Does a career in entrepreneurship sound appealing to you? Explore what it’s like to be an entrepreneur beginning a new venture in this unique course. Working in small teams, you will go through the process of envisioning an exciting product or service and an accompanying business model for taking it to market. You will do this twice during the course -- the first time in a problem area we suggest and the second time in an area chosen by your team. Develop the skills of working in teams, principled brainstorming, defining a product or service, formulating a business model, and pitching your ideas to others. Knowledgeable mentors will be available to support you throughout the process.
On the first day, the course mentor will give you a tour of the course website and walk you through how to use it. During the course, you will work in a combination of full class discussions and breakout team rooms. This is not a lecture-based course. Instead, you will be immersed on day one in a realistic situation and will learn by doing as you work individually and as a team. Learning resources and detailed guidance are available on the course website.
Each week of the course will be organized as follows:
- Monday: Brainstorm a product idea (2 hours)
- Tuesday: Formulate a business model (2 hours)
- Wednesday: Create a pitch for your product (2 hours)
- Thursday: Present your pitch and debrief (2 hours)
This course will run from 1:00-3:00PM PDT Monday through Thursday for two weeks with additional independent work on Friday or during the weekend. Course activities and class meetings are facilitated by industry experts who partner with UC Davis.