Description: An introduction of core concepts encountered in entrepreneurial businesses. The lecture series is designed to brief students on issues related to working in start-up/entrepreneurial environments and assist in fostering a like mindset. The course consists of lectures, guest speakers and a short written paper. The lecture series should help students evaluate the opportunity to engage in more in depth entrepreneurial coursework. By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss topics and issues related to beginning and running start-up companies. Participants will understand terminology and general concept categories including idea validation and market assessment, product and marketing strategy, networking, team selection / culture and teambuilding, legalities/formation issues, business partnerships, marketing tactics, patents / trademarks / copyrights and financing business.

Completion: Students are expected to attend and participate in all classes (only 2 absences permitted for any reason). One credit will be earned for required attendance and a short paper due at the end of the semester.

Date Lecture Topic

02/03/10: “5 Essential Points for First Year Start-ups”, Sean Neville

02/10/10: "Entity Formation / Building a Board of Directors", Zach Shulman

02/17/10: "Team Building, Utilizing Networks, Company Culture", Sean Neville

03/03/10: "Product Development and Market Assessment", Micah Rosenbloom

03/10/10: "Small Things that Cause Big Headaches", Zach Shulman

03/17/09: "Business Relationships 101", Saurin Pandya

03/31/10: "Core IP: Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights", Mike Brown

04/07/10: "Handling Exit Transactions", Bill Trenchard

04/14/10: "Financing Your Business", Zach Schildhorn & Howard Morgan

04/21/10: “The Good, Bad and Ugly” and “Guerilla Marketing” – Simply Audiobooks Case Study, Sean Neville


Guest Speakers

Howard Morgan Partner, First Round Capital; http://waytooearly.firstround.com  

Sean Neville Entrepreneur-In-Residence, JGSM http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/academic/mba/entrepreneurship/resident.html  

Saurin Pandya Founder/CEO, MarketGuru; http://www.studentagencies.com/info.php?page=biospandya  

Micah Rosenbloom Founder Brontes Technologies (sold to 3M where Micah remains in charge of division), Founder/Partner Founders Collective, http://foundercollective.com/people/Micah-Rosenbloom  

Zach Schildhorn Associate, luxcapital; http://www.luxcapital.com/team_schildhorn.php  

Bill Trenchard Serial Entrepreneur and Founding Partner of Founder Collective, http://foundercollective.com/people/Bill-Trenchard