Courses / Module

This module is designed to provide students with an understanding - and experience - of the key issues encountered in bringing a new entrepreneurial venture to realisation. It takes as a starting point that a new value proposition has been envisaged, in the form of new product, service or system for a targeted segment of users, and deployment is now to be executed as a new venture. This new venture may be a start-up business or other organisation, or an intrapreneurial initiative in a larger organisation.

The course will follow Lean Startup philosophy using the Lean Canvas description of startup business model. Students will work in teams of three. Starting with an initially hypothesised Lean Canvas model, students will regularly conduct field experiments and iterate the business model based on field learning. Students will report in detail at each of the five classes of the course on the field work and new learning achieved. It will culminate in a proposal (business plan) designed to support funding proposals for scaling, where the viability of the proposal has been established through the coursework.

Particular topics covered in the course are:
• Lean Startup
• The competitive landscape
• Learning experiments and MVPs
• Startup metrics
• Basic financial and cost accounting for new ventures
• Sources of funding and funding proposals