Section I: Introduction
Week 1: Entrepreneurial Fundamentals
March 29th, 2011
Guest Lecture: Prof. Tom Byers, Stanford University MS&E Department
Professor Tom Byers’ expertise is on technology and high-growth entrepreneurship. He is founder and a faculty co-director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). He is also the chairman of the Committee for Undergraduate Standards and Policies (C-USP) and deputy chair of the Management Science and Engineering department.
This lecture will address the following:
What does it mean to innovate? Is it the same in Russia and the US?
General facts about starting businesses in Russia vs US
Success stories – case studies of innovations.
What’s a business plan? Business plan structure
Understanding the key elements to a successful entrepreneurial start-up.
Week 2: Lecture/Discussion with Russian Entrepreneur
April 5th, 2011
Guest Lecturer: Igor Shoifot, Russian Entrepreneur
Igor Shoifot is the CEO at Shoifot.com. He was most recently a co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of world’s largest independent photo site, Fotki.com, used by millions of customers to store billions of photos and videos. He was CEO of Microsoft WebTV’s largest site, Epsylon Games and founded start-ups in VOD, VoIP, biotech and document management, published articles and interviews at The Wall Street Journal, Venture Beat, San Francisco Examiner and other publications. Currently, he is working on the book “101 Viral Growth Tools” and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on viral marketing, communications and entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley, and previously taught at New York University for many years. He holds PhD, MBA, MA and BA degrees.
This lecture will address the following:
Give students a basic framework for what made his company successful
Overview of obstacles confronting Russian and U.S. entrepreneurial relations, and how Mr. Shoifot and his company overcame these obstacles.
Overall advice for students and answers to questions.
Week 3: Key innovation trends
April 12th, 2011
Guest Lecturer: Alexandra Johnson, Managing Director of DFJ VTB Aurora
Alexandra Johnson is a Managing Director of DFJ VTB Aurora. She currently works in the Silicon Valley where she focuses on early stage companies in communications, media, and technology industries headquartered both inside and outside of Russia.
This lecture will address the following:
General Innovation Trends : geographical markets, product markets (Nano, IT, Pharma, Clean energy, E-commerce), geo-relocation of innovations
Russian Innovation Trends
go back to the 1990s and look at the first “entrepreneurs”, not oligarch and contrast them to the first Silicon Valley entrepreneurs
Russian privatization led by Chubais how did it affect innovation trends in Russia
Russian Silicon Valley – the hope for innovation
Case studies contrasting Russian and U.S. innovation
Section II: Business plan
Week 4: Intellectual property management
April 19th, 2011
Guest Lecturer: Konstantin Bochkarev, Stanford Law School, LLM
Konstantin was previously a practicing intellectual property attorney in Moscow at Lovells' Moscow office. His inspiration in coming to study at Stanford Law School is to return to Russia to help build the emerging Intellectual Property system. He maintains a great deal of expertise in Russian intellectual property law.
This lecture will address the following:
The legal aspects of innovation.
Compare Russian IP law vs. U.S. IP law
Historical perspective: look at legislative background of both countries and how it influences the current state of legality
Current perspective: what Russia is doing to innovate its IP laws
Patents and licenses, how to secure innovation?
Getting to the details, both in Russia and the U.S.
Case studies of intellectual property law in Russia and the U.S.
Week 5: Marketing
Guest Lecturer: Guez Salinas, Silicon-Valley entrepreneur
April 26th, 2011
Mr. Salinas is a current Stanford student and rising entrepreneur. He has a great deal of experience in marketing a product and making it attractive for high-end investors.
This lecture will address the following:
How to gather data and conduct research
Market analysis – create new market vs. a niche at current market
Viral Marketing – digital start-ups
Marketing mix and market strategy
Software
Case studies
Week 6: Finance
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Jonathan Berk, Stanford Graduate School of Business (tentative)
May 3rd, 2011
Jonathan Berk is the A.P. Giannini Professor of Finance at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. His research covers a broad range of topics in finance including delegated money management; asset pricing (the relation between stock returns and characteristics of the firm, such as accounting numbers, investment, firm size, etc.); valuing the firm’s growth potential, the firm’s capital structure decision, and the interaction between labor markets and financial markets. He has also explored individual rationality in an experimental setting. He has co-authored two finance textbooks: Corporate Finance and Fundamentals of Finance.
This lecture will address the following:
P&L
Investment analysis and DCF models
Evaluation models
Professor will address all 5 businesses and give them specific ideas on how to develop their stuff.
How to predict unpredictable costs and revenues?
Risks in entrepreneurial finance
Case studies
Week 7: Communications
Guest Lecturer: Prof. JD Shramm, Stanford Graduate School of Business
May 10th, 2011
JD Schramm joined the GSB faculty in the fall of 2007 to create and launch communication courses as part of the new GSB curriculum. In 2009 he led the development and launch of the Mastery in Communication Initiative to help GSB students at all levels of expertise improve their mastery of speaking and writing. He leads a team of writing specialists who serve as coaches to the first year MBA students taking the required Critical Analytical Thinking (CAT) course. He teaches courses in Political Communication, Strategic Communication, Executive Communication (Sloan only), and Communication Strategies for Scholars (PhD only).
This lecture will address the following:
Communications fundamentals
How to present and communicate your idea
Section III: Approaching investors
Week 8: Contract Negotiation and Valuation for Entrepreneurs
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Steve Ciesinski, Stanford Graduate School of Business
May 17th, 2011
Prof. Ciesinski is a corporate officer with SRI International, as well as Vice President of Strategic Business Development. He has responsibility for SRI's commercial business development, international operations, innovation programs, corporate energy and industrial sector initiatives, strategic marketing and other corporate programs. His professional experience includes: consumer products, semiconductor capital equipment, telecommunications, mobile/wireless, applications software, Web 2.0, open source, medical devices, and many others.
This lecture will address the following:
Do we need investors and why?
Types of investors (parents, angels, VC, companies) and what do they look for in a start-up?
Key trade-offs
Simulation: investor vs. new venture team
Tasks: Choose investor type and make a preliminary offer
Section VI: Presentation and results
Note: Russian Entrepreneurs will fly to Stanford for final presentation of projects to Venture Capitalists.
Week 9: Final Presentations to Venture Capitalists and Comments from Venture Capitalist representatives
May 24th, 2011
This week Russian entrepreneurs and Stanford Students will present their projects to a panel of Venture Capitalists and Stanford professors. The panel will consist of the faculty, entrepreneurs, and VC’s that the course has had as guest lecturers. VC’s and professors will be available to provide feedback and critique of the projects, and provide the teams with areas of strength and weakness in their overall presentations. Entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to gain insight into the marketing and presentation aspect of creating a business, getting real and immediate feedback from experts in their respective fields. This is meant to be an exciting and intellectually stimulating event, where academic rigor and valuable insight can help students and entrepreneurs gain a better feel for how the project presentation to Venture Capitalists unfolds.
Week 10: Final Discussion
May 31st, 2011
Following the conclusion of the course, this week will be a summarization of the past 9 weeks. It will be an opportunity for students and entrepreneurs to comment of the effectiveness of the course, their respective projects, and the quality of their business proposals.