Lean Startup Academy – From Idea to Startup

Abstract

This course puts you right at the center of the entrepreneurial action. Equipped with a KICKBOOK, you will learn how to get from an idea to a tangible prototype and real customer feedback. You will work with state-of-the-art “Lean Startup” methodologies from Silicon Valley, that are used by successful entrepreneurs globally and learn entrepreneurial competences.

Objective

After completing this course: 1. Students will be able to validate an own startup idea with “Lean Startup” methodologies and tools. 2. Students can explain and apply different “Lean Startup” methodologies and tools to validate startup ideas. 3. Students can identify advantages and challenges of different “Lean Startup” methodologies and tools. 4. Students can outline the different steps of validating problem and solution behind their startup idea. 5. Students can test the market in qualitative and quantitative way with “Lean Startup” methodologies and tools. 6. Students can conceptualise, produce and hold a startup pitch presentation in front of a jury.

Content

Have you ever considered becoming a successful startup entrepreneur after finishing your studies? Are you interested in entrepreneurship and want to learn how to work in a startup? Do you just have a great startup idea and want to validate its business potential? If you answered one or more of these questions with “yes”, the Lean Startup Academy might be the right course for you. This course will be put right at the center of the entrepreneurial action. Equipped with a KICKBOOK, you will learn how to get from an idea to a tangible prototype and real customer feedback. You will work with state-of-the-art Lean Startup methodologies from Silicon Valley, that are used by successful entrepreneurs globally. It is project-based learning and you will apply everything you learn right away to validate your own business idea or the idea of another student. At the beginning, you will reflect on your motivation and get the chance to pitch your startup idea to the whole class. Your goal is to recruit a team of other students to validate your idea. You don’t need to pitch an idea and not all presented ideas will be validated during class. The next module will focus around the problem behind your startup idea. You will do research and define different personas. Then you apply quantitative and qualitative methods to engage with potential customers and find a “problem worth solving”. Now you will start prototyping your first solutions and test them on the market to get real customer feedback. You will be surprised how fast, cheap and lean you can do that with the tools and methods that are taught in class. In the next phase you will design the vision, strategy and business model of your startup idea and define your MVP (Minimal Viable Product) and PoC (Proof of Concept). Finally, you will present your validated startup idea to an investor jury. Beforehand you will learn how to structure a pitch, convince your audience and become a successful presenter. But this is not the end – hopefully you were bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and this was just the beginning of your startup journey. In the final class you will learn about the different options to turn your startup idea into an actual startup. This class is taught by corporate entrepreneurship experts, who coach intra- & entrepreneurs on a daily base and provide you with hands-on training and mentoring. The course builds on experiential learning and you will do things rather that listening to concepts and theories. That means, high levels of motivation, commitment and energy are required to take part in this course and move the entrepreneurial ideas forward. As a reward you will learn how to work in a startup environment and develop strong entrepreneurial competences. More info via http://www.kickbox.academy.

Resources