LONGHORNSTARTUP UT Austin Spring 2020 Syllabus As of 1/23/2020 by Joshua Baer & Mellie Price
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LONGHORNSTARTUP UT Austin Spring 2020 Syllabus as of 1/23/2020 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 2020 ● 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 1.304 ● Thursday Office Hours 7:00pm-8:00pm in GDC Lobby Specific Dates ● January 23 - Welcome & Ask Me Anything ○ Review Mentor bios ○ Decide on team roles and equity ● January 28 - Team Meeting ● January 30 - Mentor Speed Dating 6-9pm ● February 4 - Capital Factory coworking tour ● February 6 - Office Hours ○ Legal Guest Mentors for company formation ○ Lean Canvas due ○ Founder Equity due ○ Titles and Responsibilities due ● February 11 - Team Meeting ● February 13 - Office Hours ● February 15 - SXSW Deadline ○ SXSW Student Pitch Applications Due ● February 18 - Team Meeting ● February 20 - Office Hours ● February 25 - Team Meeting ● February 27 - Office Hours ● March 3 - Team Meeting ● March 5 - Office Hours ● Thursday, March 12 - (Class moved to Friday this week for SXSW) ● Friday March 13 - SXSW Startup Crawl (replaces 3/12 class). ● March 13 - SXSW Student Pitch (TBD) ● March 17 - Spring Break is March 16-21 (no class) ● March 19 - Spring Break is March 16-21 (no class) ● March 21 - Spring Break is March 16-21 (no class) ● March 24 - Demo Day Practice ● March 26 - Demo Day Practice Pitch (Graded) ○ Video Pitch Due (Individual) ○ Random selection from team to pitch ● March 31 - Team Meeting ● April 2 - First Pitches & Office Hours ● April 7 - Team Meeting ● April 9 - Office Hours ● April 14 - Demo Day Practice ● April 16 - Office Hours ● April 21 - Demo Day Practice ● April 23 - Office Hours ● April 28 - Demo Day Practice ● April 30 - Demo Day Final Pitch (Graded) ○ Random selection from team to pitch ● May 5 - Demo Day Dry Run ● May 7 - Demo Day ● May 8 - 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 managing director of the Texas Health CoLab and executive director of commercialization at Dell Medical School. She is also the director of the Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs at the McCombs School of Business and adjunct assistant professor of the Longhorn Startup entrepreneurship course. In her cross-disciplinary roles at The University of Texas at Austin, Price leads programs that support entrepreneurs, partners, inventors, clinicians, researchers, faculty, staff and students in the creation of products and services that improve patient health outcomes and lower the cost of health care. As an eight-time entrepreneur herself, Price is well-known as a co-founder of the nationally recognized entrepreneurial hub Capital Factory and the corporative innovation consulting firm SoftMatch. She was also the founder and CEO of two health tech startups and a global ticketing software platform, Front Gate Solutions, which was sold to Live Nation in 2015. Price is a widely respected thought leader, frequent presenter and keynote speaker on pioneering business models and disruptive innovation. She is an active member of the Texas entrepreneurship community and a winner of the Austin Business Journal’s Profiles in Power Award (2015) and its 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 Office hours are held during class time most weeks. 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. Teaching Assistant Abigail Partridge & Dawood J Kanchwala Email: [email protected] Office Hours: TBA The Teaching Assistant assists 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. Mentors 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, Running Lean,