CSCI 4830/7000:
Startup Essentials for Software Entrepreneurship
Spring 2013
Department of Computer Science,
University of Colorado at Boulder
See the Moodle class Web page at http://moodle.cs.colorado.edu
Purpose: In this class, you will learn basic principles about
software entrepreneurship and acquire skills to aid you in starting
up a software company. You
will go through the process of building your own software IT
startup, beginning with the creation of the core idea/vision
behind your startup, followed by team formation, identifying the business model hypotheses behind your startup, validating these
hypotheses, identifying
the essential features in your minimum viable product, building your
software prototype, and all the while
obtaining feedback from customers and
iterating and pivoting based on that feedback.
You will pitch your final startup
conception and be evaluated on product/market fit.
Schedule
& Location: Mon, Wed, Fri 3-3:50 pm, ATLAS 104
Course number: CSCI 4830/7000. See also the registrar's Web site.
Prerequisites: Basic Computer Science programming and/or consent of
the instructor.
Instructors: Professor
Rick Han, http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~rhan,
and Zach Nies, CTO Rally.
Office (Prof. Han): ECCR 1B05F
Office Hours (Prof. Han): Tuesdays 2-3
pm and Wednesdays 4-5 pm either in
ECCR 1B09 (next door to my office) or in my
office (knock on the door to systems lab or call Prof. Han's
number below). Additional appointments as
needed.
Email: rhan@cs.colorado.edu,
zachary.nies@colorado.edu
Phone: 303-492-0914
Textbook:
The Kindle electronic version of The Startup Owner's Manual, Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, K&S Ranch, Inc. Publishers, 2012.
Other very useful references:
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
see
moodle for revised up-to-date timeline
Monday | Wednesday | Friday | Theme | |
1/14/2013 | Class Overview |
What do the students want from the
class? Core ideas/vision for startups. Why be an entrepreneur? |
CU Grad Entrepreneur Panel | Background, Setup & Context |
1/21/2013 | No class (MLK) | Demo: Pitch your best ideas | Pitches, and Navigating Conflict | |
1/28/2013 | Marshmallow Challenge & the
importance of iterative learning |
Idea and Team Formation & how to
find cofounders. Assignment: form teams by Monday and be prepared to demo your "Why" and rough idea(s) |
Becoming a public speaker: Decker
Grid & communicating with non-engineers (customers and
prospects) Assignment: on Friday and Monday 4 minute presentation on a technical founder and what we should learn from them (use Decker grid) |
|
2/4/2013 | Team Introductions - Demo your Why and idea(s) | Technical Founder Presentations | Technical Founder Presentations | |
2/11/2013 | Intro to Geoffrey Moore's work
(Crossing the Chasm & Technology Adoption Lifecycle) |
Intro to Cust Dev, Lean Canvas,
Business Model Thinking and Validation Boards |
Intro to Agile Development |
Customer Discovery |
2/18/2013 | Problem Discovery and Building
Empathy |
Hands-on with Design Thinking |
Demo: What pain does your customer segment have | |
2/25/2013 | Problem Validation, MVPs and
Experiment Design |
Hands-on with Problem Validation |
Demo: What did you learn from your problem validation interviews | |
3/4/2013 | Building a Profitable Business |
Guest lecture: Understanding the Numbers from a CFO's Point of View - | Demo: Show us how you can build a profitable business | |
3/11/2013 | Positioning and Selling your MVP |
Guest lecture: Selling Early Products - | Demo: Show us resutls from selling your low fidelity MVP | |
3/18/2013 | The Pivot |
Get out of the building and pivot as many times as you can | Demo: Show us your validation board, maximize your pivots | CU New Venture Challenge |
3/25/2013 | No class (Spring Break) | No class (Spring Break) | No class (Spring Break) | |
4/1/2013 | Guest Lecture: Founding a Company from a Legal Point of View - | Guest Lecture: Raising Money for Your Company - | Pitch Practice - | |
4/8/2013 | Improve your Negotation Skills | Demo: High fidelity MVP | Customer Validation | |
4/15/2013 | NVC Final Presentation Week | |||
4/22/2013 | IP Issues - | Scaling Up | ||
4/29/2013 | Last class | What's Next ... | ||
5/6/2013 | Finals |
Grading
60% Demos in class
30% Final presentation on team venture's status and progress
10% Class participation
Discrimination and
Sexual Harassment Policy