• Utilize the POCD framework to evaluate new business opportunities.
• Discuss the key activities, resources and relationships necessary to develop products/services with a viable customer value proposition.
• Develop business plans of products and/or services and undertake iterative testing and revision of these plans based on primary and secondary research.
• Understand the challenges of building and managing founding teams and employees.
• Analyze balance sheet, income statement, cash flow, and Business Model of startup ventures.
• Evaluate dilemmas in equity split negotiations and founder agreements.

Entrepreneurial Processes builds on the previous studio course by moving from identifying and testing value propositions to pursuing them in organizational contexts. It introduces the idea of “entrepreneurial processes”, which encompass the challenges of (i) managing people, (ii) analyzing trends and contexts, and (iii) designing deal and partnership. The “POCD”-framework (People, Opportunity, Context and Deals) provides students a big-picture analytical tool to both manage and analyze startups at different stages in their life cycle.

Among the topics covered are recognizing opportunities in context, assembling founding teams, managing team work across time and space, startup finance, equity splits, founder agreements, and venture capital.

We emphasize the skills, capabilities, and judgment needed to effectively manage entrepreneurial processes. The course takes a unique interdisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship, integrating entrepreneurial history, strategy, sociology and finance. It teaches students how to imaginge opportunities, assemble resources, deal with uncertainty, and legitmize innovative ventures. It will involve both quantitative and qualitative modes of reasoning about entrepreneurial decision making. 

Students will learn through a combination of studio exercises, lectures, case discussions, and real-world applications. 

• Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010).  Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, And Challengers. New York: Wiley.
• Wasserman, N. (2012). The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
• Ruef, M., Aldrich, H., & Carter, N. (2003). The Structure of Founding Teams: Homophily, Strong Ties and Isolation Among U.S. Entrepreneurs. American Sociological Review, 68(2): 195-222.
• Leach, J. C., & Melicher, R. W. 2015. Entrepreneurial Finance (5th ed.). Stamford, CT, USA: Cengage Learning.
• Harvard Business School Publishing coursepack (cases and technical notes).