This is a course is about entrepreneurial action. It is project-based and requires constant and continuous work to bring an idea for a new venture as far as possible to its realization. This is an entrepreneurship-in- action course and not simply a course about entrepreneurship. It deals with entrepreneurs and the creation and financing of fast-growing firms. The main part (Entrepreneurship) is about people and the processes related to launching and building new ventures and transforming them into viable, sustainable and valuable enterprises. In addition, this course addresses the questions of entrepreneurship as a different management style and how entrepreneurial firms can be organized to realize substantial growth in the context of liability of smallness and newness. The secondary part (Venture capital) has the objective to lead the students to understand what financing options startups have, what venture capital is, how it works, how you can structure a deal. In this course you will immediately apply what you learn. Entrepreneurship is team-based and your team is your destiny. Only together you can make it ! The course belongs to the scientific area of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The course is designed to give an inside into the process of entrepreneurship and project development with an applied approach to new venture creation including product design and development. It also gives an overview of financing options for startups. The course is intended to the development of skills and knowledge about design and entrepreneurial process by stimulating competences in judging new product development efforts leading potentially to new ventures. As such the course gives theoretical insights about entrepreneurship as well as its application in practice. The educational objectives is to understand the differences between entrepreneurship and management in large corporation, to assess the attractiveness and feasibility of an opportunity and to put practically in place the first steps of the customer journey, i.e. validation the problem, solution, customer and testing customer hypotheses. In addition, it gives an overview of the financing process. This course is theory and project based. The project work is a way to practice entrepreneurial skill and requires substantial effort during the semester. This is not desk-based research but engaging with the real world. It is an integral part of the course: The way you practice, is the way you play !

Knowledge and understanding: Sufficient insight into entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial processes in order to: • Understand the role and challenges of an entrepreneur • Understand the difference between established firms and new ventures • Understand how to evaluate opportunities • Understand the strategies of new venture management • Understand the organizational challenges in launching a potentially fast-growing firm • Understand the financing process Applying knowledge and understanding: • Identifying and evaluating opportunities for start-ups • Perform customer validation • Developing a business model for start-ups • Developing entry strategies for new ventures • Developing requirements for an appropriate new venture team • Develop a concept for establishing a financing package Making judgments: Students will acquire experience in making judgments about business opportunities and their feasibility Communication skills - students will develop communication skills for presenting project work Learning skills - Dealing with uncertain outcomes, students will learn how to approach and validate their projects

What is entrepreneurship? • Business ideas • Evaluation of entrepreneurial opportunities • The link between entrepreneurial firm typologies and opportunities • Problem validation, solution validation and value proposition • Entry strategies • Entrepreneurial teams and networking • Resourcing the new venture • The financing process • Venture capital

- Neck, H, Neck, C, and Murray, E., (2018). Entrepreneurship – Mindset and Practice, Sage Publications; - Smith & Smith 2019: Entrepreneurial Finance - Venture Capital, Deal Structure & Valuation, 2nd Edition, Standford University Press. Additional Articles will be added in due course

We will be experimenting with Challenge Based Learning, working on a flipped-classroom approach encouraging students to search and to critically review existing knowledge, and at the same time to apply generated learnings. At the core is the team project work. Case studies will be used to explore in more depth certain aspects. We will class discussions, case studies and videos. Attention and learning will be, additionally, stimulated through the use of interactive platforms like Mentimeter.

Throughout the course, there will be continuous verifications via weekly progress tracking, group assignments and case studies. For the final grade count the project work during the course for 70% and the final written exam, which consists in the final project presentation by the teams for 30%. Class participation is essential and taken for granted There will be no midterm exam.

Min 27/30 exam grade