In today’s technology driven economy the pace of change accelerates at an unprecedented rate. In highly uncertain environment new skills need to be developed to succeed. Entrepreneurial mindset is a set of skills that helps students to identify opportunities, to take actions and innovate.
In this practice focused, interactive course we will learn and practice entrepreneurial mindset. During the course students will work in teams, generate ideas and build a project using proven entrepreneurial frameworks. The course will provide an introduction to innovation and startup ecosystem stakeholders and fundraising options for early stage ventures. The course will focus on the entrepreneurial process and skill development and will use the course projects as „cases in points”. Successfull projects will have an accelerated path to the university startup incubator, the CEU InnovationsLab.
This course is recommended for (i) aspiring entrepreneurs, who would like to acquire skills to build a successful venture, (ii) aspiring professionals who anticipate high uncertainty problems that require different solutions, (iii) aspiring professionals interested in venture financing, (iv) aspiring researchers who intend to increase their capacity to identify problems worth solving, (v) aspiring professionals in governmental institutions and (vi) NGOs.
Key outcomes. By the end of the course, students
- will have generated 50+ innovation/business ideas
- understand the difference between low and high potential ideas
- prepare an inventory of resources at hand
- identify market and customer segments
- learn techniques to test and prove solutions
- identify team roles and responsibilities
- prepare an idea presentation and solution video
- navigate in the startup ecosystem
- make judgment about financing options
Focus will be on the process, not on the outcome. Participants will learn to manage uncertainty, build and test hypothesis and put the problem before the solution. Participants will be encouraged to build teams with diverse technical and personal skills and will be required to go out and talk to potential customers, gather feedback and integrate the learning into their solution.
Grading will be based on the total score out of 100, in line with CEU’s standard grading guidelines
| CEU Grading system | ||||
Grade | Name | Austrian equivalent (0-4 scale) | Points (0-4 scale) | Points (1-100 scale) | Credit |
A | Outstanding | Excellent (1) | 4 | 100-96 | yes |
A- | Excellent | Excellent (1) | 3.67 | 95-88 | yes |
B+ | Good | Good (2) | 3.33 | 87-80 | yes |
B | Fair | Satisfactory (3) | 3 | 79-71 | yes |
B- | Satusfactory | Sufficient (4) | 2.67 | 70-3 | yes |
C+ | Minimum Pass | Sufficient (4) | 2.33 | 62-58 | yes |
F | Fail | Insufficient (5) | 0 | 57-0 | no |
Grading
Idea Generation and Journal | 20% |
VC presentations | 15% |
Ecosystem presentation | 15% |
Group project | 40% |
Class participation and problem solving | 10% |
None