Venture Start-Up

Overview

Venture Start-Up is designed for learners who are interested in better understanding the process of making novel ventures come into being, particularly those oriented toward tackling major sustainability challenges. The module teaches entrepreneurship and new venture creation using a portfolio of practices which includes play, empathy, creation, experimentation, and (critical) reflection (Neck et al., 2014). It offers learners a critical understanding of a range of concepts, frameworks, and theoretical ideas related to the process of creating a new venture, and a chance to immediately apply this knowledge via experiential workshops and games.

Learners should expect to ‘get out of the building’ as part of this module (Blank and Dorf, 2010), to actively listen and respond to the needs and voices of Others. In groups, students will co-define problems and co-create novel opportunities with local users/stakeholders through semi-directed iterative processes of fieldwork, prototyping, and testing. In addition to helping students become more receptive to the voices and needs of users/stakeholders, the module aims to have learners find their own voice–to develop their own sense of self-efficacy—in the venture creation process. It is precisely in the interspaces between the voice of the Other and the voice of the learner/entrepreneur that genuine novelty can arise (Rosa, 2019).

Venture Start-Up challenges students to envision an entrepreneurship beyond the high-tech, high-growth Silicon Valley model that exalts heroic individuals. It aims to open learners’ minds to a richer and more diverse understanding of entrepreneurship and to create critical entrepreneurial subjects, those who challenge taken-for-granted norms and stock tools within the entrepreneurship domain (e.g., the Business Model Canvas, Lean Start-Up) and have both an eye and an ear toward issues of social (in)justice, climate (in)justice, and alienation/resonance.

Learning Objectives

(1) Appreciate the diversity and richness of different models of entrepreneurship and new venture creation, e.g., social entrepreneurship, ecopreneurship, public entrepreneurship, indigenous entrepreneurship, etc.
(2) Critically evaluate and apply a broad range of tools and techniques, e.g., design thinking, empathy mapping, mind dumping, etc., to the venture creation process.
(3) Co-define problems and co-create possible solutions/opportunities with local users/stakeholders through semi-directed, iterative processes of fieldwork, prototyping, and experimentation.
(4) Create and critically evaluate alternative business models that seek to balance an economic value orientation with a more explicitly social and environmental one.
(5) Grasp the content and communication behind crafting clear, compelling, and captivating pitches for new venture ideas.
(6) Critically reflect on one’s own experiences practicing play, empathy, creation, experimentation, and reflection over the module and consider how to further develop these practices in life after it.

Skills

(1) Design thinking: Adopting a structured, user-centred approach to tackle complex problems by empathising with others, defining problem areas, ideating creative solutions, prototyping ideas, and testing them iteratively.
(2) Systems thinking: Learning to analyse and understand complex systems by examining their interrelationships, structures, and dynamics and considering the broader implications of one’s own actions within interconnected systems.
(3) Basic primary research: The ability to observe and gather important insights from potential users, customers, beneficiaries, and stakeholders to (co)create better opportunities and solutions.
(4) Collaboration and teamwork: Learning to work effectively in diverse teams, understand group dynamics, resolve conflicts, and leverage collective strengths.
(5) Oral, written, and visual communication skills: Convincingly conveying ideas, information, and research through spoken, written, and visual mediums.
(6) Time management and organisation: Learning to manage time effectively, prioritise tasks, and balance different responsibilities.

Assessment

Students must achieve an overall mark of 40% in the module to pass.