Educational Objectives

Founders Journey focuses on the human side of building an entrepreneurial venture. How do you assemble, motivate and lead a team when you have big ambitions, limited resources and a compass instead of a map? The course examines the choices founders face while assembling and structuring an entrepreneurial team. These decisions are often made without careful consideration of the range of options available and tradeoffs between them. Several studies have shown that these choices are a primary driver of the ultimate success or failure of the venture. The course starts with an examination of the choices a founder makes in selecting a founding team, choosing a business model and raising capital from angels or institutional investors. Subsequent modules explore the decisions entrepreneurs make in adding structure and formal processes as the organization goes through multiple phases of growth. The final module addresses the question of when and how the founder should exit the business. All three modules address the personal, organizational and business model challenges of dealing with the entrepreneurial roller coaster. This course is for students who are interested in founding their own high growth ventures, joining an entrepreneurial firm or working with entrepreneurs as investors or advisors. It provides students with tools, practices and frameworks for succeeding in the face of uncertainty and for increasing their resilience while pursuing difficult challenges.

Course Content and Organization

The course is divided into three modules that cover key milestones in a Founders' Journey.

Start: The first module covers the most important choices in structuring the founding team. Who do you include in the founding team? How do you structure roles and relationships within the team? How do you divide equity? It examines different types of founding teams – solo founders, founding with friends, founding with family members or close friends. What are the benefits and costs of each structure? It also examines the fit between the founding team and the business model and the stresses caused by the constant need to adapt. What happens when you need to pivot? What are the roles and rights of early investors and Board members? What happens when the venture outgrows your ability to lead it?

Build: The second module covers team choices after the venture has achieved Product Market Fit. The founder has to operationalize the business and establish processes to deliver on the promise. Strengths in the first phase of the venture become weaknesses. Generalists get replaced by functional specialists. Individual initiative gets augmented by bounded processes. How can you set up the structure, process, culture, and resources to deal with growth? What skills do you need to lead the organization through changes and growth (hiring, leading, firing)? How should you manage key external relationships with customers, suppliers, partners, board members, and investors?

Exit: The final module covers the returns from entrepreneurship. It addresses the most difficult and consequential choices entrepreneurs face. What does success and failure mean in the context of entrepreneurship? How do you decide when to quit and when to double down? How do you balance the needs of the company with your own personal goals and skills? How can you sustain your physical and mental well-being in an often turbulent and emotionally taxing environment? We examine choices made by entrepreneurs who have succeeded beyond their expectations and some where they succeeded despite having to close their ventures.

Most classes are structured around a mix of cases and experiential learning. Approximately 30% of the classes will be simulation-style exercises or workshops. For example, students structure agreements with co-founders or investors; source, select and make offers to potential partners and employees; provide difficult feedback or fire employees; and negotiate terms for selling or closing their companies. Approximately 50 percent of classes have the case protagonists as guests.

Students write reflections at the end of each module, and submit regular interactive assignments in lieu of a final exam.

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