Topic outline

  • Venture Ideation Homepage

    Not available unless: You are a(n) Student

    Venture Ideation 2021 homepage

    Dear all, 

    Welcome to the Venture Ideation course!

    Some basic information: 

    This course will be delivered online this autumn and requires mandatory attendance in online (Zoom) sessions.

    Links to the online sessions will be posted on the home page prior to the sessions

    Course hours posted in SISU are mandatory, except:

    -  the last hour each day which is optional (meaning Tuesdays 15.00-16.00 and Wednesdays 14.00-15.00)

    -  teams can continue working on Zoom if they want while I am around to help during the last hour of each day

    -  there can be up to three mandatory sessions missed in total, and a make-up assignment is necessary for each missed session.

    Please read the full syllabus section including the syllabus pdf  (guide to the course)  -  prior to the course start. 

    If you are a student who experiences limitations in attending online course sessions (e.g. you are outside Finland on a very different time zone or you have connectivity issues), please inform me as soon as possible so that we can discuss alternative arrangements.

    Please contact me generally if you have difficulty in attending a session ( e.g. due to sickness)

    Zoom links will be posted to the home page as we get closer to the course start

    Course timeline

    Date

    Time

    Place

    Content




    Tuesday 14th September

    13.15–16.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 1 Session 1:

    Introduction to course

    What is Venture Ideation ?

    Guest: Mayumi Shimizu, Espoo City Innovation

    Wednesday 15th September

    12.15–15.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 1 Session 2: 

    Team formation and teamwork

    Guest: Natalie Gaudet, Aalto Start Up Centre

    Tuesday 21 September

    13.15–16.00

    Zoom

    Week 2 Session 1: 

    Problem and customer definition

    Guest: Kalle Koivuniemi, Urakkamaailma

    Wednesday 22 September

    12.15–15.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 2 Session 2:

    Problem and customer definition

    Teamwork

    Guest: Doug Costa, Neural DSP

    Tuesday 28 September

    13.15–16.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 3 Session 1:

    Idea generation and selection

    Guest: Teemu Paivinen, Equilibrium

    Wednesday 29 September

    12.15–15.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 3 Session 2:

    Idea generation and selection

    Teamwork

    Guest: Alexander Myers, entrepreneur from San Diego

    Tuesday 5 October

    13.15–16.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 4 Session 1:

    Financial feasibility and the revenue model (part 1)

    Johanna Ahtiainen, Finland Business Angels

    Wednesday 6 October

    12.15–15.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 4 Session 2:

    Financial feasibility and the revenue model (part 2)

    Teamwork

    Guest: Panu Kuosmanen, Aalto Innovation specialist in Business Finland funding

    Tuesday 12 October

    13.15–16.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 5 Session 1: 

    Presenting and pitching your idea

    Wednesday 13 October

    12.15–15.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 5 Session 2: 

    Teamwork

    Guest: Ben Hughes, Blinkist

    Tuesday 19 October

    13.15–16.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 6 Session 1: Final Pitching Event or Teamwork on the Team Action Report

    Wednesday 20 October

    12.15–15.00 pm

    Zoom

    Week 6 Session 2: Final Pitching Event or Teamwork on the Team Action Report

     


  • Syllabus

    Not available unless: You are a(n) Student

    Updated Syllabus September 2021

  • Complementary reading and links etc

    Not available unless: You are a(n) Student

    Here is a list of additional materials that might help you especially after the course:

    Books on Innovation:

    Chesbrough, H. W. (2006). Open innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. Harvard Business Press.

    Christensen, C. (2013). The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press.

    Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

    Kim, W. C. & Mauborgne R. (2014). Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Harvard Business Review Press.

    Moore, G. A. (2014). Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition. Harper Collins.

     

    Books on Startups:

    Blank, S. (2013). The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products That Win. K &S Ranch.

    Feld, B., & Mendelson, J. (2012). Venture deals: be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist. John Wiley & Sons.

    Kawasaki, G. (2015). The art of the start: The time-tested, battle-hardened guide for anyone starting anything. Penguin Books Limited.

    Livingston, J. (2007). Founders at work: stories of startups' early days. Apress.

    Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2013). Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. John Wiley & Sons.

    Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Crown Publishing Group.

    Shah, T., & Shah, S. (2011). Venture Capitalists at Work: How VCs Identify and Build Billion-Dollar Successes. Apress.

    Wasserman, N. (2012). The Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. Princeton University Press.

     

    Articles:

    Opportunity identification: 

    Baron, R. A. (2006). Opportunity recognition as pattern recognition: How entrepreneurs "connect the dots” to identify new business opportunities. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(1), 104-119.

    Effectuation:

    Sarasvathy, S. D. (2001). Causation and effectuation: Toward a theoretical shift from economic inevitability to entrepreneurial contingency. Academy of management Review, 26(2), 243-263.

    Business model and planning:

    Amit, R., & Zott, C. (2012). Creating value through business model innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53.

    McGrath, R. G. (2010). Business models: a discovery driven approach. Long range planning, 43(2), 247-261.

    Mullins, J., & Komisar, R. (2010). A business plan? Or a journey to plan B?. MIT Sloan management review, 51(3), 1-5.

    Bootstrapping and resource acquisition:

    Bruton, G., Khavul, S., Siegel, D., & Wright, M. (2015). New Financial Alternatives in Seeding Entrepreneurship: Microfinance, Crowdfunding, and Peer-to-Peer Innovations. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 39(1), 9-26.

    Mollick, E. (2014). The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study. Journal of Business Venturing, 29(1), 1-16.

    Starr, J. A., & MacMillan, I. C. (1990). Resource cooptation via social contracting: Resource acquisition strategies for new ventures. Strategic Management Journal, 11(5), 79.

    Funding: 

    Malhotra, D. (2013). How to Negotiate with VCs. Harvard Business Review, 91(5), 84-90.

    Mulcahy, D. (2013). Six myths about venture capitalists. Harvard Business Review, 91(5). 80-83.

    Scaling and managing growth:

    Von Krogh, G., & Cusumano, M. A. (2001). Three strategies for managing fast growth. MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(2), 53.


    Sustainable entrepreneurship:

    Cohen, B., & Winn, M. I. (2007). Market imperfections, opportunity and sustainable entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(1), 29-49.

    Dean, T. J., & McMullen, J. S. (2007). Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: Reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(1), 50-76.

    Hockerts, K. & Wuestenhagen, R. (2010) Greening goliaths versus emerging Davids-Theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable entrepreneurship

     

    Videos:

    Kauffman Foundation "Founders School” series: http://www.entrepreneurship.org/Founders-School

    Khan Academy Entrepreneurship videos: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/entrepreneurship2

    Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Series: http://etl.stanford.edu

    Podcasts:

    Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html

    Design Thinking Resources:

    The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design: http://www.designkit.org/resources/1

    The Bootcamp Bootleg: http://dschool.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/METHODCARDS-v3-slim.pdf

     


  • Week 1: Materials and Links

    Not available unless: You are a(n) Student
    This section will contain week one slides, team assignments and links to the Zoom meetings

  • Week 2: Materials and Links

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  • Week 3: Materials and Links

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  • Week 4: Materials and Links

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  • Week 5: Materials and Links

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  • Week 6: Materials and Links

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  • Completed weekly team assignments

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  • Final pitch decks

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  • Final Team Action report

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  • Final Individual Reports

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