BUS 217 — Accelerate Your Startup Idea
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Bret Waters
Date(s): Apr 9—May 28
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $610
Refund Deadline: Apr 11
Unit(s): 1
Status: Registration opens Feb 24 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Spring
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 8 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Apr 9—May 28
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $610
Refund Deadline: Apr 11
Instructor(s): Bret Waters
Recording Available: No
Status: Registration opens Feb 24 8:30 am (PT)
This fast-paced entrepreneurship course is designed to be a highly collaborative experience in which the class works together to refine startup ideas and make them launch-ready. Using established Silicon Valley methodology, the course will look at such startup issues as product/market fit and developing a minimum viable product that can be rapidly iterated upon for success. We’ll also dive deeply into the operational details of the entire startup process, from legal structures to financial models, along with financing options such as venture capital, angel capital, and impact capital. In addition, we’ll look at how new AI tools can help startup founders develop and launch a startup more efficiently and effectively. The course will culminate with a “pitch night,” when students will have the opportunity to present to Silicon Valley executives and investors who will give feedback and offer coaching. Whether your idea is still only a sketch on a napkin or already attracts customers, or whether you are working on a tech startup, a family business, or a social venture, the goal is for you to leave the course with an actionable business plan for a sustainable enterprise.
This is the first course of a two-course sequence on startups. The second course, BUS 219: “Startup Escape Velocity: From Early Idea to Mainstream Success,” builds upon the content covered in this course. However, each course can be taken independently as well.
BRET WATERS
Entrepreneur and Silicon Valley Investor
Bret Waters has founded three venture-funded startup companies, built teams, and run the companies through successful exits. He is a former member of Stanford’s Graduate School of Education Advisory Council. He works with social entrepreneurs from around the world at the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and is the author of a new book, The Launch Path: Getting from a Startup Idea to a Launch-Ready Venture. Waters received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern. Textbooks for this course:
(Recommended) Eric Ries, The Lean Startup (ISBN 978-1524762407)
(Recommended) Bret Waters, The Launch Path (ISBN 979-8989090402)
(Recommended) Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things (ISBN 978-0062273208)
(Recommended) Bret Waters, The Launch Path (ISBN 979-8989090402)
(Recommended) Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things (ISBN 978-0062273208)