(***NOTE***: All course details are in the English section of the NTU COOL system, only partial information are provided in the Chinese section) (***NOTE***: The first lecture will be held on Monday 9/1st btwn 14:20 to 17:20, all students who need Authorization Code in order to be registered for this course, MUST attend the first lecture and the codes will be given out by the end of the first class with the course lecturer's approval) COURSE OVERVIEW Have you ever wondered how did any of the “Unicorn” start-ups such as Open AI, Scale AI, DeepSeek, Uber, AirBnB, ByteDance/Tik Tok, Space X, Shein, Stripe, Ant Financial, Alibaba, DiDi and the local Taiwan Unicorns such as Appier and Gogoro etc. initially launched, getting funded, and developed and pivoted their ideas into a market desirable products and/or services with market valuations more than $1 Billion USD? Do you have an idea, whether it’s a mobile app, IoT product, new medical device, fintech solution, AI-driven new technology, a new social network platform, or a share-economy new venture that needs a proven start-up and entrepreneurial development solution and processes that these Unicorns used to guide them from the initial “napkin idea” into a highly desirable product or service used by millions (or billions) of users globally? This course: "Global Entrepreneurship and Start ups – The Business Model Canvas: How to Build a Start-Up" is a course that will utilize the widely used and proven solutions in the Silicon Valley start-up ecosystem from the serial entrepreneurs, founders, venture capitalists, to publicly listed tech companies alike to ensure the MVP (minimum viable product) will have a strong product-market fitment and the “pivoting” efforts will solve several critical areas that will make-or-break a start-up venture. This is a team-based hands-on course that immerses student teams by having you test your start-up ideas outside the classroom. Each student or a minimum group of 3 students will pitch their start-up idea initially, the class will then be reorganized into “Start Up Companies” (maximum of five to six students per team). From the very beginning, teams will get out of the classroom, and learn by using the new knowledge gained to test that specific part of the business model. You will be spending a significant amount of time in between classes and outside the classroom talking to potential customers or users. Rather than a single professor lecturing in front of the classroom, the class is organized around having professor, entrepreneurs, mentors, VC and PE firms, and angel investors from Taiwan start-up ecosystem commenting and critiquing on each team’s progress— sitting at the back of the classroom. It’s you as students standing up in front of the class every week sharing your progress while getting comments and critiques from your professor, fellow students, outside professionals within the ecosystem. While the comments may be specific to each team, the insights are almost always applicable to all teams to again help the new venture to cover all the crucial areas that need to be addressed during the initial launching of its product and/or services. Upon completion of this course, you and the team will have a solid “Business Model” that is ready for any start-up venture competition and any angel funding or seed funding presentation put in front of a venture capital firm or an angel investor Exposure to the issues and challenges associated with starting a new entrepreneurial business. Students gain an appreciation of the challenges associated with creating a new venture and building a hypothesis-driven, pivoted and proven business model. The pedagogy of this course is experiential learning. It provides you with real world experience and learning on what it’s like to actually start a company. The class is run as a “flipped classroom”. Reading assigned chapters and watching the assigned lecture videos are part of your weekly homework. The information in them is essential for you to complete your weekly interviews and presentations. Steve Blank has recorded eight (8) 30- minute class lectures, each with quizzes. I expect you to watch the assigned lectures for the upcoming week before class. I will use time in class to discuss questions about the material. You need to come prepared with questions or comments about the material for in-class discussion. This is a team-based hands-on program that immerses student teams by having you test your startup ideas outside the classroom. Students will self-organize into teams (maximum of four to five students per team). From the very beginning, teams will get out of the classroom, and learn by using the new knowledge gained to test that specific part of the business model. You will be spending a significant amount of time in between classes outside the classroom talking to customers. Rather than a single professor lecturing in front of the classroom, the class is organized around having professor, entrepreneurs and investors commenting and critiquing on each team’s progress— sitting at the back of the classroom. It’s you as students standing up in front of the class every week sharing your progress while getting comments and critiques from your professor and fellow students. While the comments may be specific to each team, the insights are almost always applicable to all teams.

Talking to customers, partners, and competitors, as you encounter the uncertainty of how a startup actually works; Learn how to use a business model to brainstorm each part of a company and customer development to get out of the classroom to test your startup ideas; Gaining hands-on experience of what it is like to start up a company. Upon course completion, you will be able to: Pursue your own start-ups if you deem the business model viable; Discover how to efficiently and effectively get a start-up off the ground; Practice business judgement skills critical to your development; Demonstrate effective teamwork in a hectic start-up environment; Develop and reinforce critical thinking and problem-solving skills critical for your career in the real world; Impart with an evidence-based methodology for scalable and repeatable start-ups that you can use for the rest of your career in the real world.

Ideally having some basic accounting and corporate finance knowledge is helpful, but not required. Also having a domain-knowledge eg. computer science, electrical engineering etc. would be very helpful as part of the business value proposition generation.

There will be a heavy emphasis on time "spent outside of the classroom", both as individual and a team, validating each blocks of the Business Model Canvas each week and an significant amount of time on pivots based on the customer feedbacks.

Required Online Videos and Recommended Textbooks Udacity“How to Build a Start Up” video lectures as required “readings” https://www.udacity.com/course/how-to-build-a-startup--ep245

Recommended textbooks:
 1. Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur. ISBN 978-0-470-87641-1. 2. The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company, by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf. K&S Ranch Press. ISBN 978-0-9849993-0-9.