Innovative Venture Creation

Course details

Aspiring technology entrepreneurs will gain relevant knowledge, skills and networks to create and implement a business model and an execution roadmap that is highly likely to get support from investors. Students will have the opportunity to validate their business model, learn from experts and founders and get coached by angel investors. This session teaches students to apply lean canvas, lean marketing, develop agile culture & leadership, understand business viability and raise funds. At the end of the session students will be able to pitch their business model to a panel of Angel and Seed stage Investors and Venture Capitalists.

Successful founders will share how they have applied crowdsourcing, growth hacking, business model generation and channel and distribution strategies giving their start up exponential growth, making competition irrelevant. The event provides fantastic opportunity to validate your business model and have an expert opinion, which can be incorporated in their venture creation.

Program Benefits

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Create an innovative lean canvas to present business model in one single page
• Develop effective digital marketing campaigns suitable for start-up companies
• Structure an organisation and generate agile teams that deliver results
• Identify the requirements to make a start-up enterprise viable and scalable
• Apply effective strategies to get the support of angel, seed, and series A investors
• Effectively pitch to a panel of investors for fundraising purposes

Target Audience

This course is for:

• Aspiring entrepreneurs in all technology sectors: anyone with a business idea requiring expert knowledge on how to turn it into a viable business plan.
• Start-up founders and Entrepreneurs seeking to raise funds for a new venture

Course Modules

Develop Innovative Business using Lean Canvas 

Students gain an understanding of the lean start-up methodology, the rationale behind the framework, and develop business models comprising the following elements: (1) identify a market problem and develop a value proposition to meet the demands of targeted market segments, (2) develop an optimal solution to meet customer requirements, identify elements of the solution that cannot be easily copied by the competition, and create persified revenue streams, and (3) determine the cost structure, establish key performance metrics, and develop channels to reach customers.

Topics covered under this section are:

• Lean start-up concepts
• Minimal viable product
• Scalable business model
• Business canvas areas of focus
• Lean canvas methodology
• Lean canvas step-by-step
• Lean canvas case studies

Digital Marketing and Distribution Channels Development 

This session provides students with the necessary practical skills to create an effective digital marketing campaign through growth hacking strategies for products and/or services offered by start-up companies. Students will also learn how to bring products to market more efficiently and effectively using lean marketing methods and how to leverage on offline channels.

The sessions covers the following:

• Building buyers community
• Generating marketing leads
• Converting marketing leads
• Online marketing channels
• Growth hacking methodology
• Offline channels and Distribution

Business Viability and Scalability 

This session develops student's basic skills in financial planning suitable for start-ups. In particular, the session focuses in identifying financing needs for short, medium, and long terms planning. It also tackles predicting revenues and expenses; and producing a cash-flow forecast to present to potential investors.

Covers:

• Activity-based costing
• Addressable Market Sizing
• Cashflow / runway Analysis

Thought Leadership Sessions 

What Are Investors Looking For? 

• Criteria to invest in start-ups
• Valuating start-ups and determining investment quantum
• Start-ups that turn investors away
• Do's and Don'ts in fundraising
• Product/market fit vs. highly competent founders: what matters most?
• What makes a great pitch?
• FAQ for founders
• Investment due diligence
• Attributes of good investors that founders should look for

Digital Marketing for Kickstarter 

• Building buyers community
• Generating marketing leads
• Converting marketing leads
• Online marketing channels
• Growth hacking methodology
• Guest Speaker: Pirate 3D Case Study 

Offline Distribution & Marketing for Startups 

• Offline channels and Distribution
• Guest Speaker: Purer Skin Case Study 

What Makes An Agile Startup? 

• Generating business agility in the organisation
• Developing a learning culture
• Preparing for scale through lean operations

Pitching to Investors 

This module provides students with the necessary knowledge to make effective pitches to investors, highlighting the key attributes of the proposed business plan and ensuring that the information is accurate, relevant, and conveys the right message for enhanced effectiveness.

During this session, each student will present his or her business for 10 mins. Panel of investors will give feedback and advice for the following 5 mins. Students are able to hear other students pitch their business. There are cases where this session needs to be extended due to increased number of students. Students can listen for a minimum 6 hours of presentation though it is not mandatory for everyone to stay beyond the minimum clock in time.

Delivery Schedule

Students will attend 3 workshop sessions where they will learn how to apply lean canvas, lean marketing, channels, financial viability, fundraising and agile management. A leading start-up enthusiast and an entrepreneur will deliver these workshops. Following this, students will attend 4 sharing and networking sessions, where they will learn from at least 6 start-up founders, entrepreneurs and investors who will be sharing their experiences on agile leadership and management, start-up development and perspectives of investors in evaluating a suitable investment portfolio.

At the end of the course, students will be able to validate their business model by making a 10-minute pitch to a panel of investors. The panel will give their feedback on each of the business models that is presented, giving valuable insight to students in their venture creation.

Delivery Method

Students will be trained by industry professionals and entrepreneurs with a wealth of direct experience in the start-up ecosystem.

Entry Requirements

Other than English language proficiency, no particular requirements need to be met. This course is open to all students, regardless of background, professional experience, or educational level (minimum O-level students). However, if students want to enrol into the Professional Diploma in Technopreneurship, a diploma qualification will be the minimum entry requirement.

Certificates Issued

Upon successful completion of this module students will be issued with following SOAs:

• IT-MC-401S-1 Perform competitive analysis
• IT-CIO-405S-1 Select new technology models for business

Graduation Requirement

Students must successfully pass or deemed Competent (C) in assessments.