The course demonstrates the value of using an entrepreneurial mindset. Can students actually develop an entrepreneurial mindset?
[quote_right]”…the world needs more graduates who have been trained broadly to develop an entrepreneurial mindset of turning problems into opportunities.”[/quote_right]Absolutely. Entrepreneurial thinking and developing creative ideas for new products and services are skills, like any other, that can be taught and learned. Such a mindset is important, not only for those who want to start new ventures, but also for those who want to be entrepreneurial within large, established companies, or who want to start non-profits or new social ventures. With all the opportunities out there, and problems that need solving, the world needs more graduates who have been trained broadly to develop an entrepreneurial mindset of turning problems into opportunities. Employers are requesting these skills be taught, and that’s partly what attracts them to Stanford students.
Everyone seems to have an idea for business. What’s the difference between an idea and a legitimate business opportunity?
This is something that we cover in the first half of the course – how do you screen ideas for the ones that represent the best opportunities to spend your time and energy on. We explore the cases of Yahoo! and Sirtris as examples, and we talk about customer development as a model and framework for what to look for in an opportunity. Our hope is that students will use these frameworks to screen through many different ideas to find one worth pursuing for the rest of the quarter, and possibly beyond. We then match each project team with a mentor from Silicon Valley in their project area. These mentors give feedback and begin to connect students to the broader entrepreneurial network beyond Stanford.
So you don’t need to come to class with a business idea?
No, definitely not. We find that many students recruit their friends to take the class with them, and that they already have some ideas in mind. However, other students are just interested in learning more about entrepreneurship and will join teams where others have an idea, or they brainstorm new ideas together. We hope to get across the idea that entrepreneurship is a team sport, so while the idea is important, there are many other critical roles to be played in forming and executing on a start-up idea.
What are some of the major misconceptions that students tend to have about technology entrepreneurship?
There are many! I know because I held many of these misconceptions when I began to work on my first start-up, Sun Dance Genetics, as a senior in college. People, especially engineers and scientists, tend to think that success is all about the technology. Yet most new businesses do not fail or succeed on the quality of the technology. The technical idea is one step of many on the road to creating a new venture. The team, along with business and fundraising dynamics are equally important, and it’s those issues that we emphasize in the class.
Entrepreneurship can be understood as both an individual and team activity. Why does the course employ the use of project teams?
Well, this is another common misconception. People tend to think that successful entrepreneurs have a certain personality type or have to be charismatic, since we often hear about Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, or other famous individuals. But many different types of people become successful at entrepreneurship, and it’s often more about the team and the process of how they implement an idea than a single individual. [quote_right]”But many different types of people become successful at entrepreneurship, and it’s often more about the team and the process of how they implement an idea than a single individual.”[/quote_right]In the real world people tend to work on projects in teams, so learning to work with teams and lead them toward a common vision are incredibly important skills. Moreover, the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, VCs, and employers who serve as guest speakers and mentors in the class also believe in the value of these skills. At the same time, working in a team, you learn important knowledge about yourself and the kind of career you want to craft.
Students from outside engineering are encouraged to register for ENGR 145. In what ways can students leverage the processes learned in Technology Entrepreneurship in fields beyond engineering?
What we’re trying to do is to build “T” shaped people — people who have depth in a particular field, who also have a breadth of understanding about leadership, the process of innovation, team building, fundraising, etc. In many fields outside of engineering, let’s take the non-profit world as an example, there are many problems and often numerous good ideas on how to potentially solve them. Turning those ideas into reality and doing something that’s never been done before requires knowing how to recruit a team, gather resources, fundraise, and inspire others toward a vision. It also means building and testing a business model of how it all fits together, and creating an organization where there wasn’t one before to get it done. These are the skills and topics we discuss and apply to technology entrepreneurship and commercializing technology, but they can be used in a broad variety of settings. Plus, exploring these topics turns out to be incredibly fun. Many of the students tell me afterwards that this was their favorite class they’ve taken at Stanford, and that they also learned an incredible amount in a short time.
