Course Syllabus
BMG 100 / ESHIP 106: Venture Launch Fall 2019
Santa Rosa Junior College Tuesday, 6 – 9pm
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Instructor |
Daniel Weinzveg, MA |
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Classroom |
Maggini 2801 |
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Office Hours |
By appointment |
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dweinzveg@gmail.com |
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Bio |
www.dweinzveg.com |
Course Prerequisites and Standard Course Description: https://bit.ly/2RHVU2E
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Identify, develop, and assess the viability of new opportunities, business models, and ventures.
- Identify the skills and resources needed to capitalize on and execute a business model.
- Assess the potential for the successful launch and growth of a new venture.
Objectives:
Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Identify the type of business to be launched.
- Define the business model for the launch.
- Conduct a feasibility assessment of the venture concept and business model.
- Complete an initial financial assessment of a venture.
- Develop practical / realistic strategies for funding a venture.
- Learn how to make effective presentations.
- Assess the demands and rewards of entrepreneurship as a potential career path.
Course Format
The course is structured to provide learning via three complementary means:
- Lectures, workshops, readings, podcasts and class discussions
- Exercises on opportunity and business model development and assessment and
- Project through which students will apply concepts and tools explored in class to experience the process of bringing an idea to market first hand.
Required Texts
Just Start, Schlesinger, et al. ISBN 978-1422143612
Start-Up Owner’s Manual by Steve Blank
Business Model Generation, Osterwalder and Pigneur ISBN 978-0470876411
Operating Agreements:
To ensure a constructive learning environment, the class will agree to:
- Appropriate use of technology
- Listen to understand & ask to clarify
- Disagree with ideas, not people
- Step up / Step back (e.g. extroverts make space for introverts / introverts claim space)
- Embrace creativity
- Take risks
Grading
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Item |
Weight |
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Writing: Assessment tools that demonstrate writing skill and/or require students to select, organize and explain ideas in writing. |
40% |
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Problem solving: Assessment tools, other than exams, that demonstrate competence in computational or non-computational problem solving skills. |
30% |
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Skill Demonstrations: All skill-based and physical demonstrations used for assessment purposes including skill performance exams. |
20% |
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Class Participation: Attendance, in class discussions and activities. |
10% |
- All written assignments must be submitted electronically by 6:00 p.m. on the due date.
- Assignments received after but within 2 hours of the submission deadline will receive an automatic deduction of 25% of the maximum possible points for the assignment.
- Assignments received 2 hours after the deadline will receive a score of zero (0) points.
Rubric for Assessing Student Participation
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Exemplary (90-100%) |
Proficient (80-89%) |
Developing (70-79%) |
Unacceptable (<70%) |
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Frequency |
Student initiates contributions more than once in each class. |
Student initiates contribution once in each class. |
Student initiates contribution at least in half of the classes. |
Student does not initiate contribution & needs instructor to solicit input. |
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Quality of Comments |
Comments insightful & constructive. Comments balanced between general impressions, opinions & specificity.. |
Comments mostly insightful & constructive. Occasionally comments are too general or not relevant to the discussion. |
Comments are sometimes constructive, and not always relevant to the discussion. |
Comments are uninformative, with heavy reliance on opinion (e.g., “I love it”) |
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Listening |
Student listens attentively when others present materials, perspectives, as indicated by comments that build on others’ remarks, i.e., student hears what others say & contributes to the dialogue. |
Student is mostly attentive when others present ideas, materials, as indicated by comments that reflect & build on others’ remarks. Occasionally needs encouragement or reminder from instructor of focus of comment. |
Student is often inattentive and needs reminder of focus of class. Occasionally makes disruptive comments while others are speaking. |
Does not listen to others; talks while others speak or does not pay attention while others speak; detracts from discussion; sleeps; uses phone or laptop in class to do other activities instead of listen |
*Based on Rubric provided by Carnegie Mellon University
Letter grades are assigned as follows:
Excellent / “A” Level – Creative insights and conclusions. Thoughts are presented in a very thoughtful and engaging manner. The writing style and organization of material reflects professional writing practices, and the adherence to grammar rules is close to flawless. The submission is comprehensive and demonstrates an excellent grasp and synthesis of course concepts. The analysis is outstanding and the insights developed are exceptional.
Good / “B” Level – Creative insights and conclusions. Thoughts are presented in an organized manner. Presents a good analysis and synthesis of course concepts. The writing style and organization of material reflects an understanding of professional writing practices, and the submission does not contain major grammatical or formatting errors.
Satisfactory / “C” Level – The submission lacks originality, depth of analysis, or synthesis of course concepts, and/or there is little support provided for conclusions. While generally coherent, the submission does not sufficiently reflect an understanding of professional business writing practices and contains multiple errors in organization and/or grammar.
Poor / “D” Level – The submission lacks original insights and/or demonstrates poor analysis and synthesis of course concepts. The submission does not reflect an understanding of adequate writing practices and contains multiple errors in organization and/or grammar.
Fail / “F” Level – Incoherent, illogical, factually inaccurate, and inconsistent.
*You must bring up any questions or concerns about scores or feedback on assignments within one week of receipt. Please note that asking for an incomplete is not an option for students with an overall failing grade in the course.
**The work you submit must be your own. Plagiarism (including cutting and pasting text from any source) is unacceptable and will be grounds for academic discipline. If you use a source, cite your source using the MLA format.
The Project
The objective of the project is to help students learn the fundamentals of the venture development processes by applying the business model canvas framework in Business Model Generation and the customer discovery process to the assessment of an opportunity of their choice. The end goal and final deliverable of the project is a detailed and well-supported assessment of the viability of the opportunity and the business model developed to exploit the opportunity.
The focus of the project is to test / assess the various assumptions you make (also referred to as
“hypotheses”) about the opportunity and each of the elements of your business model. As noted by Blank and Dorf in The Startup Owner’s Manual, in order to effectively assess the viability of an
opportunity / business model / venture you must “get out of the building” and actively engage key stakeholders. Examples of this type of research includes (but is not limited to) directly engaging with and observing potential customers to clarify your assumptions about customer segments and value propositions, talking to prospective distributors and partners, and contacting suppliers about costs.
To assist you in this process, there are multiple project segments scheduled over the semester, each covering key elements of a business model. For each segment, you will prepare and submit a written/graphic document and make a 5-10 minute in-class presentation in order to receive developmental feedback from the instructor and classmates. The project and course concludes with your preparation and submission of a final assessment of the viability of the opportunity and your business model.
Students may complete the project individually, but are encouraged to form a
team of up to three (3) people due to the project demands and to reflect a more
realistic process of new venture development. If you choose to work as a team, all
assignments are to be submitted as a team (one document/file per team), and each
team member will receive the same score for each project segment.
Students are encouraged to forward one of their own ideas, and if they are unsure of what to do, can seek counsel from other students or the professor. Projects with environmental sustainability as an operating value are eligible to compete in the Sonoma Clean Power Pitch Competition. Only students in ESHIP 106 are eligible for this competition and prize money can be as much as $10,000.
Due to time limitations, the total number of projects in the class will be limited to fifteen.
Course Calendar
Unless otherwise stated, class meets Tuesdays, 6-9pm, in Maggini 2801. The following schedule, topics, and assignment/deliverable due dates are subject to change.
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Date |
Focus |
Assignments & Readings |
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Week 1 |
Self Assessment Network Assessment Risk Assessment |
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Week 2 |
Environment Scan Engaging Stakeholders Overcoming Constraints/Obstacles |
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Week 3 |
Developing & Discovering Opportunities |
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Week 4 |
Legal GPS |
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Week 5 |
Business Models |
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Week 6 |
Identifying pain points Testing solutions Scaling |
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Week 7 |
Value Proposition Product Market Fit Pricing Models |
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Week 8 |
Get, Keep & Grow Customers |
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Week 9 |
Mid-Term Presentations |
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Week 10 |
Business Operations (human, intellectual and financial resources) Suppliers, vendors and partners |
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Week 11 |
Cost Structures Funding Options (e.g. bootstrap, crowdfund, token sale, VCs & angels, bank loan) |
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Week 12 |
Sales & Selling |
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Week 13 |
Exit Strategies |
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Week 14 |
The Business Plan |
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Week 15 |
Class As Consultants |
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Week 16 |
Shark Tank |
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Week 17 |
Next Steps |
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
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