CSU44081 – Entrepreneurship & High-Tech Venture Creation

Module Code	CSU44081
Module Name	Entrepreneurship & High-Tech Venture Creation
ECTS Weighting	5 ECTS
Semester Taught	Semester 2
Module Coordinator/s	Prof. Vinny Cahill

Module Content

This course offers participants a unique opportunity to acquire practical problem solving skills, develop an entrepreneurial mindset, and expand their openness to founding their own businesses now or during their future careers.

Participants will experience a rigorous approach to project planning and delivery for which they will be expected to take personal and collective responsibility as they would in any business setting. In doing so they will have the opportunity to develop critical skills ranging from networking and stakeholder engagement to focused verbal and written communication.

Finally, participants will be exposed to the rudiments of how high-tech companies are organized and financed, from bootstrapping to investment rounds and stock market listing, and what factors drive their success and valuation.

The course has, as a focus, a business concept development project. Participants will organize in teams to develop a business concept and plan for a scalable high-tech venture, addressing a practical problem, currently experienced by individuals, business or other organizations, that they have identified. Each team will be mentored by an experienced business leader. Delivery of the project will involve appropriate potential user and customer engagement and needs analysis, desk research including market research and competitor analysis, potential prototyping activities, and financial planning leading to the development, delivery, and presentation of an objective, evidenced business plan.

Candidate topics:

The ‘Entrepreneurial Perspective’;
The ‘Design Thinking’ Process;
Opportunity recognition and evaluation;
Defining a business model;
Developing and executing a business plan;
Initial funding and financing growth;
Building and managing a team;
Marketing and promoting an idea;
Protecting intellectual property.

Module Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

Apply the ‘Design Thinking’ approach to problem solving.
Deploy the foundational skills needed to develop, validate the feasibility of, and make the case for a business concept to underpin a scalable high-tech venture including undertaking appropriate potential user and customer engagement and needs analysis, desk research including market research and competitor analysis, potential prototyping activities, and financial planning.
Explain how high-tech companies are organized and financed, from bootstrapping to investment rounds and stock market listing, and what factors drive their sucess and valuation.
Recognize and validate potential commercial opportunities.
Describe a product or service to a non-technical audience and make a convincing case (verbally or otherwise) for the value of a product or service to a potential customer, investor, or other stakeholder.
Develop, deliver, and present an objective, evidenced business plan.
Articulate the importance of riguourous project management and teamwork to successful project delivery.

Teaching and Learning Methods

Lectures, semianrs, workshops, individual and/or team presentations, and (mentored) project work.

Assessment Details

Assessment Component	Brief Description	Learning Outcomes Addressed	% of Total	Week Set	Week Due
Team-based Business Concept Development Project	Develop a business concept to underpin a scalable high-tech venture.	All	80%	Week 1	Week 12
Quiz 1	20 questions covering topics from early weeks of the course.	L01-L04	10%	Week 6	Week 6
Quiz 2	20 questions covering topics from later weeks of the course.	L01-L04	10%	Week 12	Week 12

Reassessment Details

Individual Business Concept Development Project (100%).

Contact Hours and Indicative Student Workload

Contact Hours (scheduled hours per student over full module), broken down by:	33 hours
Lectures	11 hours
Laboratory	0 hours
Tutorial or seminar	22 hours
Other	0 hours
Independent Study (outside scheduled contact hours), broken down by:	77 hours
Preparation for classes and review of material	11 hours
Completion of assessments (principally Business Concept Development)	66 hours
Total Hours	110 hours

Module Pre-requisites

Prerequisite modules: N/A

Other/alternative non-module prerequisites: N/A

Module Co-requisites

N/A

Module Website

Blackboard