The Academic Experience |
| The goal of the Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship is to assist you in developing a startup in the most efficient way possible. The program has been designed to enhance your skills and leverage your experiences to launch your venture successfully.  Program CalendarThe Certificate in Technology Entrepreneurship is an intensive immersion experience. From the moment orientation begins in September until graduation in June the schedule is full of interesting and engaging speakers and events.
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Entrepreneurship CurriculumFall Winter Spring
Fall Business Planning is the keystone course of the program. Taught by a successful entrepreneur, the class covers business topics as they apply strictly to entrepreneurs. In conjunction with rigorous coursework, students write their own business plan and develop their venture. Topics covered include: bringing technology to market, new venture finance, product marketing and start-up management. Case Studies in Entrepreneurship involves an in-depth, longitudinal examination of topics in entrepreneurship. The case study method provides the opportunity for open-ended analysis of timely entrepreneurship topics in both an individual and group context. Students are exposed to entrepreneurship cases concurrent with topics addressed in the Business Planning course. Management of the High-Tech Startup Seminar covers the identification and analysis of startup issues and problems that are particularly important or unique to high technology ventures. Guest speakers hold high level positions at leading Silicon Valley firms and share experiences that are immensely beneficial and relevant to students. Topics vary from seminar to seminar. Winter The Integrated Product Development course focuses on team-based integrated product development among engineering, business, and design disciplines. The course consists of identifying, understanding, conceptualizing and introducing a product opportunity. The emphasis in the course is on the early stage of product development. The tools covered in the course help to provide structure to each stage of development. Students are expected to document their progress by producing written and oral reports. At the end of the quarter the team will develop a beta product, marketing plan and manufacturing plan for the product. Marketing of Innovation focuses on how to bring cutting-edge technologies to the marketplace. It is designed to facilitate the hands-on application of marketing concepts and practices to the very difficult world of commercializing new discoveries in science and engineering. The goal is to provide and opportunity for a select group of students to apply their skills in formulating a market assessment and preliminary launch strategy for the "newest of the new" in the laboratory sciences. You do not need a technical background, although this can be an advantage; however, you do need to have a strong interest in applying your knowledge to help scientists move their discoveries into commercial application. New Venture Finance develops an understanding of the economic, and financial forces that drive the creation of new ventures. The course provides financial modeling tools for determining the financial health of companies and strategies for growth. topics include promoting, funding needs, raising capital and valuing emerging enterprises. Spring Technological Entrepreneur as a Leader and Innovator is a residency course for students to undergo an intense program in developing the personal skills necessary to lead and persuade others. The students will not only read about and complete exercises on leadership and selling ideas, they will meet with and network with members of the entrepreneurship community in Silicon Valley. Communication skills, both written and oral, will be stressed along with self-discovery of one's leadership style. Strategy in Technology-based Companies covers primary strategy paradigms with particular emphasis on challenges of strategy in rapidly changing, highly uncertain technology-based industries. Entrepreneurship Practicum provides students with a hands-on entrepreneurship experience by placing them in an early stage Silicon Valley startup. Startups are venture backed and pre-IPO. Students are required to journal about their experience and host and open-house at their company for classmates. |
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