COURSE NUMBER: MBA295T-3

COURSE TITLE: Sales for Startups

UNITS OF CREDIT: 2

INSTRUCTOR: Joe Wadcan

E-MAIL ADDRESS: jwadcan@berkeley.edu

PREREQUISITE(S): None. All business students are welcome.

CLASS FORMAT: Classes will be a mixture of lecture, in class exercises, case studies, simulation and real world experience.

REQUIRED READINGS:  Readings will all be recent, and industry-relevant (distributed as links prior to class). There is no textbook to purchase or books to reserve.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:  Students will be graded on their comprehension of subject matter, demonstrated by assignments, quizzes, and in-class participation. Group exercises will also be a part of students’ grades.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:  The Sales for Startups is a fundamental course of how sales works, from the early stages to mature sales teams. Every student of business should understand the basics of how revenue is generated and responsibly grown. During the semester, we’ll cover core topics such as getting the first sale, building an initial sales team, creating commission structures, classic sales techniques, the art of negotiation, and structuring sales team to succeed. Often called “business development” we’ll also dive into the tools and processes used by entrepreneurs today. In addition, we’ll highlight several startups (many Haas founded) and understand the real-world decisions faced by founders and business development teams through guest speakers.

CAREER FIELD: The course is valuable for any MBA who wants to understand how revenue is generated. It’s especially useful for joining a startup or creating their own. Since the content is foundational this course has proved popular students interested in Business Development, Partnerships, Customer Success, Account Executive or Corporate Development careers.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Joe Wadcan currently is CEO and co-founder of Bevy Inc. a calendar startup in San Francisco. He is a Berkeley-Haas alumni (2012) and created this course understand the foundations and opportunities of the sales discipline. Previously led Business Development at GitHub, and joined the scaling sales team ramping 8 to 150+ people. Joe has founded a dozen startups, invests in Berkeley startups and briefly worked at Javelin Ventures in San Francisco.