15.360  Introduction to Technological Entrepreneurship (for MBA E&I Track Students)

December 12th survey

Announced on 12 December 2012  5:30  p.m. by Jose Andres Barriga Fehrman

December 5th survey

Announced on 05 December 2012  6:41  p.m. by Jose Andres Barriga Fehrman

Assignment 2 Feedback - Tips for Assignment 3

Hope you are all enjoying the day off (studying for DMD and writing your Assignment #3 papers, of course)!

Andres and I have graded your papers and they will be in your folders tomorrow morning (in the folder of the first teammate listed). We intended to get them back to you today, but obviously weren't able to do so due to the storm. We wanted to share some comments with you so you could incorporate them into your next papers (due on this Wednesday, Oct. 31!).

The were some very good papers, but others that need significant improvement. A few comments:

- Provide Complete Background:
The focus of this paper was to discuss a) the founder / CEO, b) the baseline of the company (idea, technology / product, people) and c) the process for getting it off the ground (incl. financing). It seemed like several teams did not review the assignment description and thus focused on the wrong things, which made it difficult to understand whether the team really grasped the key challenges of starting a company. In many cases, teams only focused on the background of the CEO, and didn't really discuss the company at all.

- Content:
Discuss the career choices the entrepreneur has had to make throughout their journey, but focus more on their experience as a CEO and the choices and challenges they've faced while starting their company
Talk about the way they have grown their company (ideally beginning with pre-company issues), including co-founders, key hires, IP, funding, first clients, culture, etc.
Be specific when stating that something did or did not work, say why, explain reasons.

- Write Well!
Maintain a clear thread throughout the story and care using good writing. Be coherent when using dates. Several papers had no structure, poor grammar and spelling. Maybe you aren't trying to impress us (surprising, since we have control of your grade!), but please please please be thoughtful and proofread to write a good paper! Eventually, you will want to get a job or impress your boss or client, and good writing will be essential!

- Convey What You Learned
The point of these assignments is for you to learn what it takes to start a company. Simply describing the company and the choices the CEO made is not enough to indicate that you took anything away from the meeting. What did the stories teach you about becoming an entrepreneur? What is surprising? The easiest way to demonstrate your understanding is to summarize lessons and key challenges (though some teams effectively showed us using different structure).

For assignment 3:
At least 2 co-founders: Make sure to cover multiple co-founders or multiple initial key players -- at least two besides the CEO and preferably three or four.
For each player, explain the role they have played in the company's founding and development
Review the assignment guidelines in the syllabus - For each co-founder or player, discuss the role they played in the company's founding or development

Thanks!

Alice & Andres

Announced on 29 October 2012  2:01  p.m. by Alice Francis

Weekly assignment:

Announced on 16 September 2012  10:47  a.m. by Edward B Roberts