GE 393 RLP Business Plan Workshop for Technology Entrepreneurs Week 1 David E. Goldberg Department of General Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois

So You Want to Be an Entrepreneur Dot-com collapse was a craze, but it had a real component. Entrepreneurship is here to stay. Logical extension of Handy’s work portfolio. Forces of technology revolution, end of the Cold War, reduction in transaction costs.

Business Plan as Ticket Business plans are tickets to technology-based entrepreneur. Garage-based ventures have grown up. Established rules of the game to start ups, funding, and new companies.

Introduction What are goals of the course? Who are we? Who are you? Prerequisites & seriousness Course materials Course schedule An aside on IP & disclosure of ideas Business concept selection

Intro (cont.) Team selection Course diary Course grading Sources of information Forms Concept selection Brainstorming

Course Goals Create plausibly viable business plans for technology-based businesses. Means: teams of students working with faculty and off-campus mentors with repeated presentation, Q&A, and close feedback. Not a lecture course.

Deconstruct Goal Plausibly viable: Must make persuasive argument for realistic business. No going through the motions, no half- hearted attempts Technology-based: Technology must be integral part of business. Businesses not trading firms: No license deals, no real estate deals, no security deals.

Who Are We? You? Marianne Dickerson, David E. Goldberg, Other mentors. Who are you? How many different departments? Business ideas? How did you hear of class? Why are you here?

Prerequisites Formal: Junior standing or consent of instructor Informal: GE 393 MJL, Technology Opportunity Assessment, TTh 4-5:20, 101 TB. Ideally: Take tech feasibility plan and create full business plan If not, extra reading and work for student.

Seriousness Engineering/science students think business courses are easy and not rigorous. GE 393 RLP is rigorous. Writing excellent business plan in 14 weeks is not easy. We will be writing excellent business plans here.

Is BPWTE for You? Are you –Entering Cozad Bplan Competition? –Starting a business now or after school? –Taking an entrepreneurial-related job? If yes, then you may be serious enough. If no, ask yourself if you want to work this hard.

Course Materials TE TPW LLE HRFR NVC Optional: GM, RM, LG, WSJ

Course Schedule 14 weeks is not a long time. Important to get off and running quickly. Important to come prepared each week to meetings with mentors. Presentations are key milestones. Hard work (or lack) will show. Review the schedule.

An Aside on IP IP = Intellectual property not Illinois Power Ideas belong to inventors who are expected to protect their ideas. Concepts presented in class & in BPs. If concepts cannot be presented without NDAs, not appropriate for this class

Business Concept Selection Two types of concepts: –student-contributed –OTM or faculty-contributed OTM & faculty-contributed to be distributed Need form BC for student concepts today. Need concept champions today.

Team Selection Teams consist of minimum of four (4) class members. Team members not enrolled need to sign up for continuing education credit. Next week will hold concept-team agora. Match students to concepts.

Agora Concept champions will set up shop. Students will read over concepts. Students will talk to concept champions to try to enroll in teams. Team of four can declare itself closed. Concept champions can abandon idea. Unclaimed ideas can be claimed by new champions.

Agora Aftermath Once teams settled, file form TS. Members can switch teams (subject to minimum number) until week 5. File form TS for any team change (members/names/concept). Concept champion is not necessarily CEO. Team organization between team & mentor

Course Diary All students required to keep course diary. Official IP record (legal document). Records progress and contributions. Turned in at end of semester to mentor to help in mentor’s assessment.

Course Grading Grade decomposition –Business Plan50% –Final presentation25% –Mentor assessment25% Grade influences –Jury evaluation of presentations –off-campus mentors –Form PA

Additional Info Great info on the web Plan to get business librarian to help us with searches. Look at links

Forms Form BC: Business concept submission Form TS: Team selection/modification Form PA: Peer assessment Form CL: Course exit checklist Form BPC: Business plan critique

Business Concept Phase Handout OTM/Faculty concepts. Collect, copy, and handout student- submitted concepts. Identify student concept champions.

Group Innovation A key challenge early on is to innovate as a group. Structured brainstorming as a solution to the problem. Motivation, props, and method of brainstorming.