Tech Entrepreneurship

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Each day, new innovations enter the market, potentially defining how we view our world or our relationship to it and others in it. Many are iterations, incremental improvements in existing technologies, while others represent wholly new paradigms or market segments. Regardless of the scale, however, each of these innovations started with an idea that was nurtured, tested, and refined before it came into the general consciousness of our society. In this course, we will explore how innovations are brought to market through the lens of forming and launching a technology startup. We will examine each of the major functions that define an early stage company (e.g., technology, finance, operations, marketing) to understand how these areas interact and what they contribute to delivering long-term value to the fledgling company. To this end, as a class, we will spend the semester working through the formation and launch of a fictitious company, Hoya, Inc. that will form the foundation of our case-based class discussions. In parallel, students will form in groups of 2–4 to create their own in-course startups (which may be based on their own IRL startups, as applicable). Working in teams, the companies will apply the learnings from the readings and class to form, launch, and grow their own fictitious startups over the course of the semester, culminating in a mock pitch event on the final day. During the course of the semester, students will learn how to develop several key artifacts common to all startups (tech-based or otherwise), including: - A pro forma financial model (in Excel and/or Google Sheets) - A capitalization (cap) table (in Excel and/or Google Sheets) - An investor-focused pitch deck (in PowerPoint or Google Slides) - A go-to-market strategy - An executable SAFE (Simplified Agreement for Future Equity)