1. CELTUA grant: Major teaching project for individual or small groups of faculty

Transcription

1 Startup Weekend has become the hub around which the entrepreneurial community founders, employees, funders, and the entire ecosystem come together, in communities large and small. Nick Seguin, Manager of Entrepreneurship Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation 1. CELTUA grant: Major teaching project for individual or small groups of faculty 2. Personal information: Mark Lacker Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies February 1, Title: Startup Weekend Miami University: Startup Bootcamp 4. Problem: Students often have new and creative business ideas, but frequently do not know the process to start a business. Furthermore, students do not have a formalized way to meet potential business partners, especially those outside of their own majors and areas of expertise. i Successful teams require a variety of backgrounds; bringing together students from across the university is essential to encouraging student startups. Startup Weekend MU SB solves these problems with an innovative experiential learning immersion in which students learn how to launch a business in multi-disciplinary teams. Implementing a proven experiential learning model that compresses the how to understanding of the startup process into a weekend of hands-on immersion experience aligns with university goals in three key ways: it promotes an entrepreneurial university environment as advocated by President Hodge in his 2011 annual address, encourages engaged learning and is part of curricular renovation within the entrepreneurship department. 5. Literature/Reports of Relevant Other Projects: Over 50% of students hope to someday start their own business and a study by researchers at the University of Texas demonstrated that students desire opportunities to collaborate with entrepreneurially minded students from other disciplines, to prototype and implement their startup ideas, and to participate in handson startup practice. ii Moreover, student entrepreneurs often entertain thoughts of entrepreneurship for long periods of time, but do not take action until inspired by a trigger event. iii Because educational, professional and social environments fundamentally impact an aspiring entrepreneur s ability to recognize and exploit opportunities, it is imperative to develop on-campus environments that encourage entrepreneurial activity. iv To address these problems, the University of Texas has developed the 3DS program, an intensive 3-day concept to prototype program designed as a starting platform for student ventures. However, this program is invitation-only and students undergo an extensive application process. The program is limited to 50 accepted students, thus excluding a vast majority of the student population interested in learning the startup process. Startup Weekend offers a similar, but more inclusive startup education model. The Startup Weekend model has been proven at over 400 worldwide locations, including universities, companies and cities. Through the program, 40,000 entrepreneurs have been trained and 4,272 startups created v. Startup Weekend is funded by the Kauffman Foundation, one of the top 30 foundations in the U.S. and the largest private funder of entrepreneurial research. In January 2012, Northern Kentucky University hosted the first Startup Weekend event in the Greater Cincinnati area. This event drew 120 participants, including 30 students, and led to the creation of 14 business teams. Although it is regarded as one of the leading startup education programs, the Startup Weekend model has not been conducted successfully with a

2 solely college audience. Past events have primarily relied on the participation of working professionals in metropolitan areas with student entrepreneurs serving as minority participants. 6. Proposed solution: Startup Weekend is a premiere experiential entrepreneurial education vehicle. The event creates the opportunity for individuals to experience entrepreneurship first hand team building, co-founder networking, product development, customer validation, market assessment and business model development. Nick Seguin, Manager of Entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Startup Weekend Miami University combines a proven startup education model with course credit and a companion add-on course to launch businesses while engaging an all-student audience in a condensed business accelerator program. The event will bring together aspiring student entrepreneurs from crosscurricular backgrounds for 48 hours of startup immersion, professional mentoring and student collaboration. This adaptation of the traditional Startup Weekend program has been backed by the Kauffman Foundation. The event is an immersion experience focused on core entrepreneurial skills necessary to identify viable business opportunities and will follow the roadmap outlined below: Multi-disciplinary student teams will be coached through the roadmap milestones by experienced entrepreneurs and Miami alumni from across the country. Keynote speakers will offer group guidance and advice during four lectures distributed throughout the weekend. On Sunday, teams will pitch their working prototypes and business plans to a panel of judges, including venture capital investors and Miami faculty. Students who successfully complete Startup Weekend will receive one hour of course credit for ESP 490B Startup Bootcamp: Inception to Prototype. After the weekend, student teams can receive two additional hours of course credit and continued structured mentorship as they launch their business by enrolling in ESP 490C Startup Bootcamp: Prototype to Launch. Startup Weekend and the accompanying courses will offer a platform for students to interact with those outside their respective disciplines and will provide students with the skills, tools and resources to launch a startup business, while serving as a trigger event for students who have considered, but never pursued, entrepreneurial endeavors. 7. Innovation: In 2011 alone, the Startup Weekend curriculum was used at 260 events, in 202 cities and 67 countries worldwide. Over 20,000 entrepreneurs were trained and $30 million in venture capital funding secured by Startup Weekend teams. Miami s event builds upon this success with three key innovations:

3 Miami s event will be the first one targeted for undergraduate and graduate students. Startup Weekend has never before been run with all student participants. Miami students who complete Startup Weekend will receive one hour of course credit a revolutionary model to promote student commitment and engagement. The Institute for Entrepreneurship will offer a 2-hour companion course for teams to continue the startup process. It will be the first time structured follow-up instruction and mentoring will be provided to Startup Weekend teams. These innovations have been developed with the support of the Kauffman Foundation and Miami s event will serve as the national model for Startup Weekend programming at the University level. 8. Assessment of Student Learning: Student participants will be assessed pre- and post-event using an adapted entrepreneurial mindset tool, a self-assessment that measures relative mastery of entrepreneurial skill sets. The assessment produces a raw score in six key categories. Learning will be measured based on the increase in raw scores, both composite and in each category. The six categories and corresponding skills are listed below: (1) Commitment and determination: solve problems with persistence, immerse and engage in work, and commit and de-commit to opportunities. (2) Leadership: demonstrate consideration for others, share success with those who helped achieve it, build trust with colleagues, demonstrate patience and maturity in high-pressure situations, quickly incorporate learning into decision-making. (3) Opportunity obsession: market-driven, focused on customer and technology trends, demonstrate knowledge of customers priorities and needs, understand the business concept and market potential of that concept. (4) Tolerance of risk, ambiguity and uncertainty: identify and manage risks, understand how to minimize and share risks, manage and resolve conflict, see the big picture while managing details. (5) Creativity, self-reliance and ability to adapt: organize and structure complex projects, adapt to new situations, think unconventionally, persevere to reach goals. (6) Motivation to excel: be aware of personal strengths and weaknesses, seek team members with complementary abilities, maintain perspective and sense of humor in challenging circumstances. Students rank each of their skills on a scale from 1-5, with 5 representing mastery and needing significant improvement. The average of the skill scores in each category gives the category score. Average scores of 1 or 2 indicate areas for improvement, scores of 4 or 5 indicate key strengths. Team members will also anonymously score their teammates at the end of the weekend; averaged with the self-assessments, these scores will give a more accurate picture of each participant s strengths and weaknesses. Further, judges will provide third-party of assessment of team progress on learning objectives based on final team presentations. Because entrepreneurs are self-driven and self-assessed and entrepreneurship is a way of thinking rather than a specific set of knowledge, it is important to employ an adaptable self-assessment model for Startup Weekend students. Self-assessment is widely promoted in entrepreneurship education; the entrepreneurial mindset tool used for the proposed Startup Weekend assessment was developed by the Harvard Business School and is a proven measurement tool for entrepreneurial skill sets. 9. Anticipated impact: Miami University Startup Weekend will impact teaching models in existing entrepreneurship courses, entrepreneurship department course offerings, students, alumni and the Miami University Student Venture Fund. Its success also has the potential to impact entrepreneurial education models at other universities while promoting connections between Miami and the Greater Cincinnati startup community. ESP 201 will incorporate the Startup Weekend accelerator model into semester course objectives. Students enrolled in the course will be required to complete Startup Weekend. ESP490C will serve as an add-on course to complement Startup Weekend and serve as an outlet for students to continue developing businesses initiated during Startup Weekend.

4 Startup Weekend will Bring together students from a variety of majors and departments while integrating graduate and undergraduate students, offering a platform for networking and multi-disciplinary team formation. Promote partnerships between the Entrepreneurship department and other departments on campus including, but not limited to, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the School of Fine Arts. Develop connections between Miami alumni entrepreneurs and current Miami students, offering students professional mentoring and alumni a link to the University. Establish Miami as a leader in startup entrepreneurship education, demonstrating the viability of an all-student Startup Weekend model for the Kauffman Foundation. Promote the creation of student-run businesses. Stimulate economic development in Oxford and the Greater Cincinnati area. Connect the Miami Student Venture Fund with student entrepreneurs. 10. Evaluation: Success of the solution will be measured by the number of students registered for Startup Weekend, the Startup Weekend completion rate, the ratio of non-business to business majors involved in the program, the number of student teams enrolled in ESP 490C, pre- and post-event entrepreneurial skill assessment, and the number of student business launched or funded by venture capital groups, as well as feedback from the Kauffman foundation, judges and alumni mentors. 11. Extent: Organizing and launching Startup Weekend at Miami University requires the creation of two completely new entrepreneurship courses, in addition to the renovation of a third course. It requires extensive interaction with Miami alumni, the Cincinnati startup community and the Kauffman Foundation. Background research included attending two Startup Weekend events in other cities. Organizing the event also entails coordinating food, mentor/speaker lodging arrangements, funding, campus-wide event marketing, a student marketing team and inter-departmental partnerships. 12. Progress and Timeline: Work accomplished to date: (1) ESP 490B and ESP 490C approved by Entrepreneurship department (2) Startup Weekend Curriculum licensed from the Kauffman Foundation (3) Changes to the Startup Weekend Program supported by the Kauffman Foundation (4) February 17 th -19 th event date set with location reserved (5) Partnerships with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Interactive Media Studies Program and the School of Fine Arts established (6) 3 speakers, 2 judges and 9 mentors confirmed for the weekend Timeline for Project Completion (2012): February 1-10 Campus-wide marketing February 1&2 Student Info Nights February 17 Startup Weekend kickoff February 19 Startup Weekend judging February 20 First day of ESP 490C May 4 End ESP 490C 13. Use of Funds: Travel expenses for speakers and mentors: $1, Hotel $1, Flights $ Mileage Reimbursement $ Taxis/Miscellaneous travel Venue and Physical Facilities Fees: $ hours of overtime janitorial salary

5 i Finsterbusch, et. al. 3 Day Startup: Molding Student Entrepreneurs for Fun and Non-profit. 5 th International Technology Education and Development Conference.University of Texas at Austin, ii Finsterbusch, et. al. 3 Day Startup: Molding Student Entrepreneurs for Fun and Non-profit. 5 th International Technology Education and Development Conference.University of Texas at Austin, iii Cooper, Sarah. Park, John. The Impact of Incubator Organizations on Opportunity Recognition and Technology Innovation in New, Entrepreneurial High-technology Ventures. International Small Business Journal, iv Cooper, Sarah. Park, John. The Impact of Incubator Organizations on Opportunity Recognition and Technology Innovation in New, Entrepreneurial High-technology Ventures. International Small Business Journal, v Startup Weekend."About Startup Weekend." Startup Weekend. Kauffman Foundation, Web. 24 Jan <

6 Friday, February 3, :08:04 PM ET Subject: CELTUA Grant Application: Major Teaching Project for Individual or Small Groups of Faculty Date: From: To: CC: Wednesday, February 1, :42:07 PM ET Lacker, Mark Sumner Mr. Center for the Enhancement of Learning, Teaching, and University Assessment Smith, Brett Dr. Members of the CELTUA Grant Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to submit a grant application to create a new experiential, multi-disciplinary learning model in which Miami students will learn how to take a business idea to business launch readiness in one weekend. The weekend learning immersion, called Startup Weekend Miami, will feature 1-hour of course credit and expert guidance delivered by successful entrepreneurs along with Miami faculty. We would like to draw the committee's attention to the innovation aspects of this application, in particular: We will be bringing a learning immersion process that has been offered worldwide more than 400 times, but previously never offered to a solely college audience for course credit. This breaks new ground in entrepreneurial education and promises to deliver a first-of-its-kind educational experience on Miami's campus. This grant application is endorsed by the Miami Institute for Entrepreneurship and the Institute chair is submitting a letter of support under separate cover. Attached is the grant application and supporting appendix in accordance with grant application guidelines. I would happy to provide any additional information should the committee desire. Once again, thank you for your consideration. Mark Mark S. Lacker John W. Altman Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship Miami Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies Miami University FSB 2078-B 800 E. High Street, MSC 1148 Oxford, OH lackerms@muohio.edu Page 1 of 1

7 Appendix A Content Delivery Startup Weekend learning content will be delivered by a team of Miami University faculty with outside support from entrepreneurs and professionals in the entrepreneurial world. This content delivery model has been used at the graduate level at Stanford University but is revolutionary at the undergraduate teaching level. Included here are bios of the mentors, speakers and judges committed to working with students at Startup Weekend Miami University and a roadmap outlining the learning process through which they will guide students over 48 hours. Startup Weekend Contributors Startup Weekend Content Mark Lacker Brett Smith Glenn Platt James Coyle Nick Seguin Dave Knox Rahul Bawa Al Babbington Danny Stull Scott Miller James Dickerson David Marker Jonathan Poma Miami Faculty Bios Brett Smith Brett is the founding director of Miami University's nationally-recognized Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship, as well as an associate professor of entrepreneurship. He was the 2011 recipient of the Richard K. Smucker Outstanding Award for Junior Professor and has won the ASHOKA award for pedagogical innovation at the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. Brett founded Edun Live on Campus as a partnership with Bono's Edun and has presented at conferences worldwide including United Nations committees and the Nelson Mandela Foundation. His work has been recognized in Time, Business Week, Financial Times, CNN, MSNBC and over 100+ other media outlets. Before coming to Miami, Brett worked in business development and earned his PhD in Entrepreneurship from the University of Cincinnati. Glenn Platt Glenn is currently the C. Michael Armstrong Chair, Professor of Marketing and has been Director of the Interactive Media Studies Program (and AIMS) since Glenn is President Emeritus of the International Digital Media and Arts Association. Glenn, along with his colleague Prof. Lage, coined the phrase inverted classroom with a 2000 seminal work outlining the benefits of using technology to move active learning into the classroom and lecture outside of class. He has won the School of Business Teaching Effectiveness Award, the Associated Student Government Effective Educator Award, and the University s Knox Award

8 for Teaching.Besides directing AIMS, Glenn teaches the Social Media Marketing, Internet/Digital Marketing, and the IMS/AI capstone consulting course. He consults in areas of Social Media, Internet Marketing and ecommerce. Platt received his Bachelor of Arts (with departmental honors) from University of Florida and his MS and PhD from Carnegie Mellon University, graduating in Mark Lacker Mark is the John W. Altman Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship. In both 2009 and 2010, he was a nominee for the Alumni Association s Effective Educator Award and the Associated Student Government s Outstanding Professor Award. Mark previously held positions as the Markley Visiting Executive Professor and as an Adjunct Professor for the Thomas C. Page Center for Entrepreneurship. In addition to his work at Miami University, he is currently a Principal at Right Audience & Events and the Founding President of Sumner Solutions. Mark earned his MBA from Xavier University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Miami University. James Coyle James holds a joint-appointment in the Marketing Department and Interactive Media Studies program at Miami University. His academic work has been published in several journals including the Journal of Advertising, the Journal of Interactive Advertising, the Journal of Website promotion, and the Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, among others. Additionally, he is the recipient of an NASD Education Foundation grant which he used to develop DollarsFromSense, an online financial guide for college students. James specializes in consumer website navigation expectations and how consumers both share and process interactive media content on commercial websites. James received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Journalism Advertising Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Entrepreneur Bios Nick Seguin Nick is manager of Entrepreneurship for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where his responsibilities include developing and deploying programs, funding initiatives, and continuing to build networks that advance entrepreneurship both domestically and abroad. Prior to joining the Foundation, Seguin was a principal, strategy practice lead for dynamit, in Columbus, Ohio, where he was responsible for the strategic direction of the agency and led new business development. He also was a principal and founder of webuild, a web and mobile accelerator formed to help companies move to product, revenue, and seed funding quickly. He remains a partner in both ventures. Seguin earned a Bachelor s of Science in marketing with a concentration in international business from Miami University. During this time, he studied abroad in Luxembourg. Dave Knox Dave is Chief Marketing Officer for Rockfish Interactive. Prior to Rockfish, Knox was a sevenyear veteran of Procter & Gamble, where he was instrumental in the digital turnaround that led to P&G being named to AdAge s Digital A-List. As Brand Manager for Global Branded

9 Entertainment, Dave led the strategy for new business models in venture investment, digital media and original content. Previously, Dave served as P&G s Corporate Marketing Brand Manager for Digital Business Strategy, responsible for driving digital innovation and capability across P&G s 300+ brands worldwide. Dave s team made the strategic choices on which digital brand building skills and innovations would be areas of focus for P&G s brands. Author of the industry leading blog, HardKnoxLife.com, Dave was named to the imedia 25 Class of 2010, by AdAge as 1 of 25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter and Media Industry News as a 2010 Social Media Superstar. Dave speaks frequently on brand and digital marketing, including appearances at SXSW, TEDxCincy, American Express Innovation Summit, Web 2.0 Summit, and the IEG Sponsorship Conference. Dave is active in the entrepreneurial community, serving as a Board Observer / Advisor to several venture-backed companies. He is the cofounder of The Brandery, a seed stage consumer marketing venture accelerator, and of Cincinnati Social Media. He also serves on the Board of VCU Brandcenter in Richmond, VA and as Professional Vice President on Pi Sigma Epsilon s National Council. Rahul Bawa Rahul has extensive experience in the financial and technology industry sectors. He is currently the director of digital and software investments at CincyTech USA, Cincinnati s largest venture capital firm, where he evaluates investment opportunities and advises startups on business and technology growth strategies. He has previously served as the CIO for Axcess Financial Services, the VP of ebusiness and enterprise application at Fifth Third Bank, and the VP and Principal of Xpedior. Tony Alexander Tony is the co-founder of Traveler s Joy and SimpleRegistry, two of the leading gift registry sites on the web. More recently, he helped start SmartyTags, a 2D barcode analytics platform. He likes to structure his businesses to allow him (and his partners) to work from anywhere. Though based in Cincinnati, during the past few years he has spent extended time working from New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Florence, London, Nairobi, and Tbilisi. Tony has a business degree from Miami University and spent 4 years at Accenture managing ERP implementations for multiple Fortune 500 companies. Danny Stull Danny Stull is a 26-year-old entrepreneur whose heart beats for the wilderness and not for the cubicle. He s just a guy who loves fresh air. Snow in the face, freezing cold water, dew on the tent; it s a collection of experiences that has brought him to this point in his life. Danny is the founder and owner of Venturepax.com and a website dedicated to getting families outdoors and connecting them together. Venturepax.com is a CincyTech funded company. Danny is also the Cincinnati curator of Startup Digest keeping track of all things startup related in the region. Danny graduated from Miami University. Al Babbington Al Babbington is a 3-time business founder and CEO in the auto, communications and healthcare industries. His first venture was Auto Town in 1998, followed by OneCommand in Most recently, Al founded Prescribe Wellness, a platform that delivers digital communications for the healthcare industry.

10 Scott Miller Scott Miller is a serial entrepreneur having founded three software companies. He is currently Founder / CEO at of B2Bee. He also is on the Board of Paycor, the Miami Institute for Entrepreneurship and The Circuit, as well as a Member of Queen City Angels. Scott is a graduate of Miami University. James Dickerson James is an entrepreneur who loves challenges. In addition to founding Leap, the first mobile app for social group challenges, he graduated from the Boulder Outdoor Survival school, one of the toughest outdoor survival programs. James is a 2011 graduate of the Brandery and an 08 graduate of Miami University. He also serves as the curator of Cincinnati Startup Digest where he keeps track of the local startup network. David Marker David s passion is helping to revolutionize the way entrepreneurial-minded students learn about and experience entrepreneurship. He is a co-founder of The Student Development Company, LLC and Textbook Painting, where he coaches college students on starting and running small businesses by helping them run and minimize the startup costs of painting businesses. David is an 08 graduate of Miami University. Jonathan Poma Jonathan is a computer software and internet industry specialist. Currently a strategist at DYNAMIT and operator at pomajp graphics, he has also worked with mindbox studios and Turning Technologies, LLC. Jonathan is a 2008 graduate of Miami University. Content and Learning Objectives The program follows the LEAN startup model, widely recognized as the premier practice-based model for moving entrepreneurs from idea to launch, and condenses the programming into 48 hours of intensive, hands-on startup immersion. Miami faculty and entrepreneur mentors will guide student teams through each step on the roadmap below.

11 January 30, 2012 Members of the CELTUA Grant Committee: I am writing to support the Startup Weekend Miami University: Startup Bootcamp proposal submitted by Mark Lacker. I strongly endorse this proposal for a number of reasons. First, the Startup Weekend proposal is an innovative approach that will dramatically impact the overall curriculum of the entrepreneurship program and how entrepreneurship is taught here at Miami University. Specifically, the entrepreneurship program has already built a curriculum structure around Startup Weekend that will allow students to earn academic credit. In addition, the Startup Weekend proposal has anticipated the need for follow on curriculum needs for students who successfully complete the program. As such a two- hour credit course has been developed to model the mentoring and coaching model of our capstone course. Finally, the students who participate in both courses associated with Startup Weekend and the follow on course will also be eligible to participate side- by- side the students who take our traditional capstone course. In this way, we will begin to assess the learning processes and outcomes associated with two different approaches to achieve the same end providing a real- life laboratory to further improve upon our entrepreneurship program which is currently ranked 15 th in the country by Princeton Review. Second, Startup Weekend is a proven model that has been replicated over 400 times in the entrepreneurial world. While this replication limits the potential risk of such an approach, it also provides real innovation by offering it for the first time ever only to undergraduate and graduate students. In this way, Miami students are immersed in cutting- edge experiential learning while benefitting from the proven method of teaching entrepreneurship. Third, Startup Weekend is also congruent with the Lean Startup approach currently used at the leading school in the country for developing high technology startup businesses, Stanford University. Therefore, the Startup Weekend curriculum approach will combine some of the best experiential learning with some of the best academic approaches to entrepreneurship. Finally, Startup Weekend is open to students from across the campus. In this way, the experiential learning of Startup Weekend allows many students who may not have taken an entrepreneurship course to do so. This approach builds upon our emerging pattern of partnering with academic divisions from across the university including the School of Fine Arts, School of Engineering, School of Arts & Science, the School of Education and the School of Business. As such, the interdisciplinary approach to entrepreneurship leverages the domain specific knowledge from many different areas and provides an experiential learning framework to increase interdisciplinary collaboration. Once again, I am completely supportive of the Startup Weekend proposal as it provides an innovative approach that will influence the way entrepreneurship is taught at Miami, leverage cutting- edge experiential learning from world- class organizations, and promote interdisciplinary learning.

12 Should you need any further information about supporting this proposal, please do not hesitate to contact me directly. Sincere regards, Brett R. Smith, Ph.D. Director, Institute for Entrepreneurship Miami University