Launching Technology Ventures

Course Number 1755

Professor Tom Eisenmann
Senior Lecturer Jeffrey Bussgang
Winter; Q3; 1.5 credits
14 sessions; class meetings will run from 1:45 pm -3:15 pm
Two short essays, optionally published on course blog
Enrollment limited to 50 (plus up to 40 additional students enrolled in FC: LTV)

A 3-credit version of this course is offered as Field Course: Launching Technology Ventures Q3, Q4 (course number 6750)

Career Focus

LTV is designed for students who will work at startups and at established companies launching information technology products, in particular, new businesses in the Internet, mobile, and enterprise software sectors.

Educational Objectives

LTV examines "lean startup" management practices and asks when they make sense. New info tech ventures often face significant uncertainty about both customer demand and about how solutions should be built. Lean startups address this uncertainty through rapid cycles of hypothesis-driven experimentation, constantly improving their products based on near-immediate customer feedback. LTV will focus on product management challenges-in particular, the integration of marketing and engineering functions-and will emphasize implementation rather than strategy issues. The course will avoid overlap with concepts covered in Entrepreneurial Finance and Founders' Dilemmas.

Course Content and Organization

LTV is organized into two modules that explore, through cases and discussions with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, execution challenges before and after a startup achieves product-market fit, i.e., a match between its product solution and market needs. The first module explores: 1) the importance of launching early and conducting experiments using a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e., the smallest set of features necessary to rapidly validate a hypothesis about a new venture based on customer feedback obtained through A/B tests, interviews, usability tests, customer support interactions, etc.; 2) the use of metrics to gauge whether hypotheses have been validated, e.g., viral coefficients, customer retention rates, unit economics; 3) the process of pivoting, i.e., modifying a product/business model based on market feedback; and 4) the benefits of avoiding big investments in marketing and infrastructure until hypotheses are validated.

The second module addresses challenges when scaling a business after achieving product-market fit. Topics include: 1) challenges in "crossing the chasm" from early adopters to mainstream customers; 2) customer conversion funnel analysis and optimization; 3) metrics for scaling startups, e.g., Net Promoter Score, Lifetime Value of a Customer; 4) challenges in scaling a direct sales force; 5) tradeoffs for startups relying on business development partnerships with large companies; and 6) why, when and how startups should introduce formal product management processes, e.g., project prioritization and tracking systems, product roadmaps.