McIntire 12-hr Entrepreneurship Track for 4th-Year Students
COMM 4680: Entrepreneurship (Fall 4th year) - a 3-hr course
Course Description: Explores the entrepreneurship process as well as basic concepts and analytical tools that facilitate new-venture success with a focus on a start-up’s ability to make money and its ability to generate attractive financial and personal returns for the entrepreneur compared to alternative career options. Examines various considerations for generating, screening, and evaluating new venture ideas, creating and presenting compelling business plans, acquiring early-stage funding and other required resources, as well as measuring value.
Two sections of COMM 4680 will be offered. Prof. Elizabeth Thurston will be teaching one section and Mr. Eric Martin, President and Managing Director of Eolo, Inc. will be teaching the other. Mr. Martin holds an MBA from Harvard Business School (1990) and has over 20 years of experience in consulting, entrepreneurship, and venture start-ups. He team-taught COMM 4680 last fall with Professor Thurston
Prerequisites:
To select students into the Entrepreneurship Track, COMM 4680 will have a Venture Viability Assessment team exercise that includes a contest component. Student teams of five will be formed in which the top team from each section, judged by COMM 4680 and COMM 3791 instructors and entrepreneur practitioners, will be offered spots in the spring Entrepreneurship Track Capstone course and the Entrepreneurship Track program. This competition would fill 10 of the proposed 25 slots for that class/program. The other 15 slots would remain open for the Capstone course based upon a written plan submission from those having declared interest in the Entrepreneurship Track and subject to instructor approval.
These remaining 15 slots will be filled AFTER the Venture Viability Assessment results are posted in the fall of the students 4th year. Then, those 25 students admitted to the Entrepreneurship Track are required to take COMM 3791:Financing New Ventures in J-Term of their 4th year.
COMM 3791: Financing New Ventures (4th year J-Term) - a 3-hr course
Course Description: This course will examine the challenges, processes, and sources of financing new ventures in the focused and engaging format of J-term. Primarily from the perspective of the entrepreneur(s) or business owner(s), through both empirical field research and analysis, the course will cover the sources and terms of financing, such as bootstrap, friends & family, angel, venture capital, corporate, and bank financing. It will explore the fit and viability of certain sources of financing based on the nature of the venture’s business and the stage of the venture’s maturity. It will explore the basic financial concepts and techniques to determine capital needs, develop appropriate financial models, and estimate company valuation. The course will emphasize the integration of these financial concepts with entrepreneurial strategy. The course will also emphasize practical application of the theory and research of early-stage financing through case discussions, mock negotiations, and guest practitioners. Under instructor supervision, student teams will collect and analyze case descriptions of actual business problems and decisions and formulate their own business and financing strategies.
Mr. Trip Davis will teach this course. Mr. Davis is Co-founder & Chairman of the Board of TRX, Inc. He has been a lecturer and adjunct faculty for COMM 4680 since 2001. He holds an MBA from Darden (1994) and has nearly 20 years of business experience focusing on evaluating new business ventures and the travel industry.
Prerequisites:
This J-term course will be just for those students accepted into the Entrepreneurship Track. Students accepted into the Track will be taking the Entrepreneurship Track Capstone course in spring 4th year; so, this J-term course will provide students with the financial tools and skills required to take the Entrepreneurship Track Capstone course.
COMM 4200: Project Management (4th year Fall or Spring) – a 3-hr course
Course Description: This course covers the basic processes related to the effective management of projects including feasibility assessment, resource analysis, estimation of time, effort and cost, scheduling, team management, risk management, and implementation planning. The course is taught in the context of analyzing and managing the design of business processes in support of business strategy including business requirements analysis, business process modeling, and process design. A survey of project management tools is also provided. Class work includes case analysis of real world project scenarios and a management retrospective analyzing a completed IT project.
As noted above, some students accepted into the Entrepreneurship Track may have already taken this course in their 3rd year. Though 4th year students could take it either in fall or spring, it is strongly recommended that COMM 4200 be taken in the fall 2009,, as having this course prior to the Venture Capstone Project Course would be optimal. Still, given that COMM 4200 will also be offered in spring 2010, it can be taken concurrently with the Entrepreneurship Track Capstone course. Since acceptance into Entrepreneurship Track is not determined until mid-fall 2009, priority for COMM 4200 in the spring will be given to students who did not take it in the fall.
COMM 4681: Entrepreneurship Track Capstone (Spring 4th year) - a 3-hr course
Course Description: Entrepreneurship Track Capstone course synthesizes McIntire students’ educational experience through the application of tools developed in the School of Commerce. In the capstone course, approximately five teams comprising five students each attempt to commercialize business concepts (of their design and with faculty approval) through the “pre-money” stage of development. The course culminates in a New Venture Competition, the winners of which, as judged by Entrepreneurship Track professors and program donors, will receive modest seed money to continue exploration of their business concept. Meeting in a three-hour weekly session, students, as part of entrepreneurial teams, receive faculty/entrepreneur guidance akin to what they would receive from real-world investors. Each class session will be divided into three sections:
- Lesson of the Week - provided by the instructors and aided by guest speakers.
- Class Update - teams report their progress and “lessons learned” to the full session.
- Coaching Session - with one of the instructors.
The capstone course provides an environment of entrepreneurial exploration for students leading to skills expansion, deep understanding of business principles, and practical application of classroom techniques. As such, student performance evaluation will be based on the acquisition and demonstrated use of core McIntire and Entrepreneurship Track-specific tools. A failed concept will not mean a failing grade, so long as the student groups have diligently internalized and utilized such skills. Beyond traditional academic performance metrics, it is anticipated that students will “self judge” their performance. The capstone serves as an early stage incubator for real-world business and community service opportunities from which the students can prosper post-graduation. As such, students are likely to be keenly aware of the merit of their efforts during the course.
One section of this course just for the 25 Entrepreneurship Track students will be offered. This course will be developed and team-taught by Mr. Eric Martin and Mr. Trip Davis. This course will be a comprehensive project course that takes the ideas and knowledge developed in COMM 4680, COMM 3791, and COMM 4200 and applies it to an actual entrepreneurial start-up or simulated case.
Prerequisites:
Completion of COMM 4680, COMM 3791, and COMM 4200.
Admission to the Entrepreneurship Track – a) via application and faculty approval; or b) via team ranking in COMM 4680 Venture Viability Assessment exercise; or c) approved Venture Project and assembled core venture team of Entrepreneur Track students (such approval to be obtained no later than the first day of the course)