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HU Credits:
4
Degree/Cycle:
1st degree (Bachelor)
Responsible Department:
MATAR - Interfaces of Technology, Society, and Networks
Semester:
1st Semester
Teaching Languages:
Hebrew
Campus:
E. Safra
Course/Module Coordinator:
Oded Barel-Sabag
Coordinator Office Hours:
Wednesday 14:30
Teaching Staff:
Ms. Raissa hacohen
Course/Module description:
The MATAR Venture Lab course provides students with the opportunity to acquire knowledge, skills and hands-on experience in starting a startup from scratch.
Our first semester will cover different aspects of the venture creation process such as identifying opportunities, conducting market research, crafting a value proposition, prototyping solutions, and creating a business model. We will include topic introductions and guided exercises based on real-world startups and their market opportunities. In this semester, you will also be exposed to various market sectors and opportunities, which you can further research during the semester break, and focus on during your final project.
During the second semester, you will work in interdisciplinary teams to develop your own venture from scratch. You’ll have the opportunity to experience the challenging entrepreneurial journey in first hand and craft a compelling and validated business case.
As part of the course, entrepreneurs, investors, and domain experts will share their experiences and expertise as guest speakers, hopefully to inspire and spark meaningful conversations.
Course/Module aims:
- Expose you and get you familiar with startup ‘jargon’ - key terms, concepts, and frameworks.
- Get a glance into the entrepreneurial process and cultivate your entrepreneurial mindset.
- Practice tools and frameworks that will enrich your entrepreneurial toolbox and skill set.
- Provide you with a unique hands-on experience of the challenging process of creating a new venture from scratch.
- Gain practice presenting
- pitching your ideas in front of an audience.
- Inspire you and provide you the opportunity to engage and learn from the experience of entrepreneurs, investors, and domain experts.
Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- Market Research - Acquire practical tools and frameworks on conducting a comprehensive market research such as evaluating a market size, analyzing a competitive landscape and identify supportive trends.
- Validation process - Acquire practical skills and experience in validating a market opportunity by interacting with potential users and customers, gain insights from user research, prototype different concepts and figure out how to apply your insights for crafting a desirable solution and a viable business model.
- Value Proposition - Understand what it take to come up and craft a unique value proposition and how to communicate it as part of your selling proposition to customers and pitch to investors.
- Business model - Gain knowledge in the basics of creating a viable business model for your venture and get familiar with different pricing models, revenue models and go to market strategies.
- Pitching - Get familiar with startup presentations frameworks and gain practical experience in pitching your venture.
- How Investors Work - Get familiar with how investors (VCs) work and take decisions on whether to invest or not invest in a startup.
Attendance requirements(%):
80
Teaching arrangement and method of instruction:
Course/Module Content:
- Market research
- Competitive Landscape
- The importance of timing
- Prototyping
- Value Proposition
- Business Models
- Go-to-Market Strategies
- Pitching
- How VC Investors work
Required Reading:
This is not a theoretical course. The content is all based on practical experience shared via the instructors, guest speakers and supportive materials in the form of relevant books, blogposts, newsletters, podcasts and videos.
Ideas and frameworks are taken from books such as The Startup Playbook, Running Lean, The Sprint, Venture Deals, blogs and newsletters such as Paul Graham Essays, Both Sides of the Table, AVC, Not Boring, First Round Magazine, podcasts such as Startup for Startup, השבוע, עוד פודקאסט, Another Podcast, Starting Greatness, Venture Unlocked and video libraries such as YC Startup Library.
And more…
Additional Reading Material:
Grading Scheme :
Essay / Project / Final Assignment / Home Exam / Referat 60 %
Active Participation / Team Assignment 15 %
Submission assignments during the semester: Exercises / Essays / Audits / Reports / Forum / Simulation / others 25 %
Additional information:
Active engagement>
This will be measured by your level of engagement during the course (showing up, participating, doing assignments) and your contribution to the group exercises and final projects.
Group and Individual Exercises (Semester A)>
This will be measured by the quality of the group exercises and ongoing assignments given in the first semester. Example of assignments: Evaluating a market size, creating a competitive landscape, crafting a value proposition and more.
Final Project in Groups (Semester B)>
The final project of the course will be to create a venture from scratch and pitch it at the last
session of the semester. During the semester break, each team will explore different domains
and market opportunity and present a ‘venture proposal’ at the first session of the semester.
A ‘venture brief’ will be given by the end of the first semester. The evaluation
for the final project will be comprised of measuring the level of quality of the following
components:
Ongoing Work - Ongoing work process and the group’s learning curve
Market Ressearch - The quality of market research and the team’s understanding of the domain
The validation process - Validating the need, the solution, the business model through interacting with potential users and customers and gathering relevant data.
The business case - The rationale of the business model and go-to-market strategy
Presenting and pitching - the level of the group’s final presentation
Extra mile - The ‘entrepreneurial efforts’ made by the team during the course, going the extra-mile beyond the course’s general expectations
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