Idea to Startup – Energy & Sustainability

Description

In this course, you do not study entrepreneurship, you become an entrepreneur. Working in a team, you identify a business opportunity, test its validity, and build a viable business model – a roadmap from an idea to a sustainable innovation-driven company. On this journey, you will be helped by guest lecturers from industry and the startup ecosystem. After this course, you will be able to proactively assess the merit of a technology startup, whether you want to build one or join one. 

The ideas focus on ensuring a sustainable and energy efficient environment (topics may include circular economy, renewables, cleantech, agriculture, and water and waste management). 

What to expect?

Fast-paced and interactive, the class consists of mostly coaching sessions and team exercises, therefore class attendance is mandatory. Online content and short in-class lectures provide you with general guidelines for each business model milestone. Schedule permitting, guest practitioners will join to offer advice. There will be weekly assignments, building blocks to a full-fledged business model. Final deliverables include: a logbook of primary market research (yes, you’ll do interviews!), concise business model report, and a pitch presentation in front of a jury of startup professionals.

You will work in a multi-disciplinary team that needs to come up with an innovative technology-based sustainable business idea. Then, you gradually build a business model, mainly by answering questions such as: Who are my customers and what value do I create for them? How big is this market? What should my minimum viable product look like? How do I build a competitive advantage in the market (e.g. by patenting)? How will I market and deliver this product to the customer? Will this be a profitable business? You seek answers through customer, stakeholder, and expert interviews, by developing step-by-step interview protocols and executing them.

Enrollment Requirements

This is a free elective course open to all master students. Please enroll through Brightspace. E-mail the instructor if you have any further questions.

Course code/ Size
TPM413 / 5 ECTS

Quarter(s)
Starts 1 and 3

Day (Class Hours)
Tuesday and Thursday (1545 to 1730)

Instructor(s)
Dr. Aleks Giga