E140C Course Description and Policies
Autumn Quarter, 2007

Contact Information

Professor

Tom Byers
Office: Terman Engineering Center, Room 417
Phone: 650-725-8271
Fax: 650-723-1614
Email: tbyers@stanford.edu
Office Hours: Wed 3 pm

Co-Director

Tina Seelig
Office: Terman Engineering Center, Room 411
Phone: 650-725-1627
Email: tseelig@stanford.edu
Office Hours: TBA

Teaching Assistant

Ann Miura-Ko
Office: Terman Engineering Center, Room 324
Phone: 650-269-9409
Email: amiura@stanford.edu
Office Hours: By appointment

Administrative Assistant

Yvonne Hankins
Phone: 650-725-0550
Email: yvonneh@stanford.edu

E-Mail Distribution Lists

Class distribution (received by all students and teaching team) email alias: e140@lists.stanford.edu
Case email assignments (received by instructor and TA only) alias: e140-teach@lists.stanford.edu

Key Course Information:

Course Objectives:

To learn leadership and management skills for the successful growth of young technology companies by creating a fast-paced and effective learning environment. To complete the third and final phase of the nine-month Mayfield Fellows Program.

Time:

MWF 10:00am - 11:50 am

Location:

Wallenberg Hall 127

Admission:

Limited to Mayfield Fellows. See for MFP website for details.

Credit:

2 units

Course web site:

http://www.stanford.edu/class/e140

1. If you expect to miss a class, please let the teaching assistant know ahead of time via e-mail. It will be your responsibility to find out from your classmates or the teaching assistant what material was covered, what additional assignments were made, and to obtain any handouts you may have missed.
2. You are expected to be prepared for every session. It is our practice to spread participation over the class; we may call upon you. It is never our intention to embarrass anyone -- if you are not prepared, let one of us know before class and we will not call on you.
3. Given the pace of this course, we will do all that we can to use class time effectively and ask you to do the same. This includes starting and ending on time. The teaching assistant will take attendance in the first five minutes of the class and we will always end on time.
4. Feel free to discuss the course and your learning progress with the instructors at any time. We are always happy to discuss items of interest. The teaching assistant is also available for questions you have about any issue.
5. Students are encouraged to provide feedback about the course (content, teaching, web pages, etc.) by contacting the teaching staff.

Course Materials:

Required Materials

• Course Description & Policies (this document)
• Course Calendar
• MS&E 472 (Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders program)

Required Readings

• Drucker, Peter. "Managing Oneself" Harvard Business Review, March-April 1999.
• Stevenson, Howard and Laura Nash. "Success That Lasts" Harvard Business Review, February 2004.
• Wetlaufer, Suzy. "When Everything Isn't Enough" Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000.

       To download readings, visit http://www.hbsp.com/relay.jhtml?name=cp&c=c42389.

Optional Readings

• Wall Street Journal

Course Description:

Management of Technology Ventures is focused on developing an understanding of the issues and techniques for growing emerging technology companies. This distinguishes the course from those which focus on business plan writing and the actual formation of a venture (e.g., MS&E 273 - Technology Venture Formation). The course takes participants through a range of issues faced by management in building a new enterprise. These include product and market strategy, venture financing and cash flow management, culture and team building, innovation and creativity, real-time decision making, and the overall challenges of managing growth and handling adversity.

E140C allows Mayfield Fellows to debrief their summer work experiences with each other, using frameworks and tools from the previous E140 courses. It also provides closure to the Mayfield Fellows program itself.

Prerequisites:

E140A and E140B.

Admission:

All students requesting admission to E140C must be previously selected Mayfield Fellows. Please see the MFP site for more information. Sorry, no auditors can be accommodated in E140C.

Approach:

Several methods of instruction are utilized: lectures, case discussions, as well as individual, group, and guest presentations. This course incorporates both individual and group efforts. Individual students make presentations on their summer experiences, and the resulting discussion is facilitated by an additional student.

Grading:

30%: Company Presentation. For details, please see Company Presentations.

30%: Discussion Facilitation. Aid in preparation of and briefing for a fellow student's company presentation using course frameworks.

40%: Active Participation. Attendance and participation in classroom discussion, e-mail assignments, peer consulting, final presentation and presentation feedback.

By the end of the following week of either your presentation or facilitation, the session's presenter and facilitator will receive an email from the teaching team using the following format:

• Session Grade: one composite grade for both the presentation and facilitation
• Presentation's Strengths
• Concerns with the Presentation
• Facilitation

The primary reason to give a "composite" grade is that this entire exercise has essentially become a two-person or team effort. It's impossible to distinguish between the presenter and facilitator. In fact, it's just not fair in many respects. The session grade will act as the grade for the respective role you play (e.g., if the session was an A and you were the facilitator, then you get an A for that portion of the course).

As importantly, we are happy to discuss your email feedback in person as you see fit. You can sign-up for office hours at your convenience and discretion. Or not.

Classroom Participation

The grading of classroom participation is difficult because of an element of subjectivity not present in grading written assignments. Nevertheless, it is a vital part of the course. Most students feel comfortable in speaking up with thoughtful comments and questions, but some do not, and we wish to be fair to everyone. We will not be grading on "air time", but rather on the quality of the question or comment.

As a courtesy to everyone involved, students are expected to arrive promptly and stay until the end of each session. Class participation grades will be negatively affected by not following these course policies.

There are no rights or wrongs in entrepreneurship, only choices. Some pitfalls can be avoided and there are ways of optimizing the probability of success. Participating in classroom discussions, freely and without fear, is strongly urged. No opinion is held in disregard, and only through active discussion can we arrive at some sense of reasonable action.

All assigned readings are to be completed before the first debriefing session. To download readings, visit http://www.hbsp.com/relay.jhtml?name=cp&c=c42389.

Email assignments are due no later than 9 AM on the day of the corresponding session. Remember to follow the advice from E140A regarding the format and style of the email responses. Email responses are to be sent to e140-teach@lists.stanford.edu unless otherwise noted.