CSCI 4348/5340: 
Entrepeneurial Projects/Startup Essentials

Fall 2016

Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado at Boulder

 

Course Summary

The goal of this course is to give Computer Science students the tools to be successful technical co-founders of their own startups.  We take the students through the initial stages of founding a startup, including team formation, validating their ideas, and pitching.  We employ the Lean Startup methodology, which teaches among other concepts to "get out of the building" and develop customers.  Students will iterate on their startup concept, seeking customer validation, and pivoting as needed.  Students will develop a minimum viable product, and will pitch their final startup concept, and be evaluated on product/market fit.  The emphasis on early customer development will help teams develop sustainable business models.  We will seek to bring in entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from the Boulder ecosystem, including both current and former CU students, who have had success founding or working at IT startups, to give the class useful perspectives on the startup experiences of these seasoned entrepreneurs.


General Information

See the Moodle class Web page at http://moodle.cs.colorado.edu

Schedule & Location: Tues, Thurs 2-3:15 pm, Fleming 103 (location may change later in the semester - stay tuned to moodle).  Also Wednesday recitation 5-5:50pm Fleming 104.

Course number: CSCI 4348/5340.  See also the registrar's Web site.  Note CSCI 4348 is part of a two-course Entrepeneurial Projects Senior Capstone for B.S. Computer Science majors.
Prerequisites: Basic Computer Science programming and/or consent of the instructor.
Instructors: Professor Rick Han, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~rhan, and Zach Nies, TechStars.
Office (Prof. Han): ECCR 1B05F in CS Systems Lab
Office Hours (Prof. Han): Tuesdays 11 am-12 noon and Wednesdays 2-3 pm my office (knock on door or call my office phone to be let in).  Additional appointments as needed.
Email: rhan@cs.colorado.edu, zach@techstars.com
Phone: 303-492-0914 (Prof. Han)
Textbook:

Highly recommended:

class Web site:
See the Moodle class Web page at http://moodle.cs.colorado.edu.  Assignments, lecture slides, and announcements can be found there.  The moodle has a variety of useful features, including a forum for posting questions.  Each student should establish an account on the moodle and then subscribe to our class on the moodle using the special enrollment key given out in class.

Approximate Timeline




Grading

60% Demos in class
25% Final presentation on team venture's status and progress
15% Class participation

You will form teams based around your team's startup idea/vision and iterate through the various stages of customer development involved in startup formation, demo'ing along the way, and culminating in a final presentation to the class describing the progress made in forming your startup.

Plagiarism policy.



Additional Policies:

Disability Policy

Religious Observances Policy

Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Policy

Classroom Behavior Policy