BUSO 712

Introduces students to tools and skills needed to create and grow a successful new venture. The course integrates research findings from a range of different practical and intellectual perspectives, including psychology, sociology, economics, strategic management, and history into practical, hands on lessons for an entrepreneur. Class projects teach skills to explore high-risk business ideas in inexpensive ways and allow students to experience the entrepreneurial environment. A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model (Steve Blank). Entrepreneurship is about pursuing hunches about solutions to customer problems and thereby creating value. Testing these hunches requires getting customers to evaluate solutions. It is difficult to attract resources (either human or financial) before it is known if the hunch is correct, but testing hunches requires resources. This course provides iterative tools to solve this chicken and egg problem. We will also focus on specific skill building exercises, such as pitching and networking.