All entrepreneurial opportunities are situations in which an entrepreneur perceives a problem for which s/he can develop a solution that is valuable to a constituency of customers. The CONTEXT for this course’s activities focuses on aging in the US. This “context” section provides you with readings and activities that are intended to help you think about situations involving an aging population where you could make an improvement - and that improvement could serve as the basis for a new venture.

Ideas? What are some unique problems that are starting to unfold - or have already manifested themselves fully - in the domain of aging? Becoming an entrepreneur after the age of 50 is one; what training, support, and institutions do these entrepreneurs need? But I think the bigger opportunities await for entrepreneurs like you who are watching and anticipating “age wave” changes to our economy, housing, healthcare, family care, travel, and education. Maybe even design of cities.

Reading Assignments

Required

10 Innovations From Around the World to Help Deal With an Aging Population, JOURNAL REPORTS: RETIREMENT

Pdf: 10 innovations from around the world to help deal with an aging population.

What Old Age Might Be Like for Today’s 30-Year-Olds, pdf: What old age might look like for today’s 30-year-olds

Supplemental (all short reads for more insights into the aging phenomenon; take notes for later modules)

Ausubel, J. 2020. Older people are more likely to live alone in the U.S. than elsewhere in the world. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/10/older-people-are-more-likely-to-live-alone-in-the-u-s-than-elsewhere-in-the-world/.

Cohn D., Horowitz, J.M., Minkin, R., Fry, R. & Hurst, K. 2022. Financial Issues Top the List of Reasons U.S. Adults Live in Multigenerational Homes: Nearly four-in-ten men ages 25 to 29 now live with older relatives. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2022/03/24/financial-issues-top-the-list-of-reasons-u-s-adults-live-in-multigenerational-homes/.

Faverio, M. 2022. Share of those 65 and older who are tech users has grown in the past decade. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/01/13/share-of-those-65-and-older-who-are-tech-users-has-grown-in-the-past-decade/.

Fry, R. 2020. The pace of Boomer retirements has accelerated in the past year. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/09/the-pace-of-boomer-retirements-has-accelerated-in-the-past-year/.

Fry, R. 2021. Amid the pandemic, a rising share of older U.S. adults are now retired. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/04/amid-the-pandemic-a-rising-share-of-older-u-s-adults-are-now-retired/.

Fry, R. 2022. Young adults in U.S. are much more likely than 50 years ago to be living in a multigenerational household. Pew Research Center., https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/07/20/young-adults-in-u-s-are-much-more-likely-than-50-years-ago-to-be-living-in-a-multigenerational-household/

Fuscaldo, D. 2022. 7 Purchases Retirees Often Regret. AARP. https://www.aarp.org/retirement/planning-for-retirement/info-2022/purchases-retirees-often-regret.html.

Livingston, G. 2019. On average, older adults spend over half their waking hours alone. Pew Research Center. Retrieved December 13, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/03/on-average-older-adults-spend-over-half-their-waking-hours-alone/.

Livingston, G. 2019. Americans 60 and older are spending more time in front of their screens than a decade ago. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/18/americans-60-and-older-are-spending-more-time-in-front-of-their-screens-than-a-decade-ago/.

Poleg, D. 2022. The Middle Class Is Dead. Long Live the Long Tail Class. DrorPoleg.com, https://www.drorpoleg.com/the-middle-class-is-dead-long-live-the-long-tail-class/.

Graded Assignments

Quiz on the context of Aging in Entrepreneurship (<-- click on the link to google form for quiz)(5 points)

Module 1: Problems (10 points)

I intend no offense to any of you with what I am about to say, yet I say it because it’s true. Most of you are good at solving problems that have already been structured for you to discover the “right answer.” This is the way most of our education system approaches problems, and it’s a useful skill to recognize the type of problem and to know what approach or technique to apply when you are confronted with that particular type of problem. In fact, it’s a pretty valuable skill to have. If you can recognize what type of problem you are trying to solve, the solution seems to logically present itself.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” - Albert Einstein

This seems kind of important, this skill to recognize and organize problems. But even on google scholar the literature seems disjointed and rather abstract. That makes it harder to shape into a set of lectures or to build a course around the topic.

In this segment of the course you’ll learn about different ways to think about problems. Obvious problems tend to attract a lot of people who claim to have brilliant solutions to them; should you try to advance your idea to solve that problem in a crowded space? Other problems are far less obvious or are ill-structured or difficult to address with a market-based solution. This segment will help you think about problems like experienced entrepreneurs.

Reading Assignments

Graham (2005, 2012) on problems

The Jobs to Be Done framework (my google site)

The first chapter, Problem Construction, of this google book,

Graded Assignments

Identify problems associated with an aging US population (10 points)

Module 2: Opportunities and Entrepreneurs (30 points)

After reading the contextual materials on aging, you probably think we just have a bunch of problems to deal with…unless you’re an entrepreneur. THEN you will have the tendency to see problems as opportunities to sell your innovative and valuable solutions. In this section we cover some of these questions: What are opportunities? What is entrepreneurship?

Reading Assignments

Opportunities and Entrepreneurs (my google slides)

Graded Assignments

Unpack your problem (5 points)

Connect the dots activity - this is the step where you should combine your readings from above with new information related to or unrelated to problem situation to be as fluent in writing attributes as possible (5 points)

Persona (5 points),

Map activity (10 points)

Solution sketch (5 points)

Module 3: Thinking (10 points)

Reading Assignments

First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge - Farnam Street (Parrish, n.d.)
Second-Order Thinking: What Smart People Use to Outperform (Parrish, 2016). “Often when we solve one problem, we end up unintentionally creating another one that’s even worse. The best way to examine the long-term consequences of our decisions is to use second-order thinking.”
Design Thinking
- Design Thinking (google doc by me)
- Design Thinking - Lessons from IDEO and Stanford’s D School (browse these google slides by me)
- Hasso Plattner Stanford School of Design, n.d. An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide, Google doc; this doc and the gift-giving doc cover the foundational knowledge you need to complete your graded assignment for this module.
- Hasso Plattner Stanford School of Design, n.d. An Introduction to Design Thinking, “Gift-Giving” Edition: Facilitator’s Guide, Google doc.
- Lewrick, M., Link, P., & Leifer, L. (2020). The design thinking toolbox: A guide to mastering the most popular and valuable innovation methods. John Wiley & Sons. (browse this full book)
Systems Thinking
- Mental Models (google site by me; you don’t need to do the graded assignment)

Graded Assignments

Design Project Zero - The gift-giving version of the design cycle. You will design a gift to “give” to someone you’re around during the holiday season. See DP0 on profcraigarmstrong.com to do the assignment. (10 points)

Module 4: Getting resources - pitch it (15 points)

You’re not making a sales pitch because you’re not selling to customers. Long before you get to that stage - and only if you work smart and are maybe a bit lucky - you need to convince resource providers that your idea is a valuable solution to a big problem and that you are the right person to pursue it.

You’re always going to be pitching. Your audience could be the budget people whom you must convince in order to finance your project. Or the audience could be friends and family who already know you well but need to get a better understanding of the problem you’re trying to solve and how your solution is better than what people are currently using before they lend you money. Other audiences can include angel investors, groups of angels, venture capital investors, pitching and business plan competition judges, or even bankers.

Yes, you will create a pitch deck for a new venture opportunity related to aging populations.

Reading Assignments

Armstrong, C.E. 2020. How to Pitch (google slides) Big pain, brilliant solution, differentiation, why you, call to action

Williams, L. 2016. Making a disruptive pitch: Underprepare the obvious, overprepare the unusual. In Disrupt: Think the unthinkable to spark transformation in your business. 2nd Edition, Pearson Education, pp. 143-170 (Google doc) a slightly different perspective on how to approach your pitching process

Graded Assignments

Evaluate a pitch (pick this one or this one, but NOT both) using a google form to evaluate an entrepreneurial pitch (5 points)

Write out your pitch: THe big pain you want to solve becomes a pitch with a simple template (10 points); I encourage you to use Google Bard or ChatGTP to see how they can help you write a great pitch. See this example on a pitch to help the elderly with dental hygiene.

Module 5: Organizing for growth and sustainability (25 points)

Assume you receive the funding you need to start achieving some new milestones in your new venture. THe money you raised from investors will be used to develop IP, hire more specialists, or build a brand. Your new venture idea based on an aging population might produce a substantial amount of value for everyone: customers (the aging or those who serve them), investors, employees… In this section I will lead you through some activities new ventures conduct once they have a clearer path toward what they want to achieve.

Reading Assignments

Thiel’s seven questions every business must answer

Kromatic, 2021: The Real Startup Book (browse this for customer and product development techniques; focus on Chapter 4, Hypothesis Checklist; it’s required)

Maurya A. 2012. Running Lean, 2nd Ed., Cambridge, MA: O’Reilly Media. (REQUIRED READ Chapter 5, pages 57-68; your “organizing for growth activity” is based in part on this chapter. In my opinion this is the best book for covering how to start a startup)

Ries, E. 2011. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Crown Business. (browse)

Organizing for growth (google slides, in progress, so suggested not required)

“How to use the business model canvas the right way” (in progress, the Maurya text describes a lean canvas, which is different from the BM canvas.)

Graded Assignments

Quiz on Organizing for growth and sustainability (5 points)
Organizing for growth activity - Test Card for Experiments (10 points) (google form; complete the required readings above first; follow the instructions, complete the questions, submit)
Lean Canvas Assignment (10 points) - USE THIS LINK TO SUBMIT THE Lean Canvas DOC OR PDF.

Reflection (5 points)

Reflecting on your experiences is one of the best ways to learn from those experiences. Thinking and writing about your experience helps you to put it in context and incorporate that experience into your long-term learning and can actually make it more likely that you’ll participate in that activity later on (Kassean, Vanevenhoven, Liguori, & Winkel, 2015).

USe this google form to submit your reflection notes. (5 points; ready for action now!)

References

Graham, P. (2005). Ideas for Startups. http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html

Graham, P. (2012, November). How to Get Startup Ideas. PaulGraham.Com. http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html

Kassean, H., Vanevenhoven, J., Liguori, E., & Winkel, D. E. (2015). Entrepreneurship education: a need for reflection, real-world experience and action. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 21(5), 690–708. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-07-2014-0123

Knapp, J., Zeratsky, J., & Kowitz, B. (2016). Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days. Simon and Schuster.

Parrish, S. (2016, April 12). Second-Order Thinking: What Smart People Use to Outperform. Farnam Street. https://fs.blog/second-order-thinking/

Parrish, S. (n.d.). First Principles: The Building Blocks of True Knowledge - Farnam Street [Fs.blog]. Farnam Street. https://fs.blog/first-principles/

Thiel, P. A. (2014). Zero to one: Notes on startups, or how to build the future / Peter Thiel with Blake Masters. Crown Business.