LONGHORN STARTUP UT Austin Spring 2021 Syllabus as of 1/12/2021 by Joshua Baer & Mellie Price.
------Longhorn Startup Lab (LSL): Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship Practicum ------
Longhorn Startup Lab (LSL) is an intensive project-based course in the Spring semester that identifies student entrepreneurs who are building scalable technology companies and gets them real course credit for working on their startups while still in school. These students receive weekly one-on-one mentoring sessions with successful entrepreneurs. The semester culminates in a Demo Day where the students present their companies to the Austin community. Any student from any college can register but final team selection is by approval of the instructor.
Each team that is selected will also receive other benefits. This list is subject to change. ● Personalized mentoring from Austin entrepreneurs ● Pitch onstage to 1,000 people at Demo Day at the end of the semester ● $1,000 cash grant for each team ● $5,000 Amazon Web Services free hosting credits ● Free coworking memberships at Capital Factory from January-August 2021 ● Free table at the Austin Startup Crawl during SXSW ● Chance to pitch onstage at SXSW ● Demo Day winners interested in continuing to work on their company after completion of Longhorn Startup Lab will have the opportunity to accept a guaranteed spot in the Capital Factory Accelerator and a $25,000 investment from Capital Factory Fund. Participation in the Accelerator and Fund is optional and commences after the last day of class and the independent submission of grades.
For more information visit LonghornStartup.com
Course Numbers Open Registration, additional application for instructor approval ES377E = Longhorn Startup Lab (“Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship”) (Cockrell ENG) CS374L = Longhorn Startup Lab (“Interdisciplinary Entrepreneurship”) (CNS/CS) MAN337 = Longhorn Startup Lab (McCombs) DES350 = Longhorn Startup Lab (Design) COM325 = Longhorn Startup Lab (Communications) ITD350 = Longhorn Startup Lab
Application Process Apply for the Lab by going to the LonghornStartup.com website and clicking on the Register tab and then selecting the Lab.
Class Format 6:00pm Thank Sponsors 6:05pm Introduce Guest Mentors 6:15pm Weekly updates by each team 7:00pm Pizza & Office Hours with Mentors 8:00pm Adjourn
Weekly Schedule ● Tuesday Team Meetings 6:00pm-7:00pm at TBD ● Thursday Team Updates 6:00pm-7:00pm at GDC 1.340 ● Thursday Office Hours 7:00pm-8:00pm in GDC Lobby
Specific Dates ● January 21 - Welcome & Ask Me Anything ○ Review Mentor bios ○ Decide on team roles and equity ● January 26 - Team Meeting ● January 28 - M entor Speed Dating 6-9pm ● February 2 - Capital Factory coworking tour ● February 4 - Office Hours ○ Legal Guest Mentors for company formation ○ Lean Canvas due ○ Founder Equity due ○ Titles and Responsibilities due ● February 9 - Team Meeting ● February 11 - Office Hours ● February 16 - Team Meeting ● February 18 - Office Hours ● February 23 - Team Meeting ● February 25 - Office Hours ● March 2 - Team Meeting ● March 4 - Office Hours ● March 16 - Team Meeting ● March 18 - S pring Break is March 15-19 (no class) ● March 13 - Team Meeting ● March 25 - Office Hours ● April 1 - First Pitches & Office Hours ● April 6 - Team Meeting ● April 8 - Demo Day Practice Pitch (Graded & Online) ○ Video Pitch Due (Individual) ○ Random Selection from team to pitch ● April 13- Demo Day Practice ● April 15- Office Hours ● April 20- Demo Day Practice ● April 22- Office Hours ● April 27- Demo Day Practice ● April 29- Demo Day Final Pitch (Graded) ○ Random Selection (Online in class) ● May 4 - Demo Day Dry Run ● May 6- Demo Day ○ You get to choose who pitches (must be a student) ● May 7- Last Day of Classes
Various special events may be scheduled on weekends and other days.
Motivation Our motto at The University of Texas at Austin is: What Starts Here Changes the World. One of the most effective ways of changing the world is innovation through startups. Among the 25+ courses at UT Austin that teach entrepreneurship, Longhorn Startup Lab (LSL) is an interdisciplinary practicum for undergraduates on startup teams. We aim to advance these Longhorn Startups by connecting the teams into networks of real world resources: business mentors, investors and Demo Day attendees. Teams receive one-on-one mentoring (“office hours”) from the instructor, mentors and guest mentors on a weekly basis. We aim to give our students practice in operating the machinery of Free Enterprise.
Instructors Joshua Baer helps people quit their jobs and become entrepreneurs. In 2008 he founded Capital Factory, a startup incubator and co-working space in Austin, Texas. Josh founded his first startup in 1996 in his college dormitory at Carnegie Mellon University and now teaches a class at the University of Texas for student entrepreneurs. Josh was recently recognized as the Austin Community Leader of the Year, Tribeza Person of the Year, Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, Eisenhower Fellow and a member of the National Committee on US-China Relations Young Leaders Forum. Josh lives in Austin with his wife Amy and three children. You can follow him on Twitter @joshuabaer.
Mellie Price is the executive director of the Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs at the McCombs School of Business, an adjunct assistant professor of the Longhorn Startup entrepreneurship course, and a Partner at Notley. In her cross-disciplinary roles at The University of Texas at Austin, Price leads several programs that support entrepreneurs, community partners, inventors, clinicians, researchers, faculty, staff and students in the creation of startup products and services. As an eight-time entrepreneur herself, Price is well-known as the founder and CEO of two health tech startups and a global ticketing software platform, Front Gate Tickets, which was sold to Live Nation in 2015. She is a widely respected thought leader, frequent presenter and keynote speaker on pioneering business models and disruptive innovation, an active member of the Texas entrepreneurship community and a winner of the Profiles in Power Award (2015) and TechFlash Titan Award (2014). A proud member of the Austin community for 30 years, Price is a member of the Board of Directors for PBS Austin, Leadership Austin, and the National LGBTQ Victory Fund. You can follow her on Twitter @mellieprice
Faculty Office Hours Longhorn Startup is an open format class so please feel free to ask questions in class. The TA’s are available for office hours each week if you have questions on class logistics. Additionally, each team will be paired with 2 mentors who agree to meet with them weekly and the Instructors will meet with each team each week as well. If you need to discuss a private matter, faculty office hours are booked by appointment via Zoom as needed.
Teaching Assistants - Prerna Agarwal & Sujoy Purkayastha Email: t[email protected] Office Hours: Monday 3-4PM and Wednesday 11-12pm or by appointment as needed.
The Teaching Assistants assist with registration, organizing speakers and events, promoting them on campus, and screening potential Lab students.
Interested in being a future Teaching Assistant? (apply here)
Undergraduate Catalog Course Descriptions Longhorn Startup Lab. Interdisciplinary entrepreneurship practicum for teams of students starting companies. Skill development and mentoring in startup formation, teamwork, technology development, market validation, marketing, sales, operations, human resources, program management, intellectual property, and entrepreneurial finance. Emphasis on written and oral presentations of startup activities. Three class hours per week with additional team meetings to be arranged with instructors, any other faculty advisors, and mentors.
Prerequisites This course has no prerequisites. All students must apply through the application form at longhornstartup.com and be approved by the instructor. This course may only be taken once.
Independent Inquiry Flag This course carries the Independent Inquiry flag. Independent Inquiry courses are designed to engage you in the process of inquiry over the course of a semester, providing you with the opportunity for independent investigation of a question, problem, or project related to your major. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from the independent investigation and presentation of your own work.
Team Startup Mentors Because this is a practicum, we recruit entrepreneurs from the Austin startup community to serve as team mentors, focused on those who have recently participated in a nationally recognized accelerator program. Each team should have two or more mentors from the roster. These mentors provide ongoing practical advice to the teams and help connect them to networks of outside resources. Mentors commit to attending the weekly Thursday office hours sessions for at least 90 minutes. M entors must pass the University’s standard Criminal Background Check, as detailed on the last page of this Syllabus.
Textbooks The course textbook is Ash Maurya, R unning Lean, O’Reilly Media, 2012.
Among our optional, recommended readings are: ● Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich ● Steven Gary Blank, The Four Steps to the Epiphany, 2006. ● E. Ries, The Lean Startup, Crown,, 2011. ● P. Denning and R. Dunham, The Innovator’s Way, MIT Press, 2010. ● Peter Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Harper & Row, 1985. ● Bill Aulet, D isciplined Entrepreneurship, Wiley, 2013 ● R. Dorf, T. Byers, Technology Ventures: From Ideas to Enterprise, McGraw Hill, 2008. ● T. Hopkins, S elling for Dummies, Wiley, 2011.
Videos These video resources are recommended from Gordon Daugherty at Shockwave Innovations:
● So You Wanna Start a Startup? (free): https://vimeo.com/152077006 ● The Startup Operating System (free): https://vimeo.com/272574365 ● Developing Your Idea (free): https://vimeo.com/215356614
Lab Objectives During the course, students will:
1. Learn basics of startup formation 2. Receive advice and introductions from successful, articulate, and committed mentors 3. Get connected to resources needed for the advancement of your startup.
At the conclusion of the Longhorn Startup Lab, students will be able to:
● Use the Lean Startup Canvas to validate startup ideas and to “de-risk” them. ● Create and implement a minimum viable product (MVP). ● Pitch their startups in writing or verbally in a sentence, two-minute, and six-minute versions. ● Sell business concepts confidently and succinctly with A/V decks to audiences of customers and/or investors. ● Form a startup entity and establish its ownership and governance. ● Operate a startup using regular meetings and written personal updates. ● Contribute in a team setting to plan, lead, organize, and control technical product development. ● Learn what to expect as the business scales in terms of operational, personnel, and other requirements.
How Will Longhorn Startup Feel? Here are some of the questions we hope to help you answer: How do you validate your big idea for meeting a market need? What does it mean for a startup to “pivot?” How big does your idea have to be to justify your time and attract any outside investment? How will you assess the competition? How do you sell the idea to people you need on the team? Whom can you trust? Will you hire or recruit your team? Will everybody be paid the same? Will anybody leave your company at any point? Are brothers-in-law good candidates for CFO? What is a CFO? Who will be CEO? How should you build your board of directors to govern your company? How much on-the-job training can you afford? Does your startup need a culture? Is honesty the best policy? Will there be parties? Should you have a President’s Club? How does the team change over time? What is the best way to organize and manage your company as it grows? Will you need adult supervision -- people who already know how to manage things? Will you eventually have to cave in and hire some salespeople? What is the difference between marketing and sales? How do you plan for the money you’ll need? What does a financial planning spreadsheet look like, with such elements as units, costs, prices, overhead, headcounts, expenses, cash, debt, capital equipment, receivables, and payables. How do you name your startup? How do you get traction with investors, if you need any? How much is your startup worth at various times? How many rounds of finance might you need and how do you structure them? How do you develop a go-to-market strategy with an initial product? How do you develop and test that first product? Yes, test? How do you position your startup and market it? How do you rename your company? How to find customers and sell to them? How do you structure strategic partnerships? How do you support and get follow-on orders from customers? How do you decide on your second product? What changes as you get bigger? Are you still having fun? How do you get liquidity for your shareholders, including employees with stock options? How much of the movie THE SOCIAL NETWORK or the TV show SILICON VALLEY should you believe and use to guide your startup? IPO or M&A or what? How do you become serial? Will you come back and be one of our mentors after your third IPO? If LSL works for you, will you someday donate a building to UT Austin? Stuff like that.
Among the personal skills we plan to teach are how to be healthy, speak, write, sell, and plan in the startup context. OK, here is the answer at the back of the book: listening.
At the end of the semester, we aim to have your startup viable, ready to raise money, defunct, or ready to apply for a commercial accelerator.
Lab Requirements and Policies All teams will convene on Thursday evenings for team meetings and office hours with the mentors and instructors. All team members are required to attend and participate in all practicum evenings. Failure to attend or participate lowers your grade and reduces your ability to contribute effectively to the team. Additionally, students who leave early or arrive late will see a negative impact on their grade. During these evenings, the instructors and their guest mentors will meet one-on-one with each team for personalized advice and each team will get a chance to practice their elevator pitch in front of all of the class.
The typical class starts with each team giving a quick 5 minute updates that include: ● 2 minute elevator pitch ● 1 “Aha!” moment from the past week ● 1 “Oh no!” moment from the past week
After updates, we will break into teams and each mentor will meet with their team for at least 1 hour. The Instructors and TA will rotate through a short meeting with each team.
Teams are expected to meet between classes, including at least 1 hour per week on their own. Tuesday evenings from 6-7pm are reserved for that. Other times are encouraged.
Each team member will write a weekly 1-page “progress and priorities update” and distribute as email to team members, with copies to faculty advisors, mentors, TAs, and instructors. The purposes of these updates are reporting and collaboration. They will communicate what the team member accomplished last week and what his or her priorities are for next week in advancing the startup. The writing and content in these updates each week will be graded by a TA and by the team’s mentors. These and all written assignments are to be submitted prior to the prescribed deadlines by email to team members, mentors, faculty advisors, instructors, and the designated TA. Weekly updates must follow strict guidelines for formatting.
There may be periodic assignments related to lecture topics including watching videos, reading assignments, and exercises that will be submitted and graded.
Selected teams will demonstrate its product or service, even if only in prototype form, during Demo Day, usually the last day of class. This will be a graded presentation for the team with participation by all. There will be a rehearsal of the Demo Day pitch scheduled one or two weeks before Demo Day, also graded. Grades are based on the exposition of the idea and evidence of skills learned and not on the presumed viability of the idea, but it goes without saying that it’s much easier to give a rousing presentation or a good idea than a bad one. Teams that are not selected to present on stage will be graded based on their Dry Run presentation.
Oral reporting will occur via regular team and mentor meetings, practice pitch sessions, and two presentations for the semester – Rehearsal and Demo Day. Mentors will be asked to grade your participation and communication skills in the classroom setting and in their individual meetings with you.
Ownership Various kinds of ownership are important machinery of Free Enterprise. Equity ownership of corporations formed by Longhorn Startup teams is an important matter to be confronted by the teams with guidance from their startup mentors and Longhorn Startup instructors. Any agreements as to ownership of a Longhorn Startup must be in writing – no oral promises real or imagined are allowed. U Texas will not own Longhorn Startups by virtue of their participation in the class. The instructors will not own or be in any way compensated by Longhorn Startups during their participation in Longhorn Startup. Longhorn Startup mentors will not take ownership in or be employed by Longhorn Startups during Longhorn Startup. Investors other than these may be sought at various times by Longhorn Startups, with the un-conflicted advice and assistance of these mentors and instructors.
Ownership of intellectual property (IP) by Longhorn Startup students, their teams, and faculty advisors (if any) is an important matter to be confronted by the teams with guidance from their startup mentors and Longhorn Startup instructors. In particular, Longhorn Startup will work with teams on any dealings with the UT Austin Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). Participation in Longhorn Startup will not alter in any manner the startup’s ownership position in its IP.
Students should be aware that any information about business or product designs, plans, technology, or know-how that is revealed to anyone associated with the Longhorn Startup program, including other students, faculty, TA’s, mentors, and guests, is not protected by confidentiality agreements. Those who are intending to rely on patent or trade secret protections should consult their own legal counsel as to what they may safely disclose in the context of participating actively in the course and presenting their companies in public settings like Demo Day. Accordingly, students with companies developing in stealth mode are discouraged from enrolling in the course.
Course and Instructor Evaluations Evaluations of the course and instructors will be conducted during and especially near the end of the semester.
Academic Dishonesty The University of Texas Honor Code will be followed regarding academic dishonesty, which will not be tolerated.
Students with Disabilities UTAustin provides academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For such, call Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 512-471-6259 (voice) or 816-329-3986 (video). Please notify LSL instructors or TAs as quickly as possible if material being presented is not accessible to you.
Behavior Concerns Advice Line If you are worried about someone associated with our class who is acting oddly, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL) at 512-232-5050 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal.
Course Drops By state law, the number of course drops for academic reasons is limited to six (6). What does this mean? Best you find out from your academic advisors when thinking about dropping this class. We will not be giving all students As, not even most students, nor can we give assurances about grades much in advance of the end of the course. If you absolutely must get an A, say to get into graduate school, you should probably not risk taking this class. If you commence the course as an individual or your team is not accepted by the instructor you must drop the class.
SPRING 2021 COVID UPDATE: Undergraduate students can drop this course through February 3, 2021, and there will be no documentation of a drop on your UT transcript. You may use a Q drop to drop this course at any time between February 4, 2021 and May 11, 2021 (5:00 pm CDT) by meeting with your academic advisor. This Q drop will be recorded as non-academic and will not count against your six-drop limit.
Communications Policy Students are responsible for keeping the University informed as to changes in their email addresses. Students are expected to check email frequently enough, say daily, to stay current with University-related communications.
In addition, it is strongly advised that students join the Longhorn Startup Facebook groups in order to receive real-time information from the instructors and other relevant individuals. If you do not have a Facebook account you will need to create one in order to join the groups.
Emergency Evacuation Policy You are required to evacuate and assemble outside University buildings when a fire alarm is activated or an announcement is made. Please familiarize yourself with all exit doors and get confident that you could exit promptly in an emergency.
Collaborative Practices At any given time during the practicum, all team members should be fully engaged in practicum activities, including preparation of written and oral reports. Tasks should be assigned to team members evenly, but in a way that capitalizes on individual strengths and experience. If your strengths lie in particular project areas (for example, planning, proposing, researching, implementing, managing, coordinating, communicating, researching, and so on), then put your energies into those areas. However, that does not absolve you of responsibilities in other areas, or of understanding what’s happening in those areas.
Longhorn Startup Lab Grading This class is graded according to the requirements previously described with the following weightings:
Instructor TA Mentor Peer Total
Weekly Updates 10% 10% 5% 20% 45%
Assignments 10% 10%
Demo Day Practice 15% 5% 20%
Demo Day Final 10% 5% 15%
Attendance 10% 10%
Total 35% 30% 15% 20% 100%
Peer Assessment To help you assess your performance as a team member, all members will be asked to evaluate each other’s performance as team members. The practicum instructors will use these peer assessments to give credit to team members who make outstanding team contributions or to deny credit to students who make little or no contributions.
Attendance This is an experience-based learning environment so you only get the benefit if you attend the class. A significant portion of your grade is based on your attendance and participation. Arriving late and leaving early will have a negative impact.
Please let the instructor and TA know promptly if there is any problem that is preventing you from performing satisfactorily in the class. Do not delay in reporting your problems, so we can fix them before much damage is done.
Date of Final Exam There is no final exam. Teams will present their startups at Demo Day, which will occur no later than the last day of class. Demo Day is the finale of this class. It will be open to the public and we expect there to be hundreds of attendees, including professional investors.
Changing The Grading Status of This Course If you wish to change this course to, or from, pass/fail, there are two different options: ● Standard Pass/Fail: You may change up to two Letter-Graded courses to Pass/Fail or any Pass/Fail Course to Letter-Graded one time between February 4, 2021 and April 5, 2021 (5:00 pm CDT). Unless only offered on a Pass/Fail basis, a course taken under the Standard Pass/Fail option will generally only count toward elective hours and not toward Core, Flag, Minor, Certificate, or Major requirements. Students who are Moody majors must take ALL Moody courses for a Letter Grade in order for the course to count for a Moody degree (unless it’s only offered on the Pass/Fail basis, or unless you use the COVID-19 Pass/Fail Exception, see below). You should check with your academic advisor before choosing to use this option.
● COVID-19 Pass/Fail Exception (CPFE): This also allows you to change a course to, or from, the pass/fail status. You may change the grading status of up to three courses TOTAL using a CPFE for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 combined (e.g., one course for Fall 2020 and two for Spring 2021). You can change the grading status of a Fall 2020 or Spring 2021 course using the CPFE one time between January 6, 2021 and May 28, 2021 (5:00 pm CDT). Once you have changed the grading status of a course using the CPFE, you cannot change it again. A course taken on a Pass/fail basis using the CPFE option will still be allowed to count toward Core, Flag, Minor, Certificate, or Major requirements, if you pass the course. Please see the Texas One Stop website for more information about the CPFE. You should check with your academic advisor before choosing to use this option.
Mentor Background Checks All class mentors are required to pass the University’s standard Criminal Background Check, per this policy:
Handbook of Operating Procedures 5-1140 Criminal Background Checks
I. Policy Statement It is the policy of The University of Texas at Austin (“University”) to conduct criminal background checks as authorized by federal and state law and The University of Texas System (“UT System”) policies. This policy also requires an employee and other individuals covered by this policy to report any subsequent criminal convictions, excluding misdemeanor offenses punishable only by a fine, as specified in this policy. (Refer to Sec. VII.I –Self Reporting).
II. Reason for Policy To promote the University’s commitment to a safe and secure environment by providing guidance for conducting and using criminal background checks in compliance with federal and state laws and UT System policies.
III. Scope & Audience This policy applies to all University employees, including individuals in positions requiring student status. This policy also applies to final applicants to University positions, interns, volunteers, affiliated workers, contingent workers, students in programs with assignments in clinical health care, and in certain circumstances, contractors and their employees.
IV. Definitions (specific to this policy) University Affiliate: an individual who has a relationship with the University outside of traditional employment. They can be paid or unpaid and include but are not limited to affiliate relationships associated with research, visiting scholars, employees of contractors, interns, contingent workers, students in programs with assignments in clinical health care, and volunteers. A more complete listing may be found on the Human Resources w ebsite.
Note to Mentors on Background Checks: Criminal history only poses a problem if it is considered recent and relevant (as defined here) to the relationship you hold with the university. The central HR office has a small group of staff that is authorized to view the results of a background check, and no one at a school or department level can see that information. The most obvious offenses that would be a problem are: theft, injury to person(s) and/or property, weapons, and threats.
We will submit your name to our administrative contact, who will generate a simple online form for you to complete. HR then runs the check and sends confirmation.
COVID CAVEATS To help keep everyone at UT and in our community safe, it is critical that students report COVID-19 symptoms and testing, regardless of test results, to University Health Services, and faculty and staff report to the HealthPoint Occupational Health Program (OHP) as soon as possible. Please see this link to understand what needs to be reported. In addition, to help understand what to do if a fellow student in the class (or the instructor or TA) tests positive for COVID, see this University Health Services link.
Safety and Class Participation/Masks
We will all need to make some adjustments in order to benefit from in-person classroom interactions in a safe and healthy manner. Our best protections against spreading COVID-19 on campus are masks (defined as cloth face coverings) and staying home if you are showing symptoms. Therefore, for the benefit of everyone, this means that all students are required to follow these important rules. ● Every student must wear a cloth face-covering properly in class and in all campus buildings at all times. ● Students are encouraged to participate in documented daily symptom screening. This means that each class day in which on-campus activities occur, students must upload certification from the symptom tracking app and confirm that they completed their symptom screening for that day to Canvas. Students should not upload the results of that screening, just the certificate that they completed it. If the symptom tracking app recommends that the student isolate rather than coming to class, then students must not return to class until cleared by a medical professional. ● Information regarding safety protocols with and without symptoms can be found here. If a student is not wearing a cloth face-covering properly in the classroom (or any UT building), that student must leave the classroom (and building). If the student refuses to wear a cloth face covering, class will be dismissed for the remainder of the period, and the student will be subject to disciplinary action as set forth in the university’s Institutional Rules/General Conduct 11-404(a)(3). Students who have a condition that precludes the wearing of a cloth face covering must follow the procedures for obtaining an accommodation working with Services for Students with Disabilities. SHARING OF COURSE MATERIALS IS PROHIBITED No materials used in this class, including, but not limited to, lecture hand-outs, videos, assessments (quizzes, exams, papers, projects, homework assignments), in-class materials, review sheets, and additional problem sets, may be shared online or with anyone outside of the class unless you have my explicit, written permission. Unauthorized sharing of materials promotes cheating. It is a violation of the University’s Student Honor Code and an act of academic dishonesty. I am well aware of the sites used for sharing materials, and any materials found online that are associated with you, or any suspected unauthorized sharing of materials, will be reported to Student Conduct and Academic Integrity in the Office of the Dean of Students. These reports can result in sanctions, including failure in the course.
CLASS RECORDINGS Class recordings are reserved only for students in this class for educational purposes and are protected under FERPA. The recordings should not be shared outside the class in any form. Violation of this restriction by a student could lead to Student Misconduct proceedings.