the end of the semester.  The instructor shapes the course according the number of students and companies in the class and highlights interesting facets of each along the semester.  This creates a highly dynamic environment for teaching where the instructor is a facilitator, mentor and lecturer at the same time. 

 

Each student will be assigned to one (at least) other company in the class to act as an advisor.  In this role, the student will be required to assess the activities of advisee, and provide written advice to the company.

Deliverables and Requirements

Deliverables required for the class include (see schedule for delivery dates):

  1. A plan for your work on your company during the semester that calls out your goals, strategies and tasks that you hope to accomplish by the end of class.
  2. Company documents
    1. Executive Summary
    2. Powerpoint pitch
    3. Business plan if available
  3. Name of outside business advisor (must be chosen and in place by mid-semester)
  4. Three letters written to the class companies that you are advising, one at the start of class, one near the 2/3 mark and a final review letter at the end of the class.
  5. Presentations to the class of 3-5 slides on assigned topics.

 

Students are required to attend all classes and come prepared to present on that classes topic. 

Readings and Materials

Each student is required to purchase an entrepreneurship book that they can use as a guide for the course (books will not specifically be made available at the bookstore or library).  Students who have taken the core Entrepreneurship course will have the books required for that class (Timmons New Venture Creation).  Some of the favorites books from past classes are:

·         Timmons and Spinelli, “New Venture Creation”

·         Kawasaki, “Art of the Start”

·         Abrams, “Six-Week Start-Up”

Evaluation and Grading

Grades will depend on the student's progress in developing his or her team project, level of participation and quality of presentations in class, and the quality of their peer-to peer advising/consulting for other student’s projects.

 

Participation – 40% of final grade.  Your participation grade will include topical presentations about your company and your efforts in starting the company.  You will be required to prepare presentations to the class on each of the major subject areas:  Markets and Customers, Product Definition and Management, Team, and Financing.  You will also be scored in the quantity and quality of your in-class questions and comments.  Attendance will also be a component of this portion of the grade.

 

Company progress – 20% of final grade.  At the start of the class you will be required to describe the current state of your 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 circumstances of your company. 

 

Advising – 40% of final grade.  Throughout the semester, you will be required to meet and discuss your company with your advisors and meet and discuss your advisee’s company.  Based on those interactions you will be required to write advisory letters to your advisee.  You will be judged on the quality of your writing and advice given, and also on your ability to integrate or act upon to the advice given to you by your classmates.

Schedule

Typically, the class is split into two cohorts of companies, C1 and C2.  Where noted, Companies from specified cohorts will present.  

                                    

Class #

Date

Subject / Company presentations

Due

1

1/19

 

Class introduction; discussion of semester action plans

Company introductions

2

1/26

 

Advisor assignments; discussion of advisor roles; advisor/advisee discussions

Company summaries, plans and CVs to advisors

3

2/2

 

Action plans (C1 and C2)

Company action plan due;

Book selections

4

2/9

Markets and Customers (C1)

First advisor letter due

5

2/16

Markets and Customers (C2)

 

6

2/23

Companies in-depth (companies to chosen)

 

 

7

3/2

Product Definition and Management (C1)

 

8

3/9

Product Definition and Management (C2)

 

9

3/16

 

Mid-semester review; advisor/advisee discussions

 

10

3/23

Team (C2)

 

11

4/6

Team (C1)

Second advisor letter due

12

4/13

Financing (C2)

 

13

4/20

Financing (C1)

 

14

4/27

Companies in-depth (companies to be chosen)

Final advisor assessment due

15

5/4

 

Wrap-up and review

Company summary, plan, pitch, and self assessments due

 

Instructor Bio

David Charron

 

David Charron is Associate Director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.  He is also a lecturer in entrepreneurship at the MBA level at the Haas School.  He has been working in the field of technology commercialization and entrepreneurship for 18 years.  Mr. Charron has held positions in technology licensing and commercialization with Xerox PARC, MIT and Stanford University.  In 1995, he co-founded Scientific Learning Corporation, a publicly-traded neuroscience company based on innovations from UCSF and Rutgers.  He has also started two other companies and consults to startups, inventors and entrepreneurs.  Mr. Charron has worked with Technology Ventures Corporation, a non-profit organization, fostering the commercialization of technologies emerging from the national lab system through direct assistance to entrepreneurs and startups.  Mr. Charron is also the Executive Director of the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Laboratory, a non-profit incubator with the goal of increasing entrepreneurial activity at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  At Haas, Mr. Charron teaches Case Studies in Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship in Action.  He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the Haas School (’95). 

 

Technologies that Mr. Charron has worked with include: thin-film semiconductors, MEMs, novel print media and systems, data compression (speech and video), secure content distribution, handwriting and speech recognition, software for assessing portfolio risk, CRM software, digital media and copyrights, medical diagnostics, medical imaging, large scale optimization, rapid prototyping, EDA software, text-to-speech, and others.

 

Startup companies that Mr. Charron has been involved with:  Risk Management Software, Boston Dynamics, Aware, World of Good, Nanonexus, SpeechWorks, CommandCAD, Soligen, and others.

 

Mr. Charron provides technology and startup assessments, along with providing ongoing advisory services.  He has negotiated and written technology licensing and joint ventures agreements, been involved with complex patent portfolio assessments, patent assertions and intellectual property strategies. 

 

He lives in Piedmont, California, with his wife (an entrepreneur in the non-profit sector) and two children.