Entrepreneurship & Innovation Summer School Course Syllabus Name of the course: Entrepreneurship & Innovation Summer School Credits: 6 ECTS Course language: English Course duration: 4 weeks (156 h) Technology focus: Web & mobile applications, Internet of Things, Big Data, business software Methodology partners: UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Google Location: Nice, France Info: www.inacademy.eu COURSE ESSENCE The European Innovation Academy s (EIA) Entrepreneurship & Innovation Summer School is the world's largest entrepreneurship summer course focused on IT innovations. The accelerated mode of learning turns an idea into a start-up in only 15 days! The goal of the course is to inspire the entrepreneurial and ambitious participants to innovate and prompt rapid growth; with the aim to achieve at least a 100M EUR valuation for their business. The course nurtures the necessary mindset, skills and knowledge, as well as provides the tools and network in order to achieve set goals. The course is taught through a real-life customer development context where students acquire the skills and know-how to develop their business idea all the way from the conceptual stage to the market place. They are guided in building a scalable business model via real-life experiments at a real marketplace with real customer feedback, and launch the MVP (minimum viable product) to build real market traction and acquire their first 1,000 customers. The challenge rolls out in a learning environment corresponding to current and future workplace requirements - cross-functional and virtual teams with crowd-sourced work tasks, multi-cultural work force and extremely demanding organisation, planning and communication skills. Daily mentoring and support by experienced professionals from various business and design backgrounds is an essential part of the course. In this way participants benefit from a unique handson learning and experience of a genuine start-up life. 1
* The course program structure guiding the teams to a successful launch and growth A testimonial by Ken Singer, UC Berkeley Director at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology The Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (CET) has trained and taught over 5,000 entrepreneurship students at UC Berkeley for the past decade. No program has been more impactful on our students than the EIA Summer Abroad. Through the one month intensive program, we've transformed the careers paths of some of Berkeley's best undergraduates and EIA has quickly become one of the cornerstones of Berkeley's venerable entrepreneurship pedagogy. But our students say it the best: "What you all created for me this summer was a safe space for experimentation, exploration, failure, innovation, and it quickly became the most genuine learning experience of my adult life so far. Three months after this program had ended, I still think about it (and probably talk about it) on a daily basis. The experiences I had at EIA 2013 offered serious challenges that have made me more aware of the world and more insightful about myself. All of this wrapped up in the context of a beautiful and technologically open society gave a glimmer of hope to where the world can go with the right technological advancement." Testimonials by European Innovation Academy 2014 edition lecturers and mentors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0dbw_jsr7y&noredirect=1 1. COURSE VALUE The course offers participants unparalleled value through: constant interaction with real stakeholders in real-time; working in inter-disciplinary, in real and virtual environs; learning abroad in a multi-cultural environment; knowledge transfer in daily mentoring by top experts; gamifying the learning experience; learning together with entrepreneurs; imposed creativity for excellent time and resources management; creating and exploiting an invaluable network of like-minded ambitious talents. 2
1.1. A real-life trial in real-time This course goes far beyond the theory and academic aspect of developing a business. From day one, students face the challenges of making their progress and setting growth ambition in real world terms - they interact with real stakeholders in real-life situations and constantly have to integrate the feedback and input from their customers, suppliers, partners, peers, competitors and investors into their work. Real customer acquisition, getting actual feedback from at least 100 customers, and reaching the real marketplace are central features of the course. The product prototype must be ready to go live to attract the first 1,000 customers and create real market traction before the end of the course. This getting out of the house obligation turns the whole learning process into a real-life trial with a real-time - and straightforward - feedback on the results. Even when failing or constantly pivoting, the acquired baggage of practical knowledge and skills are priceless. 1.2. Inter-disciplinary and virtual teams The learning experience simulates the envisaged workplace. Throughout the four weeks, participants contribute to a team of 5 people the profiles and competencies of whom are different to create a successful team. Software developers, design, marketing and other students from various business related domains assemble their own teams and take on the roles of a CEO, CTO, CMO, CDO, CBD and others. Furthermore, virtual team members can be remotely crowd-sourced from any part of the world. This unique mix of multiple backgrounds, skillsets and working modes is essential for developing a strong and viable business model and realising how to grow fast with outsourced resources from global market. 1.3. Multi-cultural environment and studying abroad Among the hundreds of course attendees more than 65 nationalities are represented from countries from all parts of the world. Being immersed in this extreme cultural diversity challenges students to develop the interpersonal and cross-cultural teamwork skills so sought for at today s workplace. Studying abroad in a cultural, social and business environment different from the usual adds to the intensity of the experience. 1.4. Knowledge transfer in extensive mentoring Daily team mentoring by the experienced and highly professional entrepreneurs and coaches - half of whom come from Silicon Valley - counts for 50% of the on-site learning. Mentors make sure that the goals of the daily program are met through program translation into practical tasks. Each team has a dedicated chief mentor who shares the responsibility for their success. Accompanying the chief mentors with business background and experience, there are marketing, IT and design mentors joining the program for a specific timeframe to guide and assist in the customer acquisition and prototyping hackathon. 1.5. Gamification in the learning process Entrepreneurship & Innovation Challenge is full of exciting and inspiring elements to improve and facilitate the learning experience, like competitions and ranking on leader boards, experiments with the newest technology (like quantified self gadgets from Google or Jawbone), getting live feedback to demo pitches, or turning pitching into storytelling. Or getting your team a helicopter ride to Monaco as a prize for the best crowd funding campaign. 1.6. Learning together with entrepreneurs The course has several renowned global companies as partners, like Google, Samsung, or Amadeus, and many smaller companies and start-ups present either as participating teams, lecturers or any types 3
of mentors. The transfer of knowledge between the course students and entrepreneurs is two-ways. The best ideas and solutions which are born in joint group tasks, mentoring sessions, Q&A discussions and less formal social gatherings can be equally useful and applicable during the course challenge or by the entrepreneurs in their companies. And the other way around - part of the input for finding these solutions comes from real companies and real cases. Such collaboration inspires participants by making the link between their studies and its practical application more tangible. 1.7. Creative time and resources management Only 15 days for creating a functional start-up with the surrounding ecosystem is obviously more than challenging. Thus, the course has a setup referring to different time and resources management aids as crucial to succeed and grow - like crowdsourcing design solutions or customer validation activities, splitting teams for different tasks completion, or hiring virtual team members for help. In addition, any other creative moves helping the teams to grow faster and scale bigger are strongly encouraged. 1.8. A growing network of young talents The priceless networking experience that comes along with the course starts already prior to the onsite event when global talent search and screening for team members is launched on the online platform. Getting to know the individual profiles of each attendee, meeting and testing them via Skype or other communication technologies, and matching the skills and competencies with relevant software lays ground for strong teams and long-lasting relationships. Reinforced by the on-site team work and social activities, or collective learning and living experience over several weeks, the expanding strong network of like-minded and ambitious entrepreneurs is a valuable asset for future for each participant. 2. LEARNING OUTCOMES AND BENEFITS The most important outcome for the participants is knowing what it really feels, looks, sounds, tastes and is like to be an entrepreneur - with all the good and the bad, the up and the down sides. With everything that normally remains untold in the classrooms and with everything one cannot even imagine before just trying it out. The course offers participants a safe but at the same time a genuine environment for testing themselves as entrepreneurs and realising if this is what they really want to become - and if they have what it takes. Equally, the course provides all participants an opportunity very unique in a learning situation - to understand what it takes and how it works to turn an idea into a real business. A chance to see up close and personal how a variety of different competencies and activities need to be covered is a first time experience for many. That a great idea isn t great until your customers have proved you so. That a good application alone is useless if it doesn t have a user friendly design. That even a perfectly designed solution is worth nothing if there isn t good marketing to bring it to the users. That a team of highly skilled and motivated people are not necessarily efficient if management is not in place. That all other efforts may end in a failure if the IP is not protected and the product is copied. And so on. The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Summer School is therefore a true eye-opener for no matter which participant profile. 4
Personal competencies Students will be able to: assess and analyse entrepreneurship as a career choice efficiently work in a complex environment of multi-cultural teams made up of interdisciplinary physical and virtual member profiles Workplace competencies Students will be able to apply creative thinking techniques in addressing their customers - and any other - problem plan and prioritise work tasks to manage their people, time and resources and achieve the expected results Technical competencies Students will be able to develop a business idea into a comprehensive and highly scalable business model by applying customer development principles in a real-life exercise design a successful commercialisation strategy for their product or service, launch their product or service to the market fast and acquire customers 3. STUDY METHODOLOGY The Entrepreneurship & Innovation Summer School is a learning-by-doing course. The first week of the course - Ideation and Team Formation activities - is organised on an online platform and involves forums, tests, video calls and chats. The on-site course sessions offer different types of study methods - mentoring sessions (50%), lectures (30%), special sessions (15%), and sessions in other formats, like workshops, panel discussions, case studies, Q&As (5%). See the course sessions table below for more detailed info. Throughout the course participants make part of and work in a team of 5 members. See the Interdisciplinary and virtual teams section above for more detailed info on member profiles and roles. 4. COURSE WORKLOAD Week 1 - on online platform Ideation activities () Team discovery and team formation activities (10h) Filling the lean canvas with your prospect team () Week 2-4 - on-site course Course sessions (90h) Independent group work (60h) 5
5. EXPECTED STUDENT PROFILES Software development o mobile development o web development Design o UI/UX design Marketing o digital marketing o growth hacking Law Different fields of Business Studies Others (entrepreneurial and innovation minded students) 6. COURSE PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS In their 1st year of Bachelors Fluency in English Passion and interest for entrepreneurship, drive for innovation Tenacity and dedication to work hard and achieve course learning objectives Willing to work in a team Basic knowledge of Lean Start-up Tolerance and adaptability to cultural diversity 7. COURSE COMPLETION CRITERIA There is no final exam of the course. The business model, the application prototype and the VC pitch serve as the passing criteria. The assessment of the ongoing progress and course program completion is carried out by the chief mentors through daily goal setting and team monitoring in the mentoring sessions. 8. COURSE MATERIALS Recommended pre-readings: The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company - Steve Blank and Bob Dorf Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works (Lean Series) - Ash Maurya During the course: Slides of the lectures, uploaded to Slideshare (EIA account) on an ongoing basis Handouts delivered by the lecturers or mentors in their sessions Videos broadcasted by the lecturers or mentors in their sessions Access to online tools and/ or repositories as provided by the lecturers or mentors 6
9. COURSE SESSIONS WEEK I Ideation & Team Formation Task Task Type Duration Comments Ideation activities (ideas submission, Individual On the online platform discussion, down-selection) work Team discovery and team formation Individual & 10h On the online platform activities (pre-matching) group work Filling in the Lean Canvas Group work On the online platform WEEK II Customer Development & Product/ Market Fit On-site Topic day 1 IDEATION Type Duration Art Hackathon for Crowdfunding Special 1h How to Create a 100 M EUR Business Lecture 30 min Learning from Non-IT Innovation Lecture 30 min The Essentials of Successful Pitching Lecture 30 min Ideation 2 TEAM FORMATION Comments For boosting creativity Finalising idea selection The Art of Team Formation Lecture 30 min Team Marriage Games Special 2.5h Finalising team formation Team Work Planning 3 PRODUCT/ MARKET FIT Customer Development: Problem, Lecture 1.5h Customer & Solution Market Identification & Product/Market Lecture 45 min Fit Google Tools for Customer Development Lecture 45 min Nailing Product/Market Fit 4 DESIGN & RAPID PROTOTYPING Design Thinking for UX/UI Design Lecture 30 min Rapid Prototyping Workshop Workshop 2.5h Designing Your App UI 2h Quantified Self: a Biohacker's Day Lecture 1h 5 HACKATHON PLANNING Application Check point and Hackathon Group 45 min Kick-off discussion Innovative Technologies and Projects Lecture 45 min @Google- and Elsewhere What Google Cloud Platform Can Do For Lecture 45 min Your DevOps Choosing a Platform for Your Application Lecture 45 min Hackathon Planning with Teams 7
WEEK III Hackathon & Business Model On-site Topic day 6 GROWTH STRATEGY/ HACKATHON Individual Mentor Meetings/ Optional: Drag & Drop Programming 7 Types of Innovation to Power Your Growth Type / Lecture Duration Business Strategy for Going After Growth Lecture 1h Panel: The Scalable Business Model Panel 30 min discussion Identifying & Describing Your Growth Engines 7 CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT/ HACKATHON 1h Comments Application checkpoint in parallel Lecture 1h IT hackathon in parallel/ Deploying Google Cloud Functionalities in parallel Individual Mentor Meetings 1h Application checkpoint in parallel Growth Hacking for Lean Launch Lecture 1h IT hackathon in parallel Building Your Marketing Strategy Lecture 1h IT hackathon in parallel Hot Seat: How to Get Started with Q&A 30 min Customer Acquisition Finalising Marketing Strategy 8 REVENUE MODELS/ HACKATHON Individual Mentor Meetings 1h Application checkpoint in parallel Selecting Revenue Models Lecture 1h IT hackathon in parallel Validating Revenue Model Assumptions Lecture 45 min IT hackathon in parallel e-commerce Payment Systems Lecture 45 min IT hackathon in parallel Monetising Your Application 9 SALES & MARKETING/ HACKATHON Individual Mentor Meetings 1h Application checkpoint in parallel How to Make a Kick-ass Video to Grow Fast Lecture 1h IT hackathon in parallel How Can Gamification Get You Customers Lecture 45 min IT hackathon in parallel Panel: The Best Way To Get Your First Panel 45 min 1,000 Customers discussion Finalising Marketing Tactics 10 DEMO PITCHING/ HACKATHON Individual Mentor Meetings 1h Application checkpoint in parallel Independent Team Work Group work 1h IT hackathon in parallel Demo - 10 Pitches from Random Teams Special 1.5h Pitching rehearsal Launching Your Application to the Market 8
WEEK IV Funding & Pitching On-site Topic day 11 GROWING THE CUSTOMER BASE Type Duration Comments Ask & Learn: A Start-up Story Case study and Q&A 30 min Practice sharing with a start-up Start-up Promotion & Branding Lecture 1h Content Marketing for Keeping & Lecture 1h Growing Your Customers Storytelling for Customer Engagement Lecture 30 min Increasing Market Traction 12 START-UP FUNDING Ask & Learn: A Start-up Story Case study and Q&A 30 min Practice sharing with a start-up Start-up Alternatives for Seed Funding Lecture 1h VC Intro : Lecture 1h How VC Funding works How to Valuate a Start-up Explanation of Terminology Introduction to Venture Capital Lecture 30 min Investment Competition (VCIC) Preparing for VCIC 13 LEGAL ISSUES Ask & Learn: A Start-up Story Case study and Q&A 30 min Practice sharing with a start-up Using IP for Competitive Advantage Lecture 30 min Protecting & Monetising Your IP Lecture 30 min Patents & Trademarks Lecture 30 min Legal Aspects of Equity Sharing. IP Lecture 30 min Protection among Employees Q&A: Address Your Legal Concerns to Q&A 30 min Apple Lawyers! Tying Up Loose Ends 14 VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT COMPETITION Venture Capital Investment Competition 15 FINAL PITCHING FOR FUNDING VC Hot Seat: What Investors Look For in Start-up Pitches Individual Mentor Meetings Final Pitching Battle - Top 10 Special Q&A Special 6.5h VC pitching practice 30 min 1h 2h Final pitching in front of investor panel 9
10. LECTURERS AND MENTORS The course hosts around 40 international lecturers for lectures, workshops, Q&A sessions, panel discussions and special sessions, and around 50 international chief, marketing, IT and design mentors to help the participants with application of the learning and prototyping their solution. Chief mentors are on-site throughout the three weeks of the on-site program and they have three to four teams assigned to them. Each chief mentor is responsible for all of their teams to complete the course program. Marketing, IT and design mentors are renowned experts in growth hacking, IT and design industries and they are present for a limited time during which their area of expertise is addressed in the course program. Marketing, IT and design mentors do not have dedicated teams. Some of the mentors can also act as lecturers for certain topics provided they meet the lecturer profile criteria. Half of the lecturers and mentors come from the Silicon Valley-area companies, academic institutions or business organisations. The pool of lecturers and mentors is made up of resident lecturers and mentors who contribute to the course program annually, and visiting lecturers and mentors who only come for a specific year. Therefore, each year the course faculty has new members with additional competencies and angles to add to the course content. 10.1. Lecturer profile All the lecturers of the program meet the following criteria: Proven practical experience in the domain of the lecture topic, and/ or Extensive academic and theoretical knowledge of the lecture topic Captivating presentation style High quality slides (visually and in terms of content) An advanced level of English 10.2. Some of course lecturers Ken Singer - Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at UC Berkeley John Mullins - Associate Professor at London Business School; Mathieu Carenzo - lecturer of Entrepreneurship at IESE Business School; Sean Johnson - lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northwestern University; Patrick Fitzgerald - lecturer of Entrepreneurship at Wharton Business School; Brant Cooper - NYT bestselling author The Lean Entrepreneur ; Martin Omander - Program Manager at Google Luigi Reggiani - Head of Analytics, Conversions and Attribution at Google Nick De Mey - Co-founder at Board of Innovation Alar Kolk - President at European Innovation Academy Alejandro Barrera - Chief WOWness Officer at Press42 On Lu - Partner at Novak Druce Connolly Bove + Quigg LLP Teemu Arina - Biohacker; CEO & Founder at Meetin.gs Yrjö Ojasaar - Managing Partner at Solon Partners 10
10.3. Chief mentor profile All chief mentors of the program meet the following criteria: Proven successful experience in start-up or corporate entrepreneurship, and/ or Remarkable track record of start-up coaching or mentoring Comprehensive knowledge of a specific industry domain Excellent interpersonal skills An advanced level of English 10.4. Some of course chief mentors Ravi Belani - Managing Partner at Alchemist Accelerator, Stanford lecturer Chris Burry - Co-CEO at USMAC Anand Kulkarni - Co-founder & CEO at LeadGenius Alina Adams - Co-founder & VP at Volyy LLP Fred Krieger - Founder & CEO at Scoro Software Mart Maasik - Head of Business Innovation at SEB Mike Reiner - Advisor at different startup networks 11