15.366  Energy Ventures

Congratulations so far to the 3 teams that have presented already, and best of luck to the rest of you. Each team will get 10-15 minutes to give their final pitch in class on Thurdsay as well. We know that this is a busy week full of deliverables but we need 3 more minutes of your time.

Please fill out the following 3-question survey by class tomorrow to evaluate your project team members. This is mandatory, will be kept anonymous, and is only used for grading purposes: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XDSNKNL

If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email.

--Bill, Tod, and Adam

EV teams,

The homework for your final class is to finish your 3 deliverables. Please email out a draft of your pitch deck and business plan to Bill, Tod & Adam 24 hours before your final presentation so we have a chance to look it over beforehand:
     (1) "Pitch Deck" 10-12 slide PPT presentation and (2) "Business plan" 15-20 page Word Doc. Detailed PPT is allowed but not preferred. Draft due 24 hours before final presentation, final version due by 4pm Thur. 12/10 in HOMEWORK SECTION OF COURSE WEBPAGE.
     (3) "Reflection paper" 3-4 page Word Doc summarizing your specific learnings on energy ventures from the course. Due 10pm Friday 12/11 through HOMEWORK SECTION OF COURSE WEBPAGE:
     (4) Please also take a minute to give us feedback on the final three lectures and course at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y66S6X7 before our final class.

--Bill, Tod and Adam
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    One final announcement from Aditya and Bill on Spring 2010: 15.973 Spec Sem in Mgmt: Critical Issues in Entrepreneurship, Emerging Hydrocarbons Energy Venture s. Course will be offered in Spring on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4.0 to 5.30 PM:

Course Description:  This seminar is an advanced graduate level course for selected engineering, science, business, and policy students to explore the potential enormous opportunities presented by the latest development in the area of natural gas. Emphasis will be put on educating the students in depth on this specific energy sector, its opportunities, challenges and potential. Students will be positioned to be cognizant and hopefully capable of new ventures in this high growth area in the future.

After taking 15.973, students should be able to:

• Understand the value chain of natural gas.
• Understand the key environmental, economic, regulatory & natural security issues.
• Understand the new changes in the industry and their consequences, including magnitude.     
• Be able to identify potential new venture opportunities in this area.

Course Format:  This 6-unit course will be seminar styled lectures taught by business, technology & policy leaders from the emerging hydrocarbon space. A team-based term project will be due at the end of the semester. The class meets twice a week for 11/2 hours

Team Project: Teams of 3-5 students will work together to scope opportunities & challenges in the different verticals of the resource developmental value chain. The team will be composed of engineering or science students, business students and students with skills to understand policy issues. 

For any further information on the course contact Aditya Singh (adisingh@mit.edu)/ Bill (aulet@mit.edu.)  

One week to go. Remember to prepare the Evergreen Solar and Brontes Revisted cases for tomorrow. Two quick announcements:

1. Survey from your classmate Nell: A joint team of MIT PhD and MIT Sloan business school students created a survey on in-home energy display units and are looking to gather information from energy enthusiasts on customer preferences to help design an acceptable energy display. Respondents are asked to select their preferred choice from a series of 20 pairs of configurations, followed by 15 demographic questions and should take about 10 minutes.

Teams,

We hope you enjoy a hearty Thanksgiving holiday as you enter the final 2 week stretch. Below are all of the details for the final two classes and your final presentation.

1. The homework for next class Dec 3rd is to read the Evergreen Solar and Brontes-Revisted cases posted on Stellar (Lecture 11). Come prepared to be cold called to present the case or give your recommendations. Responding to your feedback, we have also posted a sample pitch deck in the materials. We will be providing feedback to you on your draft pitch decks by the beginning of next week.

2. Below is the final presentation schedule. Teams are asked to email their final pitch deck and business plan to the Professors and TA no later than 24 hours before their presentation begins. All presentations will be in the E-Center main conference room (except Live Line in the E-Center back room). You should plan to make a 20 minute pitch for your venture, leaving plenty of time for question and answer. Expect one or more guest industry experts who has not seen any information on your venture to join the presentation.

Mon Dec 7, 1:30pm-3:00pm, Live Line Transmission
Tue Dec 8, 10:30am-12:00pm, Element 14 Solar
Tue Dec 8, 12:30pm-2:00pm, 1318 Energy Efficiency
Wed Dec 9, 2:00pm-3:30pm, Altaeros Wind
Thu Dec 10, 10:30am-12:00pm, EN Energy Efficiency
Thu Dec 10, 2:30pm-4:00pm, Tiger Natural Gas
Fri Dec 11, 1:15pm-2:30pm, Ecoult Storage

3. Final Class - During the final class Dec 10th, there is no homework. Each team will give a brief final pitch of their project to the whole class, and the professors will give a final wrapup. Joy will ensue.

Let us know if you have any questions.

--Bill, Tod & Adam

Richard Sears, a VP from Shell who specializes in exploration and technology assessment, will present on the Hydrocarbon value chain this Thursday and I will present on the Grid value chain next Thursday.  Rich has worked with MITei as a Visiting Scientist and presented during last year's class.  He has a great understanding of the hydrocarbon value chain, and I have asked him to provide some extra comments on shale gas.  Please come ready with good questions.