Topic outline

  • General

    Welcome to the course!

    The course's overall structure is situated around the topic of “value." Value creation and capture is at the core of entrepreneurship, and thus, over the 4 sessions in this course, we will dive into the different aspects of value - in the context of entrepreneurship and, particularly, high-growth entrepreneurship.

    Contact information for the course 

    • Teacher Responsible: Apurva Ganoo (apurva.ganoo@aalto.fi) 
    • Teaching Assistants: Canan Keles, canan.keles@aalto.fi Yeon Lee, yeon.lee@aalto.fi


    Attendance Policy: As there will only be four (4) lectures in total for this course, attendance is required in at least 2 out of the 4 sessions (50%). In total, attendance will be worth 10% of the grade, meaning that one (1) session is worth 2.5% of the course grade. Please contact the teaching team as soon as possible (Apurva, Canan, Yeon) in case of any issues with attendances.


    Assessment & Grading (will be further explained in the first session).

    10% - Attendance (2.5% per lecture)
    60% - 3 x Individual Essays + mind-map (15% per essay, 30% for the last one)
    20% - Team Report + Peer Evaluation (5%)
    10% - Team Presentation + Peer Evaluation (5%)


    Lecture Plan: Each lecture (3h) will be split into 2 or 3 sections:

    • First part: Fundamentals & Recap
    • Second part: Guest Lecture / Industry Perspective
    • Third part: Interactive Element (Workshop, Q&As, etc.)


    Session 1: Team Values

    • Self-awareness, psychological safety, team-building
    • How to create a team of shared values and purpose (connecting to the business itself)
    • Guest Lecture: Juho Makkonen (CEO, Sharetribe)


    Session 2: Identifying Value

    • Design thinking, business models, and value propositions
    • Startup perspective on identifying their “north star” or finding a value opportunity that aligns with their views
    • Guest Lecture: Henrik Ilvesmäki (Founder, GiveH20) + Maybe 1 more?


    Session 3: Funding Value

    • Funding innovation, ways of funding or incentivizing certain elements.
    • VC Perspective, how does the VC model actually work, when can you use it?
    • Guest Lecture: Jonne Kuittinen (Deputy Chief Executive, FVCA)


    Session 4: Building Value

    • Overview of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, with a focus on the Aalto entrepreneurial ecosystem
    • Prototyping and Experimentation - how to go from an idea to an experiment.
    • Guest lecture: Josefiina Kotilainen, (CEO, Startup Foundation)



    • Forum icon
      Announcements Forum
    • Group choice icon
      Team Formation Group choice
      Not available unless any of:
      • You are a(n) Teacher
      • You are a(n) Student
      Deadline :10 November 2023 at 17:00.

      Please form your groups of 8 students yourselves. After the latest adjustments, it looks like there will be 7 people in 2 groups, you can plan 7 people for Groups 49 and 52.

      You can access your pre-assigned group information in the announcement section.
      If you do not want to change your group, still, you have to enroll in the assigned group from this page.

      Indicate your team formation in Mycourses until 10 November Friday at 17:00pm.