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) i​s 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 L​onghornStartup.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 L​onghornStartup.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 - ​T​eam 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 J​on 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 - P​rerna 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? (a​pply 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, T​hink and Grow Rich ● Steven Gary Blank, T​he Four Steps to the Epiphany,​ 2006. ● E. Ries, T​he Lean Startup,​ Crown,, 2011. ● P. Denning and R. Dunham, T​he Innovator’s Way,​ MIT Press,