Startup Engineering III: From Idea to Business

This page contains general information about the module Startup Engineering III. The module will not be conducted in the summer term 2020, the details of which can be found hier.

Goal of the module 

The goal of the module is to let students experience the first stage of a startup's life starting from the initial idea and leading up to a business presentation to a potential startup accelerator.

Format

Startup Engineering III is a team project; students work together in groups to achieve a series of pre-defined milestones. Each milestone is presented in front of the groups, which make suggestions for improvement. Coaches are available to guide and advise the teams.

Recommendation

Students should apply for the course as teams of 2-3 people. Each team should supply a business idea and be able to answer a questionnaire about it.

Questionaire

• What is your idea for an offer (i.e. your product or service)? Please describe your offer in three sentences.
• Who is your offer aimed at (i.e. what is your target market)?
• How does your target market currently obtain what your offer does?
• What will be the benefit of your offer over these alternatives?
• What technologies or processes will you use to implement your offer?
• How long will it take you to build a working prototype of your offer?

It would be further helpful (but it is not necessary) to have attended the courses Startup Engineering I and/or Startup Engineering II.

Lectures

• Graham Horton (Dozent)

Format and Exam

• Credit points: 6 CP
• SWS: 4
• Exam Type: Term Paper

Further Information

• Module Description (PDF)
• Classification with the Curriculum:
• MSc CV / MSc INF / MSc INGINF / MSc WIF: Schlüssel- und Methodenkompetenz 

• Evaluation Results 2016 SoSe (pdf)
• Evaluation Results 2017 SoSe (pdf)

Literature

• Blank & Dorf: The Startup Owner's Manual
• Osterwalder & Pigneur: Business Model Generation
• Ulwick: What Customers Want
• Ries: The Lean Startup
• Christensen: The Innovator's Dilemma

Workload of the Course

Links

• Market Size:
  • TAM SAM SOM - what it means and why it matters (website)
  • Marktabschätzung mit TAM, SAM, SOM (blog)
• Lean Startup:
  • The Lean Startup Methodology (website) 
• Minimum Viable Product: 
  • The Ultimate Guide to Minimum Viable Products (blog)
  • Venture Hacks interview: "What is the minimum viable product?" (blog)
  • Don't Build When You Build-Measure-Learn (blog)
• Value Proposition:
  • How to Write a Great Value Proposition (blog)
• Build Measure Learn Cycle:
• Why Build, Measure, Learn isn’t just throwing things against the wall to see if they work the Minimal Viable Product (blog)
• Business Model Canvas:
  • Business Model Canvas Explained (video)
  • Business Model Canvas in 5 minutes (video)
  • Business Model Canvas with Explanations (website)
• Growth Hacking:
  • The definitive guide to growth hacking (blog)
  • Eight Ways To Go Viral (blog)
• Landing Pages:
  • The 100 Best Landing Page Examples You Can’t Afford To Miss In 2019 (blog)
  • The 5 Essential Elements of a Winning Landing Page (blog)
• General Startup Videos:
  • How to Start a Startup (video)
  • How to Build a Startup: The Lean LaunchPad(video)
• Blogs:
  • paulgraham.com (articles)
  • andrewchen.co (articles)
  • onstartups.com (articles)
• Pitching:
• Linkedin Pitch to Greylock (article)
• Presentation:
  • Guy Kawasaki "The Art of the Start": 10-20-30 Rule (video: 26:00-30:00)