MANAGEMENT SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 273
TECHNOLOGY VENTURE FORMATION

 
   
  Fenwick & West
   
 

Enrollment
 

FAQs
 
 

Business Plan
 
 

Course Policies
 
 

Resources
 
 

Class Schedule


SEPTEMBER 25: Course Introduction
(SESSION 1a)
Assignment: Enrollment Forms are due at beginning of class!!! Please bring the forms typed and printed out. The teaching team will be making decisions about class enrollment right after class. In-Class:
  • McAfee
  • Course Overview
Readings:

SEPTEMBER 26: Team Mixer
(Wednesday 5:00 PM)

Located at the patio in front of the Treehouse at Tressider.
Get to know your classmates and form your team! The teams form really fast in this class, so don't miss this event. Drinks will be provided.

SEPTEMBER 27: Opportunity Assessment Framework and Sizing the Opportunity
(SESSION 1b)
In-Class:
  • Student Admissions
  • Opportunity Assessment Framework Intro
Readings:
  • Textbook: "Opportunity and the Business Summary," Technology Venture, Dorf & Byers, Chap. 2.
  • Reader: “Note on Business Model Analysis for the Entrepreneur,” (HBS # 9-802-048).
  • Web: The New Normal article by Roger McNamee.
  • Optional: "Building a Competitive Advantage," Technology Ventures, Chap. 3.
  • Optional: "Creating a Strategy," Technology Ventures, Chap. 4.
SEPTEMBER 27: 2nd Team Mixer
(Thursday 7:30 PM - after class)

Located in the hallway outside of class
Please make sure you are on a team by the end of the mixer since the first team assignment is due on Oct. 2. 

By 11pm Sept 27, email the TAs:

  1. The (tentative) name of your new venture
  2. Four team member names and emails
  3. Your team's preferred Mentor.
OCTOBER 1: Professor and Mentor assignments sent out
OCTOBER 2: Sales & Customer Development
(SESSION 2)
In-Class:
  • Mentor Introduction
  • Sales & Customer Development Lecture
  • Entertainment: Imvu guests

Readings:

  • IMVU case is in the HBS Online reader
  • Textbook: “The Path to Epiphany: The Customer Development Model,” Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steven Blank, Chap. 2.
  • Textbook: “Customer Discovery,” Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steven Blank, Chap. 3.
  • Textbook: “Customer Validation,” Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steven Blank, Chap. 4.
  • Optional: "All Marketers are Liars," Seth Godin.
  • "Disciplined Entrepreneurship" in HBS Online reader
OCTOBER 2: Team Concept Memo
(Assignment)
Due via email to the TAs by 5pm:
Include:
  1. The (tentative) name of your new venture
  2. Four team member names and emails
  3. Respective team member roles (CEO, CFO, CTO, and CMO)
  4. Description of your business concept in 3 lines or less
  5. QuickScreen Opportunity Assessment following the Timmon's Chapter in Reader (see Resources, goal is to think about your opportunity from a broader of dimensions, no set format required)
OCTOBER 9: Marketing, Demand Creation and Sales Funnel
(SESSION 3)

In-Class:

  • Case Discussion: E-Ink
  • Case Discussion: E-Ink 2005

Readings:

  • Optional: "The Marketing and Sales Plan," Technology Ventures, Chap. 11, p. 231-257.
  • Optional: "Marketing Planning and Organization", Robert Dolan in Harvard Business Review, 1984.
  • Optional: The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution by Clayton Christensen
  • Optional: Stengel Solutions overview of the marketing plan:
    http://www.stengelsolutions.com/tips_5.htm
  • Optional: Core Marketing Elements:
    http://www.marketingprofs.com/tutorials/frey1.asp
OCTOBER 13: GATE 1 WORKSHOP - Opportunity Assessment
(Saturday 8:30 AM - 12 PM)
Prepare a 30 minute team presentation of your opportunity and marketing/sales plan (described below). The instructors and guests will give oral feedback on your presentation. Timing will be enforced.

Opportunity Description
Describe the market opportunity that your team is planning to attack.  The opportunity assessment should include the following information:

1. What is the key technical idea and/or insight that is at the core of your product?
2. What is the customer pain and how large is the market for solving that pain?  Who have you talked to that told you so?
3. Why is this problem so hard to solve?  Who have you talked to that told you so? What is your solution?
4. What is your potential customer base including your initial customer target - why did you choose this initial market?
5. What is the value chain for this initial market?  Who are you selling to versus who is the end user?  How are you distributing?  How does the money flow from you out to the end user? Who have you talked to that said this was the right channel?  How will you talk to these partners by your final presentation?
6. What is the marketing and sales plan for your team?  Are you thinking of direct sales?  Are you using a re-seller?  Who are the key product influencers?
7. What is your business model / revenue model and how does your company plan to make money (ie if it is by advertising, specify in detail how advertising revenue will be generated and scale as your business grows)
8. How are you going to test these all of these assumptions by the end of the class?  Who are you going to talk to?

Proxy Analysis
Find a similar company that you can use as a proxy for your business.
Compare their financials to yours and be prepared to explain and defend any material differences.

Note:  If you are not able to clearly articulate how the key technical idea and/or insight that is at the core of your product turns into a business idea or customer pain, we are likely to spend the bulk of the time on these slides.  Make sure you nail those before moving on to sales and marketing or business model or revenue projections.
OCTOBER 16: Finance & Financial Modeling for the Entrepreneur
(SESSION 4)
In-Class:
  • Basic concepts of accounting and finance
  • Case discussion: Netflix (Guest - Chris Dier)
  • Financial models

Readings:

OCTOBER 23: Product Development & Resource / Schedule Management
(SESSION 5)

In-Class:

  • IDEO/Handspring
  • Product Development & Resource Lecture
  • Guest: Celeste Buranski

Readings:

 
OCTOBER 30: Product Development & Finance Redux
(SESSION 6)

Assignment:
A short answer assigment is posted on the Resources section.

In-Class:

  • Biotech (Guest - Larry Lasky)
  • Medical Device case / lecture (Ken Ludlum presentation /case)

Readings:

 

NOVEMBER 3: GATE 2 WORKSHOP - Finance & Operating Plans
(Saturday 8:30 AM -12 PM)

Prepare a team presentation of your operations plan. You will receive oral feedback from the teaching team and a CFO. Teams will have a strict 45 minutes to present and receive Q&A.

Suggested Presentation Sections:

Think about the questions people might ask and start to build a slide that answers those expected questions (remember one slide). Include them in the appendix just in case ...

Operations Plan and Financials:

  • Describe how you plan to develop your product and bring it to market including number, timing and costs of R&D heads and all other product development costs.
  • Expand on your financials from Gate 1 to include detailed five year projections and your cash flow breakeven. Be sure to distinguish your product development stage from your steady state of operations.
  • Ground all of your financials with a proxy analysis. That is, identify a similar company and compare your financial projections to that company at similar development stages.
  • Be prepared to defend any material differences between your proxy and your plan.
NOVEMBER 6: Venture Financing
(SESSION 7)

In-Class:

Readings:

  • Highly Recommended: "Presenting the Plan and Negotiating the Deal," Technology Ventures, Chap. 19, p. 423-435.
NOVEMBER 13: The Pitch
(SESSION 8)

In-Class:

  • Pitching to the VCs
  • Gate 3 Presentations

Reading:

 

NOVEMBER 13: "GATE 3 WORKSHOP" - Capitalization and Full Financials Plan
(In-Class, 4:15 pm on)

Prepare a team presentation of your capitalization plan and the corresponding section for your business plan. Make sure to review this plan with your mentor and get their sign off before submitting (this is required and we will be checking with the mentors).

Capitalization Plan

  • Identify the timing and sources of your operating capital.
  • Describe why you think each of these investors is appropriate for your company for that stage.
  • Note your risk reduction points and how they line up against your planned fundraising rounds.
  • Think carefully about how much money you want to raise at each round and your anticipated dilution.
  • Estimate a reasonable harvest value based on revenues and profits as compared to other companies in the sector.
  • Using that harvest value determine the returns for each investor by stage, including their IRR and multiple of capital invested.
NOVEMBER 27: Concluding Thoughts
(SESSION 9)

A one page Executive Summary of your plan and your full business plan is due at the beginning of class. Limit your business plan to 15 pages (without appendix). Please be concise and to the point. Submit five (5) hardcopies.

In-Class:

Readings:

  • Text: Technology Ventures, Chap. 20 (Leading a Technology Venture to Success, p. 437-455)
November 27: BUSINESS PLAN DEADLINE
Business Plans are due in class. Please submit five (5) hardcopies.
DECEMBER 4 & 5: DRY RUN PRESENTATIONS (SIGN UP SHEET)
Please sign-up to do a dry run presentation AND to observe 1 dry run presentation by another team. Each presentation runs 30 minutes.

Tuesday, December 4: DRY RUN
Graduate Community Center (GCC) in the
Bogota Room on the second floor, from 2:00 - 5:00 PM
Wednesday, DECEMBER 5: DRY RUN
Graduate Community Center (GCC) in the
Bogota Room on the second floor, from 2:00 - 5:00 pm
DECEMBER 6 or 7: FINAL PRESENTATIONS TO VC PANEL (SIGN UP SHEET)
Location - Arrillaga Alumni Center - Fisher Conference Center - Barnes & McDowell Room
Thursday Morning, Decr 6 Panel:
Allen Beasley (Redpoint)
Mark Cirilli (MissionPoint Capital)
Jean-Louis Gasse (Allegis Capital)
Greg McAdoo (Sequoia)
Erik Straser (MDV)
Jim White (Sutter Hill Ventures)
Thursday Afternoon, Dec 6 Panel:
Kevin Efrusy (Accel)
Jennifer Fonstad (DFJ)
Eric Hahn (Inventures Group)
Sam Lee (Infinity Capital)
Dave Whorton (Tugboat Ventures)
Eric Young (Canaan Partners)
Friday Morning, Dec 7 Panel:
Brent Ahrens (Canaan Partners)
Shawn Carolan (Menlo Ventures)
Adam Grosser (Foundation Capital)
Wende Hutton (Canaan Partners)
Mike Maples (Maples Investments)
Andy Rappaport (August Capital)
Anthony Sun (Venrock)
Friday Afternoon, Dec 7 Panel:
Jim Anderson (Foundation Capital)
Mark Klopp (Coronis Medical Ventures)
Craig Taylor (Alloy Ventures)
Fern Mandelbaum (Monitor Ventures)
Charles Moldow (Foundation Capital)
Andy Rachleff (Benchmark Capital)
George Zachary (CRV)