Chuck Eesley

Tests for the business model

2012-05-25T01:58:00.001-04:00

Startup teams should think hard about which assumptions in the business model are the most critical and the most risky. What most needs to be true for this to work? Test those assumptions first. I can't tell you exactly how to experiment on and test each and every aspect and not all business models contain each part of the business model. So you have to use some creative thinking on your own. Below are some guidelines and suggestions to get you started thinking. In general, you should try to be as quantitative and objective as you can in deciding what worked and what didn't. You're not trying to run tests for the sake of running tests or to generate glory metrics (we had 100,000 users - ok, well is that 100,000 daily users, email signups, hits to the website?). Rather the point is to actually think critically and learn something about how best to organize your business - before your competitors learn it faster!

It is up to you to prioritize your testing process. One part of your business model may be highly uncertain. You might want to test this first, particularly if it's a very important aspect of the model and if you can find a way to test it relatively cheaply and quickly. You want to turn your assumptions into data points and you want to generate the most valuable pieces of data first, before you spend a lot of time and money. However, you may have debates within your team about which tests and data points you should focus on generating first. There's no way that I can tell you ahead of time for all the different types of businesses out there where to start precisely.

Marketing

As I mentioned on the videos, marketing starts with a thorough understanding of your customers and market segment as well as the type of market (new, growing, mature). First brainstorm several potential ways to reach your target customers. Ideally you can involve potential customers in your brainstorming. Then prioritize these marketing strategies into the cheapest and easiest ones to test out first.

You want to carefully track these marketing campaigns so that you can later calculate your cost of user acquisition. How much did you have to spend on each marketing campaign to get a single customer to buy? Or if they can't buy yet, how much did you have to spend to get them to leave an email address? Then you can start to track which type of marketing strategies are the most cost effective? You might try a campaign on facebook, hold a raffle, buy some google adwords, etc.

Sales

If you have a consumer web product or if you have a physical product or are selling to other businesses your sales process may look very different. Nonetheless, there will be some type of sales funnel or process. If you're selling to a business, who are the key decision makers? What does their process look like for approving a sale? How long does it take? Can you brainstorm several possible sales strategies and order them from cheapest and easiest to the most expensive. Start with the cheap or free ones (contacting your network). Can you try to make a few initial sales? Which strategies or tactics seem to work best? Where to potential customers get stuck and why?

Partnerships

Does your business model require partners? If you need a supplier or a distributor, can you reach out and talk to a few of them? What information do they need? Are they potentially interested in partnering with you? If so, under what terms and conditions? What types of firms seem to be most interested in partnering with you? Do you have bi-directional relevance that Alex Rampell speaks about?

Distribution

How will you distribute your product? Are there distribution partners you need to contact? Is your distribution through the web? How much will setting up distribution channels cost you? Should you sell the product directly or through a third party or retailer? What is the best way to reach your customers? Who can you talk with to learn the best way to set up distribution for your company?

Costs

What are your costs and how can you get them to be as low as possible? See if you can estimate the cost of goods if you're producing a physical product. If you have a service or a website, then how much will personnel cost you in the first year or two? How much will server space and hosting cost you? Do you need customer support? I don't want you to spend a ton of time on financial models that will never come true. However, to check whether your business model is viable, you need to get sense for whether the dollars coming in through revenue will be greater than the dollars flowing out in costs.

Revenue Model

How will customers pay you and how much are they willing to pay? Is a subscription model better than a one time payment? Is it better to rent to them or sell? Does a freemium model make sense and if so, what features will people pay to upgrade for? Run some tests with customers to see what the best revenue model would be. Are you planning to make money through advertising? If so, contact a few potential advertisers and see if they are interested and how much they would pay you. How many users do you need for them to be interested in advertising on your site. Try to think outside of the box and not just rely on advertising-based business models. It's great if you can have a few different potential revenue streams to test out. Are there other ways you might charge for the product or service? Which might yield the most revenue? How do you know?

There may be additional aspects to your business model. If so, generate a few alternatives and get out into the real world and start testing some of them out to see what works best. You can't figure these things out just sitting around a table and brainstorming or theorizing. You have to get out there and talk to people out in the world who will often tell you things you never would have thought of or expected. Use this feedback to then refine your model. We want to see what you thought initially, what you learned from the real world interaction/testing and then how you revised your business model based on that feedback. Hypothesize, test, revise or in other words, build, test, iterate.

It's discovery-driven planning or customer development.

Session 8

2012-05-24T13:14:00.001-04:00

Having just finished the OAP project, many teams will be even more excited about pursuing their ideas, having received positive feedback from customers and realizing there is a large market potential out there.

Other teams will have received less than positive feedback from customers and will have realized that their initial idea is not feasible.

For the latter teams, you can change to a new idea for the OEP project if you would like. Ideally, you would choose a related idea rather than a completely new one so that you can leverage some of the learning generated from your OAP activities.

For the former teams, I encourage you to not get too carried away with optimism for your startup. There will be ups and downs and you need to remain somewhat self-critical and open-minded as you begin to test the other parts of your business.

We are now beginning the first of a few sessions on fundraising and venture capital. My friend Henry Wong, a serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist with Garage Ventures agreed to get us started by telling us how he thinks about the pitch from entrepreneurs. Henry is a frequent mentor and guest speaker in my class at Stanford and I appreciate his help!

Session 8

Intro to venture finance

Videos

Acid Test for Entrepreneurs by Henry Wong

[Transcript download]

[Slides]

Assignment

Work on OEP (test the other aspects of your business model)
Work on your website/mobile app/prototype to help you test the other aspects of your business model (marketing, partnerships, etc.). Having a beta version or prototype to put in front of people is incredibly helpful. You should have built a basic version in the OAP, now it's time to upgrade it and use it for the rest of your business model tests.
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 13.1, 13.3, 13.7-13.8
Read entries from Feld's term sheet blog

Price

Liquidation Preference

Board of Directors

Anti-Dilution

First time here?

See the class description and frequently asked questions.

The course operates according to the flipped class, where team-based, experiential education (learning by doing) is central and video lectures and readings are there for support.

If you'd like, form a team and follow along at http://venture-lab.org, like us on facebook and join the group, or follow the Google+ page.

Start with the intro and course overview videos.

See what some of the teams did for the last assignment and the description of the next assignment.

View the videos for Sessions 1-3 to catch up here.

View the videos for Session 4 here.

OEP Project

2012-05-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

For the OEP project, you will continue testing the assumptions in the various pieces of your business model. You've tested the value proposition with customers as part of the OAP.

Now you should start testing the other critical assumptions in your business model. You can also begin creating a prototype or beta version of the product/service/website to help as you continue testing.

The last set of videos covered the sales and marketing aspects. You could brainstorm several sales and marketing strategies and begin testing them.

The session 7 videos discuss Partnerships. You can begin contacting and talking with the potential partners that you might (or might not) need for your venture. Under what conditions are they willing to work with you?

You can move on subsequently to testing the other assumptions in the business model ... the revenue model, etc.

The Opportunity Execution Project is a chance for your team to think about how to take your idea from a business plan on paper and turn it into a real company. For this part, your analysis should include all aspects of your business model, including the following:

Fundamental Problem. What is the fundamental problem you are solving for the end user of your product? What is the fundamental problem you're solving for your customer (if it is different from the end user)? Give a quick recap of your OAP - just a reminder of your key points and the takeaway.

Business Model. You now have had some more time to think about your opportunity. Do you have any additional thoughts/changes about the business model?

Sales & Marketing Strategy. How would you sell your product? What distribution channels would you use? How would you create demand for your product?

Risk. Regarding financial, technical, people, and market risks; which one is of most concern? Which would you choose to address first and why? How would you manage or minimize each of the high-priority risks going forward?

Partners and Allies. Who will be your major partners? How will your product be made? Will your company produce all of the parts, or will it use external suppliers? How would you go about attracting these partners and allies to work with your company?

Funding. How would you fund your venture? Would you bootstrap, take money from venture capitalists, take funding from a corporate investor, etc?

Team. Who would you need on your team in order to make this venture a success? What kind of experience and skills would your team need? How would you go about attracting them to your company?

Milestones

Opportunity Execution Presentation. Presentations are limited to 10 minutes per team including Q&A. The best presentations are often the shortest and most succinct. A summary at the end of the presentation is often very powerful.

Deliverables: All teams, regardless of which day they are presenting, must post their PowerPoint deck or presentation video.

For this assignment you will upload a 5-10 minute video to YouTube and tag it with "Chuck Eesley Technology Entrepreneurship class OEP" and then post the link to the video so that other students can watch these.

June 19th, Post your OEP written analysis (1500 words) to your team website and link in the discussion comments. Your team is strongly encouraged to keep your written analysis to 1500 words, as this is a good opportunity to learn how to be succinct in business communications.

REMINDER: As has been mentioned in class, the key to the OEP (like the OAP) is the depth of your analysis and what you learned from it. If after careful research you have determined that your business idea is not as promising as you originally thought, it is totally acceptable to present an OEP that describes why your idea WON'T work rather than why it is the next big thing. An honest, rigorous analysis of an idea that didn't survive further scrutiny is preferable to either (a) a half-baked presentation of an idea you're unsure of, or (b) an enthusiastic pitch for your current idea, even though you know it is problematic.

Mentor profiles

2012-05-18T22:15:00.000-04:00

We now have mentor profiles on Venture Lab!

Mentors: Thanks for agreeing to be a mentor on venture lab. I am sure the students will find your wisdom and experience invaluable. Could you please sign up at:

http://venture-lab.org/mentors/sign_up

We will need very basic information, a short bio, and preferably a picture. If you need any information or have any questions, please feel free to email me or mentors@venture-lab.org

Session 7 videos

2012-05-18T12:30:00.001-04:00

First time here?

See the class description and frequently asked questions.

The course operates according to the flipped class, where team-based, experiential education (learning by doing) is central and video lectures and readings are there for support.

If you'd like, form a team and follow along at http://venture-lab.org, like us on facebook and join the group, or follow the Google+ page.

Start with the intro and course overview videos.

See what some of the teams did for the last assignment and the description of the next assignment.

View the videos for Sessions 1-3 to catch up here.

View the videos for Session 4 here.

Session 6

OAP Presentations

Upload to YouTube with "technology entrepreneurship venture lab 2012" as a tag and/or http://venture-lab.org by 5/20

Opportunity Execution Project (OEP)

SEGMENT 4

Session 7

Partnerships and Negotiations

Video

Distribution Channels and Partnerships by Alex Rampell, founder and CEO, TrialPay

If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the

YouTube HTML5 Video Player

, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

Experimenting on Someone Else's Dime

If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the

YouTube HTML5 Video Player

, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

Assignment

Work on OEP (specifically partnerships section of the business model)
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 12.3-12.4, 12.7, 12.9-12.10

Additional Resources

More videos on ECorner on Partnerships and on Negotiation

Panel Discussion on Entrepreneurship and the Social Good

2012-05-11T12:06:00.000-04:00

I was recently on a panel at a conference on entrepreneurship and innovation at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. The panel discussion was about Entrepreneurship and the Social Good.

Below is the video:

If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

First time here?

See the class description and frequently asked questions.
The course operates according to the flipped class, where team-based, experiential education (learning by doing) is central and video lectures and readings are there for support.
If you'd like, form a team and follow along at http://venture-lab.org, like us on facebook and join the group, or follow the Google+ page.
Start with the intro and course overview videos.
See what some of the teams did for the last assignment and the description of the next assignment.
View the videos for Sessions 1-3 to catch up here.
View the videos for Session 4 here.

Videos for Session 5

2012-05-10T18:06:00.003-04:00

This week's videos are about entrepreneurial marketing and sales. I'm not giving a specific assignment to hypothesize and test these aspects of your business model since you have the OAP project assignment due soon. But these aspects should eventually be tested and experimented with as well as the videos indicate.

First time here?

See the class description and frequently asked questions.
The course operates according to the flipped class, where team-based, experiential education (learning by doing) is central and video lectures and readings are there for support.
If you'd like, form a team and follow along at http://venture-lab.org, like us on facebook and join the group, or follow the Google+ page.
Start with the intro and course overview videos.
See what some of the teams did for the last assignment and the description of the next assignment.
View the videos for Sessions 1-3 to catch up here.
View the videos for Session 4 here.

Session 5

Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing

Videos

Video 5-1
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.
[Transcript download]
Slides
Video 5-2 Marketing
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.
[Transcript download]
Slides
Video 5-3 Sales
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.
[Transcript download]
Slides

Assignment

Practice and create your OAP presentation and video
Estimate the market size
Talk to more customers face to face (preferred) and do a survey
Update business model canvas, blog, and/or your website

Recommended Reading

Legal issues - 10.3-10.8
Ch. 11.1-11.4, 11.8-11.9
Steve Brown's http://www.innovatorstraction.com/

Additional Resources

More videos on ECorner on sales and marketing
The Chasm Group web site, Geoff Moore's marketing strategy consulting firm.

Videos for Session 4

2012-05-03T01:12:00.000-04:00

First time here?

See the class description and frequently asked questions.
The course operates according to the flipped class, where team-based, experiential education (learning by doing) is central and video lectures and readings are there for support.
If you'd like, form a team and follow along at http://venture-lab.org, like us on facebook and join the group, or follow the Google+ page.
Start with the intro and course overview videos.
See what some of the teams did for the last assignment and the description of the next below.
View the videos for Sessions 1-3 to catch up here.
View the interview with Andy Bechtolsheim here.

Session 4

Customer Development and Lean Startups

Videos

Video 4-1 - Customer Development
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

Transcript download

Slides

Video 4-2
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

Transcript download

Slides

Video 4-3-1
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.
[Transcript download]
Slides

Video 4-3-2
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.
[Transcript download] Slides

Video 4-3-3
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

Transcript download

Assignment

Work on OAP (update blog) - The team should brainstorm to find an idea and then fill in an initial hypothesis for each aspect of the business model canvas.
- Testing your "value proposition" with potential customers by talking with them face to face, the more face to face interviews with users/customers the better.
- The people with a "technical" background on the team should focus on setting up and running these meetings.
- Estimating the market size in dollars (or your local currency)
  Potentially doing a survey to gain more information about your target customers (see the Resources and Tools page for help).
Create a low fidelity version of your website with a splash page and email signup (the people with a business background on the team should do this). (see the Resources and Tools page for help)

You can submit as many reports as you want for each task. All members of a group can edit the team submission, we keep your ten latest revisions, and you can revert back to any of them whenever you want. The team leader can "lock" a report meaning that none of the members can no longer edit it. Note that the team leader can unlock a report whenever they would like to.

The goal is to test your value proposition, to figure out if your users really have the problem/need you're hypothesizing and to create a very simple version of the website for it.

Recommended Reading

Browse Steve Blank's blog categories: Customer Development and Customer Development Manifesto
Browse Eric Ries’ blog posts on customer development
Ch. 7.1-7.3, 8.1-8.2, 8.4-8.5

Additional Resources

"Four Steps to the Epiphany" available on Amazon or at http://www.cafepress.com/kandsranch
More videos on ECorner on product development

Find a Mentor

2012-04-30T17:48:00.003-04:00

Once you have formed your team, see the Find a Mentor page and look through the comments to see the bios of those who are interested in mentoring a team through the course.

If you see a mentor you'd like to work with, leave your contact information as a response to their comment and if there is mutual interest, they will contact you. If you do get in touch with a mentor, I will tell you the same thing I tell my Stanford students, which is to arrange your schedule around that of your mentor's. Make it easy for them to meet with you and mentor you. They are busy people and want to give back, but you should make it as easy on them as possible. Please thank them for whatever time and advice they can offer.

Some of the mentors are ready to get started now. Others will join once the OAP projects have been submitted on May 19th and we will match the top 30 teams up with mentors to help for the final project presentation.

Thank you to the Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs group for your support!

Opportunity to Meet VCs and Fundraiser to Cure Cancer

2012-04-29T15:18:00.003-04:00

Dear Chuck,

My name is Tiffany Lan and I am participant in Venture Lab and a PR agent for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society(LLS). I am writing to you to let you know about a great opportunity for the members of Venture Lab to meet with VCs! The Venture Capital Master’s Lunch Series(Round two), an online eBay auction of meetings with area VCs is a fundraising initiative lead by Roger Royse - a candidate for Man/Woman of The Year.

The LLS reaches millions of people each year and is the leader in scientific research in finding a cure to blood cancers. The first round of the auction raised $46k for LLS and we are hoping Venture Lab can help spread the word -- perhaps a forward of the Ebay site to the members of Venture Lab?

See the EBay site for our second round.

The following are up for bidding in the auction:

Private Meeting with Kittu Kolluri, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates
Private Meeting with Scott Sandell, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates
Lunch with Patrick Chung, Partner, New Enterprise Associates, & Jonathan Heiliger, General Partner, North Bridge Ventures
Lunch with Byron Deeter, Partner, Ethan Kurzweil VP, Bessemer Venture Partners, & Sarah Tavel (former VP at Bessemer, now at Pinterest)
Lunch with Josh Stein, Managing Director, DFJ

See the articles at:
http://business.cbs5.com/cbslocal.cbs5/news/read?GUID=21165717

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/16/founders-and-investors-cancer-benefit-auction/

______
First time here?

See the class description and frequently asked questions.
The course operates according to the flipped class, where team-based, experiential education (learning by doing) is central and video lectures and readings are there for support.
If you'd like, form a team and follow along at http://venture-lab.org, like us onfacebook and join the group, or follow the Google+ page.
Start with the intro and course overview videos.
See what some of the teams did for the last assignment and the description of the next assignment.
View the videos for Sessions 1-3 to catch up here.

Interview with Andy Bechtolsheim

2012-04-27T00:06:00.000-04:00

First time here?

See the class description and frequently asked questions.
The course operates according to the flipped class, where team-based, experiential education (learning by doing) is central and video lectures and readings are there for support.
If you'd like, form a team and follow along at http://venture-lab.org, like us on facebook and join the group, or follow the Google+ page.
Start with the intro and course overview videos.
See what some of the teams did for the last assignment and the description of the next assignment.
View the videos for Sessions 1-3 to catch up here.

If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

[Transcript download]

Andy Bechtolsheim founded Sun Microsystems in 1982. He is a serial entrepreneur and investor in Silicon Valley and wrote the first check out to Google, Inc.

William Miller, former Stanford Provost and I interviewed him and asked him about founding Sun, risk, how to decide when to pursue a startup opportunity, venture capital and the story behind investing in Google. It's a terrific interview with some great material and Andy Bechtolsheim is extremely insightful about entrepreneurship. I hope you enjoy this video.

If you're still looking for a team to participate in the startup project, there's still time to sign up at http://venture-lab.org before May 1st and find search for a team. You can also look at the facebook group, find us on LinkedIn or Google+.

Feedback

2012-04-26T20:43:00.000-04:00

Some of you have been asking for feedback on the 2nd assignment.

Overall, I was very happy with the creativity and energy people showed in creating these! I'll be highlighting some of the most viewed and up-voted ones here soon.
Here are three of the videos that have received the most views and upvotes thus far:

The 2nd assignment was intended to help you practice see the flaws in a business model and then changing that business model or idea in some way to improve it. This is one part of what you will be doing during the rest of the course. These "worst" ideas all had some fairly obvious flaw in one or more aspects of the business model. Some of you attempted to fix them by changing the target customer while others kept the target customer the same, but then changed what the "solution" being offered to them would be.

These were called "commercials" rather than pitches. What you all did was not what an investor would want to see in a presentation for fundraising. We'll go over that in a later part of the course and how to do those effectively.

Now that you've practiced "pivoting" or changing the business model in response to part of it not working, we're ready for the next step. In the next assignment you will take the best idea you can come up with as a team and start testing it to find out if customers really have that problem or are interested in your solution. Often you will get some negative feedback and have to pivot or change the business model in response to this feedback. That might require changing the market or changing the solution or the value proposition you're offering to customers. This will be much harder with your own ideas than it was with someone else's idea. So this exercise was meant to help get you ready for working on your own startup projects in the next phase. In the next projects we will help you to crowd source feedback from your peers and mentors along the way. This will be a key aspect of the next project.

If you're still looking for a team, there's still time to sign up and join, it's not too late to get involved and get started even if you've missed the first assignments.

Some people have asked how to switch to a different team after they have committed to one team. Eventually we should have this feature. One workaround in the meantime is to sign up again under a new email address and join a different team.

Opportunity Analysis Project Due 5/19

2012-04-24T15:20:00.000-04:00

Great job with the commercials, I hope you're enjoying watching them as much as I have been. You all did a great job turning someone else's "worst" idea into something with potential. This experience will serve you well for the next project, the opportunity analysis project (OAP).

Please search for teammates form your final teams (3-4 people recommended) by May 1st and start brainstorming together on a startup idea to pursue for the rest of the class (OAP and OEP).

You should then start:

Testing your "value proposition" with potential customers by talking with them face to face, the more face to face interviews with users/customers the better. The people with a "technical" background on the team should focus on setting up and running these meetings.
Estimating the market size in dollars (or your local currency)
Potentially doing a survey to gain more information about your target customers (see the Resources and Tools page for help).

We will give you specific instructions later for how to blog your activity and create the website for your project, so don't start on that just yet.

The goal is to test your value proposition, to figure out if your users really have the problem/need you're hypothesizing and to create a very simple version of the website for it.

The deliverable for OAP is a 2-5 minute presentation (again, video, slides, and/or text) covering what you learned from talking to potential customers, the market size and whether they would pursue this opportunity or change some aspect or the entire idea for the OEP final project. You can also change your idea along the way in response to feedback from customers - in fact this is exactly the process we want to see evidence of you doing.

The due date is May 19th, 6pm (18:00) PST/UTC-8.

UPDATE: Some people have asked how to switch to a different team after they have committed to one team. Eventually we should have this feature. One workaround in the meantime is to sign up again under a new email address and join a different team.

UPDATE: Scott Rakestraw put together a playlist of the YouTube video submissions for the last assignment:

Please go and view some of the videos and comment as well as "like" the ones you think are better so that we can see which ones are getting upvoted more.

Part One

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8D4B4B3938569C1E

Part Deux

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8933120545487BB1

Part Three

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL699EAE11257350FA

Videos for Sessions 1 to 3

2012-04-23T14:54:00.005-04:00

SEGMENT 1 - For help in finding a team go to http://venture-lab.org
Remaining videos will come one session per week.

Session 1

Course Overview: Silicon Valley and Key Frameworks

Videos

Video 1 - Overview
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users. This can also be used to playback the video at a faster rate of speed.

[Transcript download]
Slides

Business models
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Video 2
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Transcript download

Slides

Video 3
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Transcript download

Slides

Video 4 - This video encourages you to set up a blog - do NOT do this just yet, we will provide more detailed instructions for how to do this so that they can be aggregated more easily.
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Transcript download

Video 5: Building the Team
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Transcript download

Instagram cofounders on Startup Ideas

Recommended Reading

Ch. 1.1, 1.2, 1.5
Ch. 2.1, 2.4
The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Komisar, Prologue, Preface, and Chapters 1-3

Additional Resources (optional)

"The Secret History of Silicon Valley," Steve Blank, Nov 20, 20008.
It's Not the People You Know. It's Where You Are, Randall Stross, NYT, Oct 22, 2006.
"When it Comes to Innovation, Geography is Destiny," Pascal Zachary, NYT, Feb 11, 2007.
"Growth of a Silicon Empire", Henry Norr.
Fred Terman at Stanford
More videos on ECorner on team and culture

Session 2

Creativity and Improvisation

Videos

Video of talk by Kirsten Leute from the Stanford Office of Technology Licensing
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Transcript download

Video 2-1
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Transcript download

Video 2-2
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

Transcript download

Assignment

Submit first assignment at http://venture-lab.org or in the comments on these posts "best" ideas and "worst ideas" by 4/16, 12:00pm noon PST (UTC-8)

Recommended Reading

Ch. 3.1-3.4, Ch. 5.3-5.5, 6.2, 6.3
Brainstorming Rules, Stanford Design Institute, Jul 26, 2009.

Additional Resources

Brainstorming Fundamentals, Stanford Design Institute
More videos on ECorner on Creativity

SEGMENT 2

Session 3

From Idea to Opportunity:

Videos

Video 2-3
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.
[Transcript download]

Video 3-1
(note that we will not be doing case discussions, so you should pay more attention to the business models section in the 2nd half)
If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.
[Transcript download]

E145 Session 3 on Prezi

Recommended Reading

Ch. 4.1, 4.4-4.6, 4.8, 9.3-9.4

Assignment

Submit 2nd assignment (commercial for another team's worst idea) at http://venture-lab.org by 4/23, 6:00pm (18:00) PST (UTC-8)
Startup the OAP project - form your main project team, begin brainstorming and deciding on a startup idea for the OAP project. For help in finding a team go to http://venture-lab.org
Your team should update a blog each week with the hypothesis you tested, what experiment(s) you ran, and what the outcome was. Start with talking to potential customers.

Additional Resources

More videos on ECorner on opportunity recognition

"Commercial" for 2nd assignment

2012-04-23T12:57:00.002-04:00

If you're following along on the blog only and want to submit your 2nd assignment, you can insert a link to the YouTube video, Slideshare or just the text in the comments here.

If you're in a team on venture-lab, please upload it there. Thanks!

UPDATE: Scott Rakestraw put together a playlist of the YouTube video submissions thus far:

Part One
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8D4B4B3938569C1E

Part Deux
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8933120545487BB1

Part Three
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL699EAE11257350FA

Please go and view some of the videos and "like" the ones you think are better so that we can see which ones are getting upvoted more.

Outline

2012-04-22T16:00:00.000-04:00

Technology Entrepreneurship, 2012
Charles Eesley, Assistant Professor, Stanford University

For help in finding a team go to http://venture-lab.org

The course is divided up into 2 main sections and each section has a team project in the form of a writeup and presentation. The first section is the Opportunity Analysis Project, here you will test whether the startup idea you have is worth pursuing and customers agree with the problem you are solving. The second section is the Opportunity Execution Project, here you test the rest of the aspects of the business model. Each session corresponds to one week. Each session gives you a different aspect of the business model that you should test for that week. Your team should update a blog each week with the hypothesis you tested, what experiment(s) you ran, and what the outcome was.

Due dates:

4/16 - assignment 1 (brainstorm best/worst ideas - discuss in teams, submit individually)
4/23 - assignment 2 (commercial - team submission)
May 12th for Identifying the market opportunity and testing your value proposition.
5/20 - Opportunity analysis project (team submission) - Your team will brainstorm an idea to work on for a startup project and test that idea with customers and market analysis. You will work on that idea (or you can switch to a new one throughout the remainder of the time.
6/19 - Opportunity execution project (final team submission) - same teams and 2nd phase of the OAP, here you will be testing your solution and the rest of the business model
6/23 - Personal business plan

Segment 1

Session 1

Course Overview: Silicon Valley and Key Frameworks

Videos

Video 1 - Overview (Recommended reading Ch. 1.1, 1.2, 1.5)
Business models
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5: Building the Team
Instagram cofounders on Startup Ideas

Recommended Reading

Ch. 2.1, 2.4
The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Komisar, Prologue, Preface, and Chapters 1-3

Additional Resources (optional)

"The Secret History of Silicon Valley," Steve Blank, Nov 20, 20008.
It's Not the People You Know. It's Where You Are, Randall Stross, NYT, Oct 22, 2006.
"When it Comes to Innovation, Geography is Destiny," Pascal Zachary, NYT, Feb 11, 2007.
"Growth of a Silicon Empire", Henry Norr.
Fred Terman at Stanford
More videos on ECorner on team and culture

Session 2

Creativity and Improvisation

Videos

Assignment

Submit first assignment at http://venture-lab.org or in the comments on these posts "best" ideas and "worst ideas" by 4/16, 12:00pm noon PST (UTC-8)

Recommended Reading

Ch. 3.1-3.4, Ch. 5.3-5.5, 6.2, 6.3
Brainstorming Rules, Stanford Design Institute, Jul 26, 2009.

Additional Resources

Brainstorming Fundamentals, Stanford Design Institute
More videos on ECorner on Creativity

Segment 2

Session 3

From Idea to Opportunity:

Videos

Recommended Reading

Ch. 4.1, 4.4-4.6, 4.8, 9.3-9.4

Assignment

Submit 2nd assignment (commercial for another team's worst idea) at http://venture-lab.org by 4/23, 6:00pm (18:00) PST (UTC-8)
Startup the OAP project
Your team should update a blog each week with the hypothesis you tested, what experiment(s) you ran, and what the outcome was.

Additional Resources

More videos on ECorner on opportunity recognition

Session 4

Customer Development and Lean Startups

Videos

Assignment

Work on OAP (update blog)
Talk to as many potential customers face to face as possible
Create a low fidelity version of your website with a splash page and email signup
Next Deadline: May 12th for Identifying the market opportunity and testing your value proposition

Recommended Reading

Browse Steve Blank's blog categories: Customer Development and Customer Development Manifesto
Browse Eric Ries’ blog posts on customer development
Ch. 7.1-7.3, 8.1-8.2, 8.4-8.5

Additional Resources

"Four Steps to the Epiphany" available on Amazon or at http://www.cafepress.com/kandsranch
More videos on ECorner on product development

Segment 3

Session 5

Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing

Videos

Video 4-4
Video 4-5 Marketing
Video 5-2 Sales

Assignment

Practice and create your OAP presentation/writeup and video
Estimate the market size
Talk to more customers face to face or do a survey
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Legal issues - 10.3-10.8
Ch. 11.1-11.4, 11.8-11.9
Steve Brown's http://www.innovatorstraction.com/

Additional Resources

More videos on ECorner on sales and marketing
The Chasm Group web site, Geoff Moore's marketing strategy consulting firm.

Session 6

OAP Presentations

Upload to YouTube with "technology entrepreneurship venture lab 2012" as a tag and/or http://venture-lab.org by 5/19

Opportunity Execution Project (OEP)

Segment 4

Session 7

Partnerships and Negotiations

Video

Distribution Channels and Partnerships by Alex Rampell, founder and CEO, TrialPay
Experimenting on Someone Else's Dime

Assignment

Work on OEP (specifically partnerships section of the business model)
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 12.3-12.4, 12.7, 12.9-12.10

Additional Resources

More videos on ECorner on Partnerships and on Negotiation

Session 8

Intro to venture finance

Videos

Acid Test for Entrepreneurs by Henry Wong

Assignment

Work on OEP (test the other aspects of your business model)
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 13.1, 13.3, 13.7-13.8
Read entries from Feld's term sheet blog

Price

Liquidation Preference

Board of Directors

Anti-Dilution

Segment 5

Session 9

Videos

Venture Finance Workshop Video 1
Guest lecture by Clint Korver on Boards of Directors

Assignment

Work on OEP (think about fundraising)
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 14.1, 14.3, 15.2, 15.3

Additional Resources

Venture Deals: How to be smarter than your lawyer or VC http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/9236189
More videos on ECorner on venture finance

Session 10

Videos

Guest lecture by Fergus Hurley - Founder, Focal Labs
Guest lecture by Eric Case - Co-founder, Domainr

Assignment

Work on OEP
Specifically, test the revenue model
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 16.1-16.3, 17.1, 17.9

Segment 6

Session 11

Financings and Teams

Videos

Venture Finance Video 2
Venture Finance Video 3

Assignment

Work on OEP
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 18.1, 18.3, 18.8, 19.1-19.3

Session 12

Videos

Interview with Andy Bechtolsheim, founder of Sun Microsystems, angel investor, serial entrepreneur
Interview with Professor David Cheriton

Assignment

Work on OEP
Update blog

Recommended Reading

Ch. 20.1, 20.4
Scaling startups: http://blog.chaddickerson.com/2010/08/05/scaling-startups/
Michael Gray, CPA's Incentive Stock Option (ISO) Frequently Asked Questions (skim only)

Segment 7

Session 13

OEP Team Presentations
Upload to YouTube "technology entrepreneurship venture lab 2012" and/or venture-lab by 6/19

Session 14

Videos

Course Summary

Assignment

Personal Business Plan

Additional Resources

Social entrepreneurship
A Capitalist Jolt for Charity - New York Times
The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship - J. Gregory Dees
More videos on ECorner on Social Entrepreneurship

Suggested chapters from Byers, Dorf, and Nelson, TechnologyVentures: From Idea to Enterprise, 3rd Edition

Steve Blank's Startup Owner's Manual

Forming your main project teams

2012-04-20T17:12:00.004-04:00

Thanks for your interest in venture lab thus far. We have enjoyed reading your projects, a few commercials are already submitted on youtube etc... this is very exciting for us. We are writing this email to tell you that now you can start to form teams for the main class (startup) project.

Please carefully read the instructions at:
http://venture-lab.org/exercises/3

Most important, please click on the button next to the team composition and declare whether you are looking for a team (or additional teammates) so your classmates can get in touch with you. If you have signed up recently and you did not participate in the first and second (mini-) projects, you can take part in the main start up project.

Please change your team designation so you can search on others and become searchable. Please also make sure your profile is complete.

We are in the process of forming a network of mentors including serial entrepreneurs, domain experts from Google, Microsoft, Cisco and other Silicon Valley companies as well as angel investors, and venture capitalists. We hope that everyone will have an opportunity to get their input and advice.

We look forward to working with all of you.

p.s. If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe see the FAQ here and on venture-lab.org.

There is also a Google Doc that many have been using for team formation here.

Lessons and Takeaways Thus Far

2012-04-19T00:53:00.003-04:00

I wanted to recap some of the lessons from the first assignment and preview some of the lessons from the 2nd assignment.

First, while I don't have as much time to do it as I would like, I really enjoy reading the lessons you all are taking away that you've written up. So I want to start highlighting some of these whenever I write up this kind of post. I really think you all will learn much more and retain a lot more through learning from one another and from experience than in hearing it from me in a lecture.

So below I've linked to some lessons that Spike Morelli took the time to write up and I think they're excellent.

http://www.spikelab.org/adventurerslab-part-1-5-lessons-team-building/?sc=bvl

So a lot of people found themselves alone to complete the first assignment. There was some screaming and bashing on the forum, but fundamentally that’s exactly what the assignment was designed for: separating active from passive students. The next challenge is starting today and new teams will be formed based on previous activity so everybody should get a better team.

But not all was bad. I for one was lucky enough to get 3 other active members and together we tried to bring the whole team to life which made for an interesting experience and some good lessons.

The first assignment served several purposes. But let's start with the learning objectives:

1) Brainstorming startup ideas
I wanted to give you all an experience in brainstorming before we have the videos on good brainstorming processes and tips. Through this you also learn that coming up with startup ideas, even 5-10 is fairly easy, though it does require putting in some thought and effort. Nonetheless, it can quickly become hard to decide which one is best to pursue! Hopefully you also learned to use your own experience and to focus on problems that you are passionate about solving.

2) Thinking about business models
I purposefully had you fill in these startup ideas in a format where you would have to begin thinking about all the various aspects of the business model. We will reuse this idea throughout so I wanted to introduce it early as it is key.

3) Recruiting and motivating startup teams
This is meant to be a highly compressed experience of doing a startup. My theory is that you learn more from experiential education than from being told something by a professor. In startups, the quality of the team and the ability to recruit and motivate a team to join you is critical and often problematic. Entrepreneurship is a team sport, not an individual activity. From the number of you that expressed dissatisfaction in who you were matched to, I think many of you learned this loud and clear so no need to belabor the point.

4) Thinking about the differences between good and bad ideas
This is one where I also saw a lot of really good comments. The differences between a good idea and a terrible idea are often quite subtle and a bad idea can often quickly be turned into a good idea if you change one or two components of it slightly. Even ideas that you think are brilliant, often turn out to look like really bad ideas once you've talked to a few customers. So then how do you iterate and move forward once you've found out that your "good" idea isn't so good afterall.

5) Turning bad ideas into good ones
The difference between a good and bad idea often isn't so much about the characteristics of the idea itself. Often it's more about what you do with it and how you change and morph the idea in response to feedback about the aspects of it that aren't so good. It's hard to recognize the bad parts about an idea that you yourself have generated. This is due to certain cognitive biases we all have. It's often much easier to both recognize the flaws in an idea that someone else generated and also to see how to fix those flaws and change aspects of the idea to improve on it. This is what you will largely due in the first part of the main class project (the OAP) and what you are practicing doing in the 2nd assignment with someone else's idea to start with. From the 2nd assignment, I'm hoping that you will see that there are no "bad" ideas, that by applying a bit of thought and creativity, even the "worst" ideas can be improved, tweaked and aspects of the business model changed to where it actually becomes a potentially promising idea! Sometimes it takes reframing the problem, or maybe applying the same solution to a different problem, or the same problem but a different solution or market for it. Many of you by your twitter comments are already noticing this!

6) Entrepreneurship is often about taking the initiative, solving problems and making the best of the situation.
It's easy to give up when the going gets tough with a team, with a project or with an idea. Entrepreneurship requires both determination and patience as well as flexibility to find a way to make it work, even given imperfect circumstances.

Now lets turn to the other more practical purposes.
These are fairly self-explanatory, but let me at least say that it's hard to really get to know other people in an online learning environment, usually it's an individual activity and it's not experiential. By the way, the reason we learn more from experience than from lectures is that experience is both more painful and more fun. It's a more intense experience overall.
Importantly, it's even harder to really get to know what it would be like to work with someone until you've actually had to work together. It's much easier to choose teammates once you have a better sense for what it is that you're looking for and once people have had a chance to show their work, their activity level and even possibly to be rated by previous teammates. It's painful when people don't show up for a 1 week assignment. Yet, it's significantly more painful when they don't show up for your main startup project. It's way, way more painful when you're doing a real startup and it fails not because the idea wasn't good, but because they don't work well together.

1) Determining who will be active/passive in teams

2) Allowing people to meet one another and teams to adjust

3) Allowing people who are too busy to realize they don't have time and to withdraw

4) Allowing time to develop a profile and reputation

Of course, that's not at all to say that all of this was perfectly planned and executed. Not at all. I'm sure with experience and more thought we could have designed much better mechanisms for accomplishing all of this. I'm not sure that people would have learned as much if all went perfectly smoothly and we held your hands through each step either though. With almost all entrepreneurial projects, you often don't get it quite right in the beginning, but you are flexible, learn quickly, design small experiments, and adjust to something that does actually work.

Information on what's to come

2012-04-16T18:22:00.003-04:00

A few topics to clarify:

Centralized information source:

This blog is the main, centralized information source, along with the forums. You will not miss anything if you follow along here, videos, etc. will all be posted here. Once a week or so, I will send an email, especially if there's something particularly important, but you should follow along here. As has been requested recently, I provided a link to sign up for updates here by email on the right.
All other sources, for instance the facebook group, Google+ page, or LinkedIn are for your benefit and have been requested by your peers to allow collaboration and communication between you all, but are not centralized information sources.

Teams:

First assignment: Team of 8-10 you were matched with based on location
Second assignment (commercial): Teams matched on activity level - if your current team is active and has at least 5 active members, you work with them. If you current team (from the 1st assignment) has fewer than 5 active members, we will match you with additional teammates (after the 1st assignment deadline).
Main project (OAP and OEP): You will create your own team. You can use your existing team if you'd like or you can search profiles and add additional teammates (including those who are new). This functionality will be there soon.

*Note, doing it this way allowed us to determine activity levels, active teammates, and build some connections among those who signed up solo. It also enabled you all to learn more about one another. We recognize some came in with teams and are eager to work with those pre-determined teammates.

Due dates:

4/16 (18:00 PST/UTC-8) - assignment 1 (brainstorm best/worst ideas - discuss in teams, submit individually)
4/23 (18:00 PST/UTC-8) - assignment 2 (commercial - team submission)
5/19 - Opportunity analysis project (team submission) - Your team will brainstorm an idea to work on for a startup project and test that idea with customers and market analysis. You will work on that idea (or you can switch to a new one throughout the remainder of the time.
6/19 - Opportunity execution project (final team submission) - same teams and 2nd phase of the OAP, here you will be testing your solution and the rest of the business model
6/23 - Personal business plan (individual)

Timing:

After the 1st assignment deadline we will provide both new teammates (if you have too few active teammates) and we will provide the "worst" idea from another team for you to create your commercial.

The timing is short on the deadline, but we think you can do it and we want to move on to the main project soon.

We will also roll out in the near future the ability to search profiles and designate or invite teammates for the main project.

Videos:
The lecture videos are coming soon hopefully, please be patient with us on these. I think they will help to clarify things, but we're still working on getting them out.

Withdrawing:

Unsubscribe or subscribe via the mailing list here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/venture-lab

Also let your teammates know and you should also use Edit Profile and check the box that excludes you from the matching process and the start up project.

You can always follow along here individually or with your team and you won't miss out on any material. However, you will learn more working with teammates if possible.

Extension due to time format

2012-04-15T17:32:00.002-04:00

I wanted to let you know how impressed we are that so many students participated and everyone has been very creative with this first homework.

However, some of the students did not get the time correct or misunderstood the time format, so we are giving you an additional 24 hours for those who missed it.

The final due date for the first assignment will be 4/16 at 6pm (18:00) Pacific Standard Time (UTC -8). We will not accept any after this time.

For the next assignment the students who were much more active than their teammates will be assigned to new teams after the new deadline and each team will create a short commercial turning one of the worst ideas from another team (we will assign you one randomly) into a good idea.

The project submission has the following format, each team can submit all or either of the following:

1. a couple of paragraphs

2. link to a 2-3 minute youtube video (tagged with "Technology Entrepreneurship Venture Lab 2012"

3. link to a presentation on http://www.slideshare.net/

We highly encourage you to upload videos to YouTube as we'd love to see a lot of these.

This commercial will be due by 4/23 again at 6pm (18:00) PST (UTC-8).

Here are some videos to get you thinking about how to turn these "worst" ideas into something wonderful. Tina Seelig is a colleague who has recently written a new book on creativity called inGenius

http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2779

You can also use some of the resources under the "Resources and Tools" page to practice creating a simple landing page and site for this "worst" idea that you are creating a commercial for...

While you are working on the commercial you can log in and create your final team for the rest of the class projects. These last two class projects will be due 5/19 (the OAP assignment) and 6/19 (the OEP assignment). More detail will be provided on the blog here:http://eesley.blogspot.com/p/class-description.html

You should log into http://venture-lab.org soon and make the following designation very soon so we can introduce the search:

You have to choose:
1- don't want a team, don't want to participate in the main project
2- have a team, and the team is complete.
3- don't have a team, or open to add members to my team.

If you choose the last one, you will be able to search on other students (Country, Aspiration, Industry Sector, Number of Hours, statement) and get in touch with some of them to form teammates. If you choose this option, other students will be able to search and contact you as well. You should also update your personal profile and give details about your project/what you are looking for, who should contact you and so on.

I recommend teams of size 3-4, but you could have a larger team if necessary.

As always, you can also just follow along here.

Next up

2012-04-14T15:44:00.003-04:00

You all are doing great, I'm really impressed by how the teams are working together and that many of you are discussing and gaining insights that are important from this first brainstorming exercise about startup ideas, teams, and business models.

Next up, you will get one of the ideas (best or worst, we'll let you know) from another team and will spend a few days making a "commercial" for that idea - we'll help you find people to collaborate with on that. During this time, you will also be building your own team to work on your startup project with teammates of your choosing.

With over 30,000 people actively involved, we apologize but we can't respond to individual inquiries. The forums and FAQs on http://venture-lab.org and http://eesley.blogspot.com contain many answers. Thank you to those of you who are helping by answering one another's questions. I believe you all will learn much more from one another than from me throughout this activity.

Opportunity looking for a project team

2012-04-13T13:36:00.004-04:00

A friend who is a serial entrepreneur and Stanford alum is looking for a project team...feel free to pass along. It's still in the concept phase, but there is a working prototype to spark ideas for what directions to take it in.

OOTU (Outline of the Universe) allows people to make money from information, expertise, opinions, or ideas by connecting them, using a simple-to-use interface, to the advertising power of search engines. In much the same way that online auction companies allowed individuals to make money from real objects, OOTU enables people to profit from what they know. When their contributions to OOTU’s outline formatted database lead to viewing activity (clicks), they share proportionately in the revenue generated by the site.

The first generation of the site is online (ootu.net, outlineoftheuniverse.com). The project will involve refinement of the customer and USERContributor targets, improvement of the user experience at the site, optimization of the connection between OOTU content and search engines, and evolving the strategy for rapid expansion of the outline. The company welcomes a project team conversation addressing all elements of the business.

The sole owner of the company is a Stanford PhD graduate who has started 5 companies in the last 24 years in the areas of biotechnology and material science. He recently transitioned to Chairman from President/CEO of a Silicon Valley nanotechnology company that created a new material for use in consumer electronic devices. Over the last 8 years, he raised $70 million from U.S. venture capitalists and large company strategic partners in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands.

The founding project team should include 3 to 4 individuals and will be composed of interests, instincts and talents in the areas of search engine optimization, acquisition of internet mind share, and the creation of business focus starting from a platform idea. Those with creative ideas for business models, user interface or backend development are welcome.

Interested candidates please send your résumé to info@ootu.net.

Updates

2012-04-11T21:07:00.000-04:00

You all are doing a terrific job thus far and we've been thrilled to see the teams that are coming together, the photos you're posting from meetups or video chats you all have held across the world, and the level of activity on the forums and social media. Thank you all for the encouraging comments and for working so hard thus far! Already it's clear many of you are learning important things about startup ideas, business models and team building.

For the warm-up exercise, it is one idea per person. You should coordinate among yourselves about who will submit which idea. If you are the only one in your team, you just submit one idea (either best or worst), which is no problem, we'll help you find a team later.

If you're using venture-lab.org, you should login, take a look at the canvas, and start filling it out. If you are following on the blog only, submit in the comments on these posts "best" ideas and "worst ideas" by 4/14, 12pm noon PST (UTC -8, Pacific time).

The deadline is April 14th noon, PST. If you don't submit, you will receive significantly lower priority in the next team formation phase. Each person must submit something (that way we all can see who is active and who isn't), if you have 11 teammates and 11 ideas, everyone submits a different idea (balancing best and worst ideas) - the 11th person gets to submit the 11th idea. If you don't have 11 ideas, the 11th person should just submit her own version of one of the existing ideas. If you have a smaller number of teammates and a correspondingly smaller number of ideas that's fine too as long as everyone who is active submits one. In this round, you are in no way penalized if your teammates are too busy to help. Your initial submission is an important indicator that you wish to work with an active team. Those who do not participate will be matched together.

After the submission you will get a chance to rate each other on performance during the initial assignment.

The next week is going to have a higher work load with the next homework (where you work together with other active classmates to create a short pitch or "commercial" for another team's idea) and start the next phase of team formation where you will be able to search among profiles to build your final team. After that, we will be ready to really begin! For the rest of the time you can work on any idea that you'd like and you are not restricted at all to the ideas you upload in this assignment.

If for any reason your schedule does not allow you to participate, you should also use Edit Profile and check the box that excludes you from the matching process and the start up project. You can also unsubscribe from the mailing list here.

Startup Ideas

2012-04-10T23:11:00.001-04:00

Transcript

Silicon Valley has been buzzing recently with the news that Facebook bought Instagram for $1B. I always caution against taking too much away from these outlier success cases. In science, that's known as sampling on the dependent variable. However, they make some good points about making sure that you're passionate about the area of your startup idea, such that it is related to a theme in your life and something you're willing to be constantly thinking about and developing.

Here are the Instagram founders, who are Stanford alums and former Mayfield Fellows Program students talking about when the "idea" for Instagram came to them. They share a lot of important insights. Be sure to check out the rest of their talk as well.

A recent NYTimes article is here.

Team building advice

2012-04-07T15:35:00.003-04:00

Who should you look for as teammates? What characteristics or skills are important for success?

Since many of you are in the process of looking for teammates, I wanted to say a few words about the characteristics of highly performing startup teams. As you network through the site, with former coworkers, professors, and other entrepreneurs, you want to think carefully about the mix of skills and personalities you're adding to the team. Working with personal friends or family members is sometimes tempting, but the mix of personal relationships and business can result in some difficult situations. More promising is to find people who you've worked with in the past who you know you can work well together with. Or people who your former work colleagues can vouch for who are in their network.

If you can find an experienced entrepreneur, particularly one who has done a similar startup in the same industry before, this can greatly improve your chances for success and speed up the fundraising process. But you also have to be careful with this strategy.

In the initial round, we intentionally matched you up with people who are local. Being colocated with your team has many benefits as Manu Kumar, an experienced entrepreneur and Silicon Valley venture capitalist who is a guest speaker and mentor in my class at Stanford writes about it here and here.

However, some of you will prefer to have some international teammates and we're going to allow this to occur in the second phase of teambuilding. International teammates can bring benefits in the form of diverse networks and connections, knowledge of another culture and regulatory environment, and they can be particularly beneficial for businesses that involve international trade. Yet there are also downsides. The time differences can make communication more difficult and the type of rapid iteration and nimbleness that is necessary in an early stage startup can be harder over long distances. So, there are two sides to the coin and I encourage you to think carefully when building geographically distributed teams.

In the video below I discuss some aspects of co-founding teams and provide some further insights from my research with coauthors at Wharton and MIT about how it is important to match the skills on the founding team with the firm strategy and industry context. Conventional wisdom tends to advise that building more diverse teams is better. In many cases this is true. You need a variety of skills from engineering to marketing to sales on the team. Having people who have worked at different companies brings a larger network and having a mixture of experience levels also has advantages. Sometimes having an industry veteran combined with a younger entrepreneur who is ready and willing to question everything and suggest bold new ideas is incredibly valuable. Greater variety brings more perspectives which can help in terms of networks and problem solving. It's also important to have teammates who share your passion/vision and excitement about the idea or the problem you want to work on solving.

However, we find that when the team is pursuing a highly innovative technology strategy, and when the startup is in an industry where they are likely to partner with established industry incumbents who will handle the distribution, sales and marketing (such as in the life sciences or medical devices), then having a more technically focused team (of all engineers, scientists, computer programmers, etc.) can be better.

Regardless, it is important to think carefully when deciding who to add to the founding team because this will play a large part in determining the eventual outcomes of the startup.

In this video as in the others, you may want to activate HTML5, which will allow you to play the video at higher speed. I'm still getting used to lecturing into a webcam, which I find less natural than speaking in front of a group and for some reason it causes me to slow down rather than speed up my pace of talking. I'm sure I'll get used to it more with time.

If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

[transcript download will be here]

In the video below I talk a bit about the approach to teaching technology entrepreneurship and what perhaps can and can't be taught. There is a short clip from Randy Komisar, an investor (venture capitalist) with Kleiner Perkins where he gives his take on this. Many people assume that entrepreneurship is all about getting lucky and that it cannot be taught.

What I want to emphasize in this video is not that we have all the answers, but rather that there are certain patterns in entrepreneurship that we can learn from. There are patterns in the evolution of technology and in industry life cycles that we see again and again in many industries. While I have been an entrepreneur myself, currently, in addition to teaching, a large part of what I do is research these patterns in entrepreneurship to try to find things that we can teach to first time entrepreneurs to help them to avoid common mistakes, avoid failure, and hopefully increase performance and the chances of success.

If you use a supported browser, you can view Youtube videos via the YouTube HTML5 Video Player, which may be more accessible for keyboard and assistive technology users.

[transcript download will be here]
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