387 Spring 2016

"Why worry about doing something you love? That's a bunch of baloney. Figure out what the opportunity is. Find a thing, get good at it, learn to love it later." - Mike Rowe

Also read: Mike Rowe Talks about a Pencil, excerpted from Riklan Resources

In class

Review The Future that Should Be Here Now submittals
Entrepreneurs and Opportunitiesbecause we need a common language for our major terms and prescriptions

January 21

Read before class: How to get startup ideas (PaulGraham.com)
How to get startup ideas presentation

In-class exercise: Real Escape Game

SIDEBAR: America's Best Days May Be Behind It (NYTimes.com, 1/19/16)

Take Quiz 1 by 11:59:59 pm on Friday. Your quiz will cover material presented in "Entrepreneurs and Opportunities" and "How to get startup ideas" You will receive Quiz 1 by email early Thursday afternoon. Update: You should have received Quiz 1 from me at 2:50pm 1/21.

Creativity

“Courage is only the accumulation of small steps.”

- György Konrád

January 26

Student Feedback on "Four Constructs" exercise from Jan 21. The military conducts after-action reports; athletes watch tape to evaluate their performances. I need your feedback to help me improve.

Presentation Slides: Creativity

Twenty-Two Creativity Techniques

"Let's find a problem...and Lotus Blossom Technique it" (said nearly nobody in history)

Histogram - Uses for a Brick for MGT 387 Spring 2016

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Related: The 68-95-99.7 rule

After class:

Read

The Engineer of the Original Apple Mouse Talks About His Remarkable Career (Wired.com, 8/2014)
Tactics to Spark Creativity (WSJ.com, 4/2013; original article available at WSJ.com)
A Crash Course in Creative Breakthroughs (Fastcompany.com,

January 28

View before class: A crash course in creativity (Tina Selig video)

and Tactics to Spark Creativity (video accompaniment to WSJ article posted above)

Sir Ken Robinson on TED: Do schools kill creativity?

Related to this Video: Check out this map of Ken Robinson's popular TED Talk on Mindmeister.com

Take Quiz 2 by 11:59:59 pm on Friday.

February 2

Out of Class "Lecture"

Watch this video on Human-Centered Design

and view this slide presentation

and read Empathy on the Edge

FINALLY, watch this video by Sarah Stein Greenberg, executive director of the Stanford D School

Watch this on The Scene.

I will send out some questions about the presentation and videos later on February 2

Venture Capitalists Look to the Future at the Upfront Summit in Hollywood (video)

February 4

Opener: Nike+Accelerator Retrospective

Take Quiz 3 by 11:59:59 pm on Friday.

Here's a video companion to empathic thinking...

February 9

Sidebar: Jessica Livingston Talks Female Founders, Business Cycles, and Her Favorite Event of the Year(TechCrunch.com, 2/8/16)

Phenomena topic: The Gig Economy

Presentation slides: SCAMMPERR Power

In-class exercise: Thinkpak cards and the $9 bike; break into SIX teams; take some markers, a piece of poster board, and SEVEN Thinkpak cards per team

February 11

Sidebar: Foot In Mouth: 17 Quotes From Big Corporate Execs Who Laughed Off Disruption When It Hit

YOUR FEEDBACK on the Thinkpak and $9 cardboard bike exercise

February 16

A few more thoughts about ideas and human-centered design

View: Steven Johnson: Where good ideas come from (TED Talks)

Slides: More thoughts about ideas and human-centered design

February 18

Read: DESIGN THAT MATTERS: Designing Contextually Appropriate Products: The NeoNurture car parts incubator

Company profile: Hello, Alfred and Founders on BusinessInsider

Presentation: Human-Centered Design: Inspiration

Practice: Frame Your Design Challenge: Make the Tuscaloosa Bar Scene Safer

You Try It! Frame Your Design Challenge for Tuscaloosa Bar Scene

An alternate opinion: The Problem with Design Thinking

February 23 & 25

The full design cycle in class

Opportunity Recognition

March 1 & 3

Opportunity Recognition

Reading: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities

Lecture slides

Graded assignment coming up: Opportunity Registers

Read: The four forces of entrepreneurial opportunities, MIT Entrepreneurship Review, mARCH 28, 2010

Sidebar: What It’s Really Like to Risk It All in Silicon Valley, NY Times, 2/28

Question of the day: Why don't we already have this? (This IBM commercial came out in 2006; bonus points if you recognize the actor)

Turn in homework assignment - Decisions and Dilemmas - and complete Quiz 7 by 11:59:59 pm, Sunday, March 6

Opportunity Evaluation

March 8 & 10

Opportunity Evaluation

Slides: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities

Novelty slides: Your responses to the decisions and dilemmas homework

Reading: How entrepreneurs evaluate opportunities

March 15 & 17

Spring Break (3/12 - 3/20)

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Pitching and Presenting

March 22

Topic: How to pitch

Read:

How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert

Class Content - In class March 22:

Guest speaker: Audrey Vermilyea, Co-founder, Monarch Espresso Bar (See Kickstarter campaign here)

View Kickstarter campaign
Talk from Audrey
Interview an entrepreneur
Student Q&A with Audrey

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March 24

Class Content

View these slides: How to Pitch - all quiz questions come from this deck

Complete Quiz 9 by 11:59pm, Sunday, March 27. I'll send out the quiz mid-afternoon today

Newsworthy

My Airhook has finally shipped. Yay! I ordered through Kickstarter months ago. Watch this video to see what Airhook is.
Monarch Espresso's Kickstarter campaign has exceeded $30,000 with 119 backers (3/24, 10:06a). Tuesday was the best day of the campaign. Kickstarters work best when you constantly and cleverly promote them through social media.
6 notable Y Combinator alumni - Pitchbook.com
DC’s Surprise Ride Accepts Deal from Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary
Cocktail App HOOCH Wins Anheuser-Busch InBev Startup Pitch Competition
Top 8 startups from Y Combinator Winter '16 demo day 2

March 29

Read a/or View

“Pay Attention” Notes from Chapter 17 of "The Launch Pad," by Randall Stross, with elaborations

How to Pitch

Class Content

Monarch Espresso Bar Kickstarter update

Advanced pitching techniques with a pitch-off competition

In-class assignment - create a pitch for a product or service that is targeted to the University of Alabama (students, faculty, staff, athletes, teams, etc.)

March 31

In-class pitching worksheet

Books on Wheels

Group - build a pitch for a truck-based business

April 5

First thing, we need to talk about changes to the course syllabus - Revised graded assignments on one slide

2014 Elevator Pitch Winner, University of Dayton Business Plan Competition

Wheely's Coffee Cart - Wheelyscafe.com

Knowing your audience - create a customer persona (in class, 5 points of your grade)

Tips for creating your customer persona:

Give it a face: name, face, place, bubble speech. After you’ve done this you should feel like you know her
Facts: additional information to help identify your customer, e.g., demographics (age, income, geography, marital status, etc.)
Behaviors: Use action verbs to describe behaviors you could observe
Needs and goals: what does your persona want to accomplish? what does she need? Do NOT be too generic here – everyone wants more money and more time

Customer Personas from Actual Students (!)

If you missed class today then you missed a chance to knock out the customer persona assignment in class. You will need to view the customer persona slides above, view customer personas from actual students, and read the tips for creating your customer persona above. Then you will need to create your own customer persona. I recommend that you do this for the truck-based business you worked on in class on Thursday, March 31. Create your persona on a sheet of paper or in a presentation slide. If you use a sheet of paper, take a digital image when you are done. Send either the digital image or the slide to me at 387opportunities@gmail.com by the end of this week.

Here are student customer personas from class today 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

April 7

Feature startup: Hudl Full video analysis tools from any computer or mobile device for athletes and teams.

Nespresso

Know what your audience wants - create a value proposition canvas (in class, 5 points of your grade)

If you missed class today then you missed a chance to knock out the value proposition canvas assignment in class. You will need to view the value proposition slides above and create your own value proposition canvas. I recommend that you do this for the truck-based business you worked on in class on Thursday, March 31. Create your canvas using this worksheet. Send the document to me at 387opportunities@gmail.com by the end of this week.

Here are student value proposition canvases from class today

Watch These Entrepreneurs Pitch Their Startups to Judges from Techstars and AlleyNYC

Hint: Don't look at your slides constantly...

April 12

Nice Weather for Ducks

View: The Facebook before it was famous

In class

Turning your pitch into a Minimum Viable Product - Landing Pages (in class, 5 points of your grade)

Your landing page should have at a minimum: (1) Title or Name of the product or company; (2) Tagline; (3) Testimonial; (4) Bullet list of benefits of your offering; and (5) a Call to action (e.g., sign up box)

Use THIS TEMPLATE to create your landing page if you're not using paper and pen(cil)

April 14

Opening Topic: Social Entrepreneurship

Related: Complete - in class - survey on social entrepreneurship you received before class

In class: Come ready to improvise and practice pitching

You are Not a Lottery Ticket Assignment (5 points)

Check out Hubspot's Manifesto for Culture

Culture Code: Creating A Lovable Company from HubSpot

April 19

LinkedIn has a new app to help college students find jobs Forbes.com - watch the video on top

Optional but helpful reading: Email response to a student who is nervous about videorecording a pitch

Your survey results on social entrepreneurship and internship opportunities for same

https://youtu.be/Mhllo1xQer8?list=RDMhllo1xQer8

You are not a lottery ticket assignment

Read this chapter from Peter Thiel's Zero to One and answer these questions from a google form.

Developing your storytelling skills (see, e.g., Storytelling for Influence, IDEOU.com)

Tension: The secret sauce of brand building, Jenn Maer on Medium.com, 2/10/15

Social entrepreneurship: Ugly baby slides

Social entrepreneurs: Pioneering social change

April 21

Visit: TOMS Social Entrepreneurship Fund

Apply Now to Pitch TOMS' Social Entrepreneurship Fund Inc.com

In class: Storytelling

Record your video pitch for your truck-based business, dammit; finish up your un-turned-in stuff. Record a social entrepreneurship pitch for extra credit. You can do this in class. Really!

Social Entrepreneurship Pitches at Columbia Business School

Working with Video

April 26

Practice your pitches

One of uncountable reasons why I'll miss Prince for a long time: "Get off the stage!"

April 28

Deliver your pitches and wrap-up

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HandsOn TV on doing things that don't scale

Body language, the power is in the palm of your hands | Allan Pease | TEDxMacquarieUniversity

The skill of self-confidence | Ivan Joseph | REDxRyersonU

Self-confidence: "The ability to believe in yourself to accomplish any task"

387 Spring 2016

Course Content

Note: This is a copy-and-paste from the original wikispaces.com page I created in 2016 for this course. Some of the formatting is plain sloppy. Hope you find some useful content.

Table of Contents

Course syllabus

Crimson Safari

Lectures

Terms

January 14

January 19

January 21

Creativity

January 26

January 28

February 2

February 4

February 9

February 11

February 16

February 18

February 23 & 25

Opportunity Recognition

March 1 & 3

Opportunity Evaluation

March 8 & 10

March 15 & 17

Pitching and Presenting

March 22

March 24

March 29

March 31

April 5

April 7

April 12

April 14

April 19

April 21

April 26

April 28