PBE in Action - Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Module title: Entrepreneurship
VVZ: 363-1077-00L
Lecturers and people in charge of project: Prof. Bart Clarysse
Further involved person/s:
? Business Coaches: Prof. Bart Clarysse, Dr. Laurens Vanderweghe, Dr. Maria Gradillas
? Teaching Assistants: Wouter Beernaert, Rhea Li, Manon Fryges, Samira Haghbin
Department: D-MTEC; Chair of Entrepreneurship
Credits: 3 ECTS
Class size and study programme: Up to 120 students. Core course for Management, Technology and Economics Master, optional course in Integrated Building Systems Master, MAS in Management, Technology and Economics. Open to any students with a general interest in entrepreneurship and building technology ventures
Selected ETH Competencies: Fostered: Problem solving, Cooperation and teamwork. Assessed: Project management, Customer orientation, Creative thinking
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Context: Relevance and real-world connection
Driving question:
How can we develop a business idea into a viable business plan and pitch it to an expert jury?
Practice context:
During the course, teams will create a business plan. In 2024, the best plan (voted by a panel of external experts) will go to compete in the Innova Europe Business Plan competition.
Learning objectives
After completing this course, students will be able to understand:
? How technologies develop from science to commercial products
? What kind of entrepreneurial opportunities emerge from this cycle
? How assumptions are tested in the market and evolve into business plans
? The importance of founding teams and how to build them
? How to raise money from various sources such as crowd funding, ICO, business angels and venture capitalists
? How to develop a business case
? How to negotiate and structure a funding deal
Process: freedom and independence
Length/format of module:
? 14 weeks (Frühlingssemester)
? 6 lecture inputs
? 5 coaching sessions (timed to be after the lectures)
? Pitching event to an audience of external jury members, combined with an apéro
? Team formation process
Student agency in the project:
? Students can bring their own business idea or select an idea to join via a marketplace where other student ideas have been shared.
? All students go through a self-assessment process designed to tell them what sort of team member they are, using tools like Kolb’s Learning Style Questionnaire. Based on this, they have to form teams of 5-6 people who have complementary team styles.
Guidance: Collaboration and Mentoring
? Coaching sessions offer groups feedback and direction based on their deliverables.
Outcome: results and assessment
Formal assessment
? 5 project deliverables that encourage students to form a team, identify a problem and solution, explore markets and prototype their ideas (10%)
? Public pitch – Dragon’s Den style (20%)
? Business plan (20%)
? End-of-Semester Exam (50%)
Informal assessment
? None
Learning: Reflection and Evaluation
? Feedback on assignments and grade can be requested at any time
Anything else that makes this project special?
In 2024, the winning team of the Dragon’s Den style pitching event get an all-expenses paid trip to compete with their business plan at the INNOVA Europe 2024 competition (https://innova-europe.com/) in September, as part of the “Idea Stage” competition track. The lecturing team will evaluate this experience and decide whether to continue it in future editions.