Admission requirements
none
Description
- Developing an enterprise the start-up way –
This course focuses on discovering essential steps in developing a new (innovative technology) venture, most of the time referred to as a start-up.
As start-ups are most of the time developed by a founding team, you will carry out most of the work in this course as a group.
This course revolves around three major questions every start-up needs to answer:
Is my value proposition desirable?
Is it feasible to create, market, sell and deliver the value proposition?
Will the venture be financially viable?
In the final session of the course the groups will present their answers to these questions to a jury of experts. The emphasis in this course is on building an enterprise around a business idea.
Groups that succeed in presenting a start-up vision that is deemed desirable, feasible and viable by the jury, will receive help from PLNT Leiden Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship if they want to keep on working on the business idea and want to turn their startup concept into reality.
***If you want to study literature about entrepreneurship and get an exam about the knowledge you gathered, this course is not for you. ***
If you want to figure out with a group what it means to turn theory about entrepreneurship into practice, read on. The course will be of interest to those who are considering establishing their own enterprise and to those that want to know more about the start-up way of working in general.
Topics covered
1. Introduction to entrepreneurship and start-ups
2. Discovering customer need
3. Designing a value proposition
4. Building a business model
5. Exploring viability
6. Pitching the enterprise.
Course objectives
After this course you will be able to design an enterprise around an existing technology or patent. After this course you will specifically be able to:
apply contemporary theories in entrepreneurship and innovation
appraise and use tools that are used for the process of innovation
assess market opportunities
design, develop and improve a value proposition
design a business model and revenue model around the value proposition
analyze the financial viability of the enterprise
assess potential success of the enterprise
pitch your ideas with confidence
make a judgment as whether you would like to become an entrepreneur.
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
The main teaching method for this course is as follows:
The prerecorded lectures will cover topics and areas that are essential for start-up success or that contribute to start-up failure
Live meetings will have the character of workshops.
The group will carry out tasks like:studying markets and industries
studying different kinds of literature to gain insights into essential steps for start-up development
creating different components of an enterprise, varying from a value proposition, a business model, a revenue model, a financial analysis to a pitch for potential investors
carrying out hypothesis testing to determine desirability, feasibility, viability.
These tasks are continuous, require parallel processing, require allocating different tasks to different group members. This implies a high level of interaction and collaboration in the group. Groups can meet live and/or use video conferencing tools like Microsoft Teams to discuss assignments and create deliverables.
Groups will consist of 4 to 6 students.
The course itself consists of:
Pre-recorded lectures and videos
Group assignments
Individual assignments
Live, interactive sessions (workshops)
A final event where groups will pitch their enterprise for a jury of experts.
This course uses pre-recorded lectures to allow us to make optimal use of the interactive sessions. Many interactive sessions are similar to workshops, attendance is important as streaming or recording will not be feasible.
This course uses pre-recorded lectures to allow us to make optimal use of the interactive sessions. Students will be informed how the interactive sessions will be run before the course starts. Many interactive sessions are similar to workshops, attendance is important as streaming or recording will not be feasible.
Assessment method
Assignments on Brightspace contain explanations and specifications about the work that needs to be done by groups and students and the deliverables that need to be submitted on Brightspace.
Rubrics on Brightspace define how each submission will be graded and are also used to provide students with feedback.
Students are graded on the following aspects:
Initial draft of the value proposition created by the group (10 %)
Quality of the hypothesis testing approach used by the group (20 %)
Quality of the investor pack created by each group (20 %)
Quality of the final pitch carried out by each group (20 %)
Submitted Lessons Learned by each individual student (10 %)
Individual reflection on own entrepreneurial fitness (20 %).
Grading specifications:
Partial grades will be rounded off at two decimals and will be communicated through Brightspace
The final grade will be calculated using the non-rounded off partial grades and taking into account the weights of these partial grades
Your final calculated grade can be adjusted manually by the lecturer in the case of special circumstances.
There will be no final exam, resits are only possible for individual work.
Reading list
Ries, Eric (2011) The Lean Startup. Crown Books
Osterwalder, Alex (2010), Business Model Generation. John Wiley Publishers
Osterwalder, Alex (2014), Value Proposition Design. John Wiley Publishers
Fitzpatrick, Rob (2014), The Mom Test (a preview will be supplied during the course).
This is just part of the literature that will be used during the course. This list contains the ‘real’ books. The other parts of the reading/viewing list consist of videos to watch and articles to read on the Internet. Links to these articles and videos will be provided during the course.
Reading the real books is optional for the course, there is no need to study them beforehand, so this list is just to show you some of the ‘classics’.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
For all your questions you can contact info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl
Note: If you are an ICTiBPS student, you can contact the programme coordinator of ICTiBPS for any questions about your program.
Remarks
There is only limited capacity for external students. Please contact the programme Co-ordinator
Students are responsible for enrolling/unenrolling themselves for (partial) exams/retakes.
Students who do not enroll themselves for an exam/retake by the deadline are not allowed to take the exam/retake.
Students fail the course if any of the partial components (except the exam) that make up the final mark of the course is assessed below 4.0.
Students fail the course if the grade for the (final) exam is assessed below 5.0.
The final grade is expressed as a whole or half number between 1.0 and 10.0, including both limits. The result is not to be expressed as a number between 5.0 and 6.0.
If one of the components of the final mark constitutes a component that assesses attendance or class participation, students cannot take a retake for this component. Therefore, students fail the course if their mark for this component is less than 4.0.
Partial grades, inclusive the exam grade will not be rounded. If partial grades will be communicated, it is possible partial grades are rounded, but unrounded partial grades will be used in the calculation of the final grade. The final grade will be rounded at 0.5 (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
Students pass the course if the final grade is 6.0 or higher (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
It is not possible to do retakes for group assignments. Therefore, if students fail the group assignment component, they fail the course.
For courses, for which class participation is an assessment component, students may not be penalised for an absence if the student has a legitimate justification for this absence. The student must notify the program coordinator via email (info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl) of such an absence BEFORE the lecture, describing the reason for missing the lecture. If the student does not notify the program coordinator before the lecture, the student will be penalised. Students may be required to provide further documentation to substantiate their case, and class attendance requirements are only waived under exceptional circumstances such as illness.
Students who are entitled to more exam/retake time must report to info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl 10 days before the exam/retake takes place.
Resits are only possible for individual work.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.