PREREQUISITE(S):
The main requirements for this class are passion, energy and resourcefulness. The course also assumes that students have either; experience in bringing a new product to market, taken a basic Entrepreneurship course, or have written a business plan.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is about how to successfully organize sales, marketing and business development in a for-profit startup, with particular emphasis on high technology companies. For the purpose of this course, a “startup” can either be a new venture, or an existing company entering a new market. Both must solve a common set of issues: Where is our market? Who are our customers? How do we build the right team? How do we scale sales? These issues are at the heart of the “Customer Development” process covered in this course.
This class provides insight and concrete lessons into what is it that makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture. The course is built around the premise that startups that survive the first few tough years do not follow the traditional product-centric launch model. Through trial and error, hiring and firing, successful startups all invent a new, parallel process to product development for sales, marketing and business development. In particular, startups that succeed and thrive invent and live by a process of customer learning and discovery called “Customer Development.”
Course Syllabus (pdf)
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