Apply the processes and skills needed to launch and manage a new venture in this capstone experience that brings all of the courses' key learning together.
In this capstone experience, learners apply best practices for planning, launching, and leading a startup company or corporate venture. The course examines a wide range of issues of importance and concern to entrepreneurs and innovators.
Module 1: Defining the Opportunity
What are entrepreneurial opportunities? How do you evaluate a winning innovation idea when you see one? What factors influence the feasibility of an innovation? Which innovation strategy: technology-push or market-pull? What complementary assets are critical to develop?
Module 2: The Business Model
How do you develop a business model? Customer segments and business models. Developing the Business Model Canvas.
Module 3: The Problem
What do customers want to know? Customer segments, value propositions, and product features. How to map your value? What existing factors can we eliminate? Which factors can raise you above competitors? What new factors can you create? Is competition for losers?
Module 4: The Solution
The value of storytelling. The minimum viable product. Customer value. The DNA of customer-centricity. Planning for prototyping.
Module 5: Market Opportunity
What is the lifecycle stage of your industry? What demographic changes are creating new market needs? What psychographic changes are opportunistic? What technical advancements are emerging? What societal changes are presenting new opportunities? What political and regulatory forces will influence the market? Crossing the chasm. Qualitative and quantitative marketing research.
Module 6: Competition
Are you trying to enter a concentrated market? Importance and methods of market segmentation. Focusing on the target market. Beyond the chasm. Strategic implications of beyond the chasm.
Module 7: Prototyping
Why and how to prototype. Rapid prototyping and development. Lean startup MVPs. Choosing wireframing and UX prototyping tools. Anatomy of an experience map. What you'll learn from user testing.
Module 8: Go-To-Market
Troubleshooting your customer discovery. Role and meaning of price. Pricing strategies. Levels of a product/service. Distribution. eCommerce.
Module 9: Financials
Are you ready to raise capital? How to raise capital from friends and family. Income statement. Balance sheet. Statement of cash flows.
Module 10: Team
Can you build the right team at the right time? Recruiting people to your cause. Hiring employees. Platforms for finding talent. Cross pollination and team configuration.
Module 11: The Business Plan
Why create a business plan? Defining the business plan. Authoring the business plan.
Module 12: Pitching
What venture capitalists look for. How to create a pitch deck. The do's and don'ts of the pitch.
Mark Komisky
Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute
University of Maryland
Mark Komisky is a member of the graduate faculty at the University of Maryland and an instructor with the National Science Foundation's I-Corps program for technology commercialization.
Mark is a serial entrepreneur and technology executive with two decades of experience with startups as a founder, CEO/CXO, and advisor. He has raised over $30 million in early-stage funding from angels, venture capitalists, In-Q-Tel, and strategic investors. He was a co-founder and CEO of Bluefire Security, a pioneering mobile enterprise security software company, COO at Oculis Labs, and has held CXO positions in two other startups. Mark has executed technology licensing and distribution deals on behalf of startups with global partners, including Symantec, Motorola, Lenovo, HP/Palm, and 3M, among others, and has sold directly to global enterprise and government customers.
Mark holds a JD from Georgetown University Law School and a BA from Johns Hopkins University.
Our no-cost pre-application is the first step to the formal application, and allows our admissions team to give you a preliminary assessment of the strength of your application.
