This course provides an introductory overview to the scope of knowledge and activities needed for technical entrepreneurship

Spring 2017

Technical Entrepreneurship Seminar

Outline:

This course provides an introductory overview to the scope of knowledge and activities needed for technical entrepreneurship. The student will have an opportunity to gain new knowledge and skills that can be applied to their own entrepreneurial interests. An entrepreneurial venture is the result of a unique set of circumstances involving the entrepreneur, a business idea/strategy, the environment surrounding the business idea, and the activities undertaken to weave the entrepreneur/ business/ context into a feasible, viable, profitable, and on-going concern.

The course examines how entrepreneurs undertake the necessary tasks for developing entrepreneurial ventures. It explores how entrepreneurs find, screen, evaluate, and test new business opportunities and covers various entry strategies used to gain a foothold in the market. In addition, the course will cover the following topics:

Identifying customers, determining their needs, and estimating future sales.
Writing a successful business plan.
Techniques for analyzing the financial requirements of various venture opportunities.
Entrepreneurial marketing strategies, tactics and planning.
Technical economics that affect entrepreneurial ventures in 21^st century.
The process of creating the organization, selecting others for involvement, developing an entrepreneurial culture, and creating the ethics, values, and practices that might lead to a sustainable organization.

Instructor:

Mark McDermott
Office: UTA 7.220

Phone: 471-3253
Office hours: By appointment
E-mail: mcdermot@ece.utexas.edu

Course outline and schedule:


	Description	Lecture
	Introduction Ground rules for the course. Team selection Ground rules for developing a business plan for this class. What projects will be considered for the business plan. How the business plans will be reviewed and how it will be different than the real world.
	Business plan development What constitutes a fundable business plan? Examples of business plans that work What constitutes a good marketing plan?	Business Plan Development
	Business plan development Overview of funding models. Fundable organization structures.	Business Plan Development & Spreadsheet
	Technical Economics Product cost analysis and modeling NRE analysis and modeling Cash flow modeling.	Technical Economics
	Special Topic: The process of generating interest in your business idea.	Special Topic
	Market Research How do you do valid market research? Example of successes and failures.	Market Research
	Market Analysis and Planning How do you analyze the market research data? What is real data vs. “noise”? Technical vs. market driven business plans	Market Analysis & Planning
	Market Analysis and Planning How do you determine who your customers are? How do you generate a strategy and plans based on the market research?	Market Analysis & Planning
	Business plan development How to do the “10 minute” pitch The Zilker Labs pitch	10 Minute Pitch
	System Complexity Analysis How to analyze the complexity of the project and if it is doable.	Complexity Analysis
	Technical Economics How to determine the team size? Introduce the “The ten man team”	Ten Man Design Team Spreadsheet
	Technical Economics Product development planning. Product development cost models. Silicon IP & Outsourcing issues.	Product Development Planning

Suggested reading material:

A Good Hard Kick in the Ass, Basic Training for Entrepreneurs. Rob Adams, Crown Business Press. http://www.amazon.com/

High Tech Start Up, by John Nesheim, The Free Press. http://www.amazon.com/

Launching New Ventures 3rd Ed. (1999). Kathleen Allen. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. http://www.amazon.com/

Additional materials will be delivered in class or via this web. These are noted in the Course Schedule. Web resources are given in the syllabus to provide you with additional sources of information on entrepreneurial topics.

Web resources