CSCI 4348/5340:
Entrepeneurial Projects I
Fall 2019
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.
Class projects and awards can be
found at http://custartupcapstone.com/.
General Information
See the Moodle class Web page at
http://moodle.cs.colorado.edu
Schedule
& Location: Tues, Thurs 11-12:15 pm, Fleming
154. Also Wednesday recitation 5-5:50pm Fleming 154.
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 Josh Abdulla.
Office (Prof. Han): ECCR 1B16 in
CS Systems Lab
Office Hours (Prof. Han): Mondays 2-4 pm. Additional appointments as
needed.
Email: rhan@cs.colorado.edu,
joshua.abdulla@colorado.edu
Phone: 303-492-0914 (Prof. Han)
Textbook:
Highly recommended:
The Kindle electronic version of The Startup Owner's Manual, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, K&S Ranch, Inc. Publishers, 2012.
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% Major assignments (either demos
in class or videos uploaded)
25% Final presentation on team venture's status and progress
10% Class participation
5% Other assignments
Discrimination
and Sexual Harassment Policy