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Syllabus

Week 1: Imagining startup ideas

Learning objectives:

  • Practice a creative approach to imagining startup ideas

Prework: none

Discussion (30m):

  • Introduction to practicum
  • Why "ideas are cheap":
  • Ideas are starting points
  • Ideas aren't unique
  • Ideas grow when shared
  • Ideas are hard to defend
  • Ideas are unpredictably good and bad
  • “It’s all about execution”
  • Approaches to startup ideation:
  • Startup ideation as a toolkit
  • Startup ideation as a muscle
  • Individual vs networked ideation
  • Organic vs inorganic ideation
  • Multiple approaches
  • Working backwards from the future (the adjacent possible)

Exercise (90m):

  • "Remember when..." brainstorm in randomly-assigned teams (30m)
  • Improving startup ideas (30m):
  • Evaluating startup potential with the product/market map
  • Early adopters and usage
  • "Remember when..." brainstorm in randomly-assigned teams (30m)

Guests: none

Recommended reading:

Week 2: Discovering startup ideas

Learning objectives:

  • Practice a data-driven approach to discovering startup ideas

Prework:

Discussion (20m):

  • Demand as the driver: current demand and potential demand
  • Supply vs demand

Exercise (100m):

  • Mine search query trends to discover interesting patterns of demand in randomly-assigned teams
  • Further explore interesting patterns to discover unmet or poorly met demand

Guests:

  • Gerry Campbell, author of “Demand Horizon”

Recommended reading:

Week 3: Synthesizing startup ideas

Learning objectives:

  • Practice an approach to inspiring startup ideas by recombining existing startups, platforms, and use cases
  • Gain familiarity with up-and-coming technology platforms

Prework:

Discussion (10m):

  • Innovation as recombination
  • VC bait (“the X of Y”)

Exercise (110m):

  • Play VC Bait in randomly-assigned teams (30m)
  • Improving startup ideas (15m):
  • Imagining disruptive startups with the innovation/market map
  • Crowded markets
  • Guests introduce their platforms (15m)
  • Play VC Bait in randomly-assigned teams within three groups (Watson, Bitcoin, 3D Printing), with guests as the VCs playing their given platforms as comparables (50m)

Guests:

  • Dejan Radeka, Client Technical Architect at IBM Watson (Watson)
  • Ken Lang, CTO at Vringo and former CTO at Lycos and Scott Johnson, CFO of Coinometrics (Blockchain/Bitcoin)
  • Anthony Moschella, VP Product and Jonathan Cook, Senior Product Manager at MakerBot (3D Printing)

Week 4: Experiencing startup ideas

Learning objectives:

  • Practice an approach for deriving startup ideas from personal experience

Prework: none

Discussion (15m):

  • Approaches to deriving startup ideas from personal experience:
  • Being an expert, being on the edge, and riding the wave
  • Reducing friction, pain, effort, and ugliness
  • Fulfilling wants, plugging holes, and blowing up features
  • Doing what’s fun and interesting
  • All the above, for a friend

Exercise (105m):

  • Interview each other in randomly-assigned teams to surface aspects of personal experience, then brainstorm inspired product and startup ideas (75m)
  • Share “best of” ideas (30m)

Guests: none

Week 5: Iterating startup ideas

Learning objectives:

  • Practice an approach to iterating on startup ideas based on pitching and listening
  • Gain familiarity with unfamiliar market sectors

Prework:

Discussion (10m):

  • Iterating on startup ideas (5m)
  • Guests introduce themselves and their spaces of interest (5m)

Exercise (110m):

  • Each team discusses "over coffee" their startup idea with guest (10m/team, 40m total)
  • Each team improves their NewCo deck based on feedback and prepares their pitch (20m)
  • Each team pitches to guest using their NewCo deck (10m/team, 40m total)
  • As a group, discuss lessons learned. (10m)

Guests:

  • Mike Walsh, General Partner at Green Visor (fintech)
  • Deborah Estrin, Professor, Shuli Shwartz, EIR, and JP Pollak, Visiting Scientist, all at Cornell Tech (health tech)
  • Rosemarie Truman,Founder and CEO, and Jonathan Lui, Managing Consultant at The Center for Advancing Innovation, at Brain Challenge (brain tech)
  • Satwik Seshasai, VP of Engineering at Segovia (social entrepreneurship)

Week 6: Debating startup ideas

Learning objectives:

  • Practice debating the promise of startup ideas
  • Practice helping each other improve startup ideas

Prework:

  • Complete survey to endorse startup ideas in the idea tracker
  • For those students participating in the debate, prepare arguments

Discussion: none

Exercise (120m):

  • Debate open to the Cornell Tech community, where the most endorsed ideas are debated (first hour)
  • Working session to connect with like-minded students and improve each others' ideas (second hour)

Guests:

  • Cornell Tech community (for the open debate)

Recommended Reading:

Homework:

  • Attend the campus social directly after this week’s practicum to continue connecting with like-minded students

Week 7: Launching startup projects

Learning objectives:

  • Practice creating and presenting a short-form narrative

Prework:

  • Self-organize into teams focused on a specific startup idea and prepare a short narrative on the team’s choice of startup idea & team members and the team’s ambitions for next semester’s Startup Project.

Discussion: none

Exercise (120m):

  • Teams unveil their team selections and startup ideas in the form of a short narrative, including their initial thoughts on what they plan to build for their Startup Project the following semester (5m/team)

Guests:

  • Cornell Tech community

Recommended Readings:

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