University of California, Santa Barbara
College of Engineering
Entrepreneurship: Past, Present & Future
TMP21, Spring 2016
PROFESSOR: John Greathouse CLASS: Mon & Wed., 11:00 - 12:15 PM
OFFICE: Phelps Hall, TMP officesCLASSROOM: IV Theatre I
OFFICE HRS: Monday 9:45 - 10:45
EMAIL:
TA: Kelsey Judd
OFFICE: TMP Office, Phelps Hall
OFFICE HRS: by appointment
EMAIL:
Course Description
The historical and present state of entrepreneurship is explored, along with the potential future direction of startups. Students are encouraged to identify their passions and determine how they can turn what they love to do into a lucrative vocation. To this end, students are encouraged to start small ventures as a means of determining their proclivity for an entrepreneurial lifestyle.
Course Objectives
The course blends theory and application to provide a basis for subsequent coursework within the Technology Management Program. It rewards students with an interest in leading or participating in an entrepreneurial venture with the knowledge to make decisions in real-world settings.
The course focuses on entrepreneurialprinciples, covering concepts, skills, practices, information, and choices that are relevant for start-up and early-stage entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial managers, and their stakeholders. It is a complex course with three basic objectives.
The first is to encourage students to take academic chances during the remainder of their college career by exploring a wide variety of fields of study. The second is to provide a safe environment in which students can explore their strengths and weaknesses in order to determine the extent to which they might have the characteristics that facilitate entrepreneurial success. The third is to prompt students to “create something from nothing,” which includes non-profits, service businesses, lifestyle businesses, as well as high-tech startups as a way to empirically flex their entrepreneurial muscles.
Through these objectives, the class will help students to:
- Better understand their proclivity for risk taking, ability to handle stress caused by an ambiguous environment and assess their comfort with the startup lifestyle. Define their individual version of “personal success” and begin to understand what it will mean for them to “Live Their Legend.”
- Identify their passions and explore how to effectively monetize them.
- Understand the history of entrepreneurship and its current state in order to provide students with a contextual framework to predict potential trends and exogenous factors they can leverage in their future ventures.
Required Reading
They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators, Harold Evans, Gail Buckland, David Lefer, Back Bay Books, 2006 <paperback, used copies are fine> Hereafter referred to as “TMA”.
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho,HarperOne, 2006<paperback, used copies are fine>
JohnGreathouse.comReader – Only available for purchase in class - $10 (Readings also availablead hoc at no charge at:
Handouts: Various
Recommended Reading
How We Got To Now, Steven Johnson, Penguin Group, 2014. Hereafter referred to as “HWGTN”.
Grading
•35% Quizzes
•15% Final Paper – A Letter To Your Grandchildren
•20% Group Project
•10% Live Your Legend: Finding Your Passion Worksheet
•10% Five Emails To People Close to You & The Corresponding Responses
•10% In-class Attendance & Participation
Course Description
Classes require significant individual preparation and participation. Students will be expected to apply the information and concepts from lectures and various readings to periodic quizzes, a FinalPaper and various assignments.
Quizzes
A limited time will be given to complete each quiz. Thus, if you are late, you risk not having adequate time to complete a particular quiz. Missed quizzes cannot be made up. However, numerous extra credit opportunities exist for students to compensate for missed quizzes.
Assignments
Students are expected to complete the readings prior to each session and to arrive for class prepared, on time and ready to discuss the assigned readings and their application to entrepreneurship. Assignments and readings are due on the date in which they are listed in the Course Schedule (see below).All assignments should be posted to GauchoSpace, before class begins.
Five Emails To People Close To You
Write & send Five Emails To People Close To Youasking the following four questions:
1.What do you think are my biggest passions and why? If you can think of at least two or three, that would be great. Please explain.
2. What do you think are my biggest natural strengths and talents? Please explain.
3. Given the above and what you know about me, what have you always thought I’d be great at doing as a career? Or maybe as a volunteer or hobby? Please explain.
4. Assuming you didn’t know me personally, what talent, skill or passion would you happily pay me to teach or help you with? Why?
Choose people who know you well, who will be honest with you and are from different walks of life. For instance, a non-friend peer or coworker, past or current boss, past teacher, boyfriend/girlfriend, parent or mentor. Must send to 2 - 3of these categories (the more data the better) – DON’T just ask your family for their insights.
Submit to Gauchospace who you sent the emails to (citing your relationship to the recipients of your emails). Before our Wednesdayclass on week 8, you should submit their responses to Gauchospace. To gain 100% credit for this assignment, you must submit response from at least five third parties. If you do not receive a satisfactory response from one or more of the people you reach out to, you may need to expand the list of people you survey in time to have responses in hand by week 8.
As you receive responses to your emails, accumulate them into a single Word document and submit them to Gauchospace at one time (do not forward the emails, ad hoc). If there is information in the replies which you deem to be too personal, feel free to remove such text. However, one half of your grade on this assignment will be based upon the receipt of thoughtful responses to your questions, so follow up with anyone who does not respond in a timely manner or who provides you with superficial, unhelpful responses. The final deadline to submit responses is before our Wednesdayclass on Week 8.
Note:If you already know your current or future passion project, then change these questions to what’s relevant in your journey right now. Ask about positioning ideas, pricing, products or service you could offer or whatever.
Group Project
Groups must be comprised of at least five students and no more than ten.
Each group must create and sell a product which is primarily comprised of recycled materials. All sales must come from total strangers, not friends, family and fraternity brothers or sorority sisters. Results must be submitted in the form of a short PowerPoint presentation (no more than 10-slides) by 5/9.The teams that make the most money will be Finalists and may be asked to present their results to the class. The class will then vote for the ultimate winner.
Presentations will be evaluated via the following rubric:
-Product Originality: 20 points (max)
-Wiliness of Sales Process: 30 points (max)
-Reliance on Recycled Materials: 10 points (max)
-Presentation Quality: 15 (max)
-Net Sales: 25 (max), to be distributed as follows:
- Net Sales in top 25%= 25 points
- Net Sales in second quartile = 20 points
- Net Sales in third quartile = 15 points
- Net Sales in fourth quartile = 10 points
Students may be asked to verify their sales and cost of goods sold, so retain copies of receipts, proof of sales, etc. Academic integrity is an essential element of a high-quality educational experience and is expected in this class. Academic integrity includes respecting the letter and the spirit of the class rules. The rules are designed to maximize the learning experience for all students, preserve the integrity of the class and to help you practice the high level of integrity expected from consultants, professional managers and corporate officers.
Any student(s) who fabricatesor exaggerates their results shall be subject to the Students’ General Standards of Conduct and face potential, significantadverse consequences.
•Due by midnight on Friday of the 9th week
Final Paper
You are 67-years old and you are in a reflective mood. Write a letter to your grandchildren explaining why you did not achieve your personal or professional goals. Your grandchildren have an inability to concentrate for long periods, so your letter should not exceed 3 double-spaced, typed pages. At a minimum, you should enlighten your grandchildren regarding the following topics, each of which is worth up to the maximum points shown below, based on the completeness and thoughtfulness of each response.
•10 points (max) Define what “living your legend” meant to you when you were in your late teens / early 20’s
•15 points (max) List your life-long professional and personal goals
•10 points (max) Identify your definition of “personal success” and “professional success”
•15 points (max) Explain the intersection of “things you like to do” and “things that you can make money doing” that you identified when you were a young person
•10 points (max) Describe what “the thread” meant to you as a young person and how holding onto or letting go the thread impacted your life
•15 points (max) Explain what decisions you made that kept you from living the life you wanted to live. Describe your professional accomplishments and what mistakes you made that kept you from achieving your career goals
•25 points (max) Overall thoughtfulness, clarity, cohesiveness, authenticity (degree to which the paper embodies an elderly person sincerely reflecting on their views as a youth and how their lives unfolded), quality of writing, degree of effort applied, etc.
*Ten extra points will be added to your score if turned in by midnight Friday of the 8th week of class.
Due the day of the class Final by 5:00 (Thursday, June 9th)No Late Papers Accepted, No Exceptions. DO NOTE WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE.
EXTRA CREDIT
You can earn extra credit equal to a maximum of 20 additional points to your aggregate Quiz score. Extra credit opportunities include: (i) submitting questions for class speakers before class begins (up to 3 extra credit points per speaker), (ii) completing theThey Made America Paper (discussed below), (iii) completing the Hummingbird Effect Paper and, (iv) writing a one-page summary of a sanctioned speaking event which you attend outside of our class(up to 5 extra credit points per speaker). Such speaker papers must be submitted within one week of attending the talk and you cannot be enrolled in the class in which the speaker attends to earn extra credit.
One source of such speakers is the TMP’s speakers’ series; ( In addition, you can attend speakers in other TMP classes. NO extra credit will be accepted after midnight on the Friday of the 8th week of class.
Hummingbird Effect Paper(up to 10 extra credit points to be applied to your overall Quiz score – Due at the start of class on the 8th week)
Students will select a major technology trend or emerging innovation which has NOT YET experienced mainstream adoption. In a maximum of 3 double-spaced, typed pages, the students will:
•Describe the technology in relation to the Adjacent Possible
–Identify technological factors & infrastructure required for commercialization
•Anticipate the Hummingbird Effects
–How will entrepreneurs take advantage of these non-obvious outcomes?
•Identify which industries, constituencies will be the winners & which will be the losers as the innovation becomes widely adopted
•No late submissions accepted
They Made America Paper (up to 10 extra credit points to be applied to your overall Quiz score – Due at the start of class on the 8th week)
Select two entrepreneurs included in They Made America’s Innovators Gallery (p. 629). For each entrepreneur:
- Describe the sales tactics employed by the selected entrepreneurs and the role that selling played in the entrepreneurs’ success and/or failure.
- Articulate how they might have augmented the sales strategies discussed, including the use of modern sales tools that may not have existed at the time the entrepreneurs carried out their ventures.
- Describe which of the Ten Lessons (p. 625) are exemplified by the selected entrepreneurs, including specific examples to support your arguments.
- Maximum length, three pages double spaced.
Entrepreneurship: Past, Present & Future
TMP21
Course Schedule
Week 13/28 & 3/30 / Introduction To Entrepreneurship
We will focus on the Ten Lessons outlined in TMA for the duration of the class, citing entrepreneurs who embodied each of these lessons.
Reading
TMA
- America’s Genius for Innovation pp. 3 – 13
- Ten Lessons pp.625 – 627
JohnGreathouse.com
- Innovator vs. Inventor
- Entrepreneurship Is A Compulsion
- UCSB Tops Harvard & Wharton In Startup Wars
Week 2
4/4 & 4/6 / History Of Entrepreneurship
Lesson One: Make No Assumptions
Where Do Good Ideas Come From?
Quiz #1
Assignment
Complete The Live Your Legend Passion Worksheet, save PDF and submit to GauchoSpace -
Reading
JohnGreathouse.com
- Startup Lessons From Olympic Innovators
- Startup Children - How To Parent An Entrepreneur (Part I)
- You Are Never Too Old To Learn To Surf (aka: Don’t Be Afraid To Suck)
Week 3
4/11 & 4/13 / Recommended Reading
TMA
- Charles Goodyear pp. 106
Entrepreneurship Today & Fast Followers
Lesson Two: First Isn’t Always Best
Quiz #2Assignment
Write & send Five Emails To People Close To You
Reading
Rise of Micro VC
The Changing Structure Of The VC Industry
TMA
- John Fitch pp. 21
- Past Is Prologue: 13 Startup Lessons From How We Got To Now
- Fast Followers Beat The Market Leaders At Their Own Game
- What Color Are Your Elephant’s Sunglasses?
- Fast Follower III – First Mover Disadvantage
TMA
- Robert Fulton pp. 28
- George Eastman pp. 313
- Martha Harper pp. 346
Week 4
4/18 & 4/20 /
Lesson Three: It’s OK To Steal
Quiz #3Reading
TMA
- Sarah Walker pp. 316
- Ruth Handler pp. 492
JohnGreathouse.com
- Conforming To Your Customers’ Realities
- Forget Cash: What Will You Really Make At Your Startup?
TMA
- Gary Kildall pp. 515
Week 5
4/25 & 4/27 /
Note: No class Wed, 4/27
Lesson Four: Diffidence Will Not Do
Guest Speaker: 4/25 -Troy Carter, Founder & CEO Atom Factory, serial investorQuiz #4
Reading
TMA
- Garrett Morgan pp.263
- Entrepreneurs Must Kick Down The Door When Opportunity Knocks
- Richard Branson Started Virgin Airlines Because Of A Girl And A Cancelled Flight
- Treasure Your Startup’s Underdog Advantage
4/27 / Recommended Reading
TMA
- Raymond Damadian pp. 595
NO CLASS
Week 6
5/2 & 5/4 /
Lesson Five: Nothing Works The First Time
Guest Speaker: 5/2: Eva Ho, Founder & General Partner, Susa VenturesQuiz #5
Reading
TMA
- Wright Brothers pp. 220
- This Comedian Discovered Jon Stewart AND The Secret To Entrepreneurial Success
- Start Your Company Where You Want To Live – Period
- The Original Lean MVP
- Startup Lessons From Pink Floyds Dark Side Of The Moon
TMA
- Isaac Singer pp. 94
Week 7
5/9 & 5/11 /
Lesson Six: New Ideas Disturb
Discuss The AlchemistQuiz #6 <Includes questions from The Alchemist>
Reading
Amazing Power Of Deflationary Economics For Startups
TMA
- Malcom McLean pp. 482
TMA
- Ida Rosenthal pp. 382
Week 8
5/16 & 5/18 /
Lesson Seven: Cross Pollination Works
Quiz #7Assignments
Final deadline to submit the responses associated withFive Emails To People Close To You(from Week 3).
TMA Extra Credit Paper due.
All other extra credit to be turned in by Friday at midnight.
Reading
JohnGreathouse.com
- You Are Never Too Old (or Too Successful) For A Mentor
- Don’t Do Tequila Shots With Your Mentor
- How To Transform Your Mentor Relationships Into Lifelong Friendships
- 7 Business Mistakes Serial Entrepreneurs Never Make (Twice)
TMA
- Edwin Land pp. 487
- Does Your Mentor Play These 6 Roles?
Week 9
5/23 & 5/25 /
The Future Of Entrepreneurship
Lesson Eight: Success Is Risky
Quiz #8Assignments
Hummingbird Effect Paper Due by Friday at midnight – no late submissions accepted.
Reading
TMA
- Thomas Watson Jr. pp. 458
- Startup Lessons From The Beatles’ Biggest Failure
- Tarzan To The Beatles: 4 Of The All-Time Greatest Business Deals
Shark Tank Sacrifices Investment Lessons for Entertainment(Note: This article is available online @ the Wall Street Journal:
- What’s Real About Shark Tank? (Note: This article is only available online @JohnGreathouse.com:
TMA
- Thomas Watson, Sr. pp. 444
- Ken Olsen pp. 473 <beat IBM and then was beaten by PC>
- Steve Jobs pp. 548 <beat Ken Olsen>
Week 10
5/30 & 6/1 / Lesson Nine: When One Plus One Equals ThreeLesson Ten: Plugging Into Networks
Quiz #9
Reading
TMA
- Walt Disney pp. 425
Want To Live Life With No Regrets? Follow These 43 Life Lessons
- Dynamic Duos – Are You Batman Or Robin?
Finals Week / Recommended Reading
TMA
- Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson pp. 560
Final Paper Due: 5:00Thursday, June 9th No Late Papers Accepted, No Exceptions. DO NOTE WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE.
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