Capstone I

0.25 Course Units

Over the next semester in Capstone, you’ll take what you’ve learned in all your courses in the Education Entrepreneurship Program—and apply that learning to design a venture you can launch in the real world, within your current organization, or as a new organization. As you do the work, you’ll develop your education entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial competencies. Competencies combine the concepts learned in other courses, the skills acquired in different classes and Capstone, and the mindsets developed in other courses and Capstone. Capstone accomplishes the objective of entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial competency development by creating a three-part venture design process: venture discovery, venture development, and venture modeling. 1. Venture discovery is accomplished through the problem-defining and customer discovery processes (roughly August - December). Both these processes are iterative. By the middle of December, you should have clearly defined your problem and ideal customer. To accomplish this, you must begin the discovery process in August, immediately after our first intensive. 2. Venture development occurs between January and March by developing and running a Minimum Viable Experiment (MVE). 3. Venture modeling happens via business modeling (in your Finance course) and pitch development (in your Capstone course). You will develop the components of the venture model beginning in December and continuing and iterating all winter and spring. Through the first half of this year-long process, you will: # apply the concepts you’re learning in your other EdEnt courses # practice key entrepreneurial skills # develop stronger entrepreneurial mindsets # build powerful and lasting relationships # build and access influential networks The pedagogy of Capstone is experiential learning, i.e.,’ learning by doing: by doing problem defining, by doing customer discovery, by doing a minimum viable experiment, by doing business modeling, you will learn how to become a better entrepreneur/intrapreneur. In addition, by learning how to tell stories–of your venture, venture journey, and journey– in concise, compelling ways, you will learn how to acquire the resources you need to accomplish your venture goals. You’ll have repeated opportunities over the year to develop, test, and iterate on your venture story and tell it to various audiences in various settings and time scales. This storytelling culminates in your final paper and your final pitch. The Capstone faculty and mentors, a deeply experienced team of academic, business, and design professionals available to mentor and advise you in group and individual settings, will support you in your journey. In addition, the previous eight cohorts of EdEnt are an invaluable asset. Alumni will occasionally return to engage with you to share their entrepreneurial journeys, as will additional speakers via webinars. We will also offer supplemental content webinars, some of which may require viewing. Fall, Spring, and Summer Terms 0.25 Course Units