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REQUIRED READING: “Vernon’s Razor” course pack sold at UNC Student Store
OPTIONAL: Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures, 2nd edition, Entrepreneurship Textbook, Ireland;
Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008; not at Student Store; this textbook is required for LTV II and III
The Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki, Portfolio, 2004
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Launching the Venture Series
Launching the Venture (LTV) is a four-part series of courses designed
to teach, empower and inspire entrepreneurial teams at UNC to launch commercial businesses and social ventures. Teams may be comprised of any mixture of faculty, staff, post-doc, graduate and/or undergraduate
students. Courses combine lectures, workshops, guest speakers and hands-on expert coaching and mentoring. The program has helped launch more than 100 commercial and nonprofit ventures since inception.
The LTV
series is made up of four half-semester classes beginning in the fall and running through the academic year. Each mod-length course may be taken for 1.5 credit hours or as a non-credit seminar series (no tuition).
Enrollment is by permission of the instructor or by application. Sessions take place Monday evenings, 5-8 p.m., in the McColl building of the business school with free parking in the business deck. The four
Launching the Venture courses are:
- MBA 848A: LTV I – Opportunity Recognition and Team Building
- MBA 848B: LTV II – Feasibility
- MBA 848C: LTV III – Business Planning
- MBA 848D: LTV IV – Financing
LTV I – Opportunity Recognition and Team Building
The first phase of Launching the Venture takes place the first half of the fall semester and is open to all students, staff and faculty at UNC.
The course has two main objectives. The primary goal is to present a general overview of the field of entrepreneurship, in particular the skills necessary to determine whether an idea can become a true
entrepreneurial opportunity. The second objective is to help individuals assemble an entrepreneurial team for the rest of the Launching the Venture series. This first course will include lectures, guest speakers,
workshops and networking sessions for team building. Students who have already taken an entry level entrepreneurship course at UNC* are discouraged from enrolling in the course, but may wish to attend networking
sessions to assemble a team to apply for the next phase of LTV.
*Entry level entrepreneurship courses at UNC include: ECON 325 Introduction to Entrepreneurship; MBA 835 Introduction to Entrepreneurship; MBA
846J Business Plan Analysis; BUSI 701 Artistic Entrepreneurship; any Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship class.
GRADING (FOR-CREDIT STUDENTS ONLY)
Preliminary Razor Analysis (40%)
Due Thursday, 9/24, end of day/midnight
This is a
1,500-2,500 paper analyzing your venture idea using the Razor model. This may be an individual or team project. You must email the professor for
permission to form a team (deadline 9/22 for
final team formation), and this team should also work together on the Final Project. Your paper should include sections that correspond to the seven numbered chapters of the Vernon’s Razor course pack. This exercise will kick start your application for LTV II and will allow you to get feedback before you submit your application. Your paper must include a minimum of three graphical elements, for example, tables, charts, illustrations or photographs.
Final Project (60%) Due in two parts: 10/1 and 10/5
Your final project is comprised of the two elements of your application for the Launching the Venture II: Feasibility course. The
written portion of the application is due online by October 1 (www.unc.edu/cei/launch). That will be followed by a PPT presentation in class Monday, October 5. Specific
instructions for the final presentation will be discussed in class.
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