Lean Startup Methodology and EIE-II

• Essentials of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (EIE) - II
• Module (M1): Why Startups Fail and What You Can Do About It? Prof. Sathya Prasad is the Lead Instructor, CIE@RR, contactable at [email protected]
• Prof. Lakshmeesha is the Lead Instructor, CIE@EC, reachable at [email protected]
• Mr. Madhukar Narasimha is the CIE Program Manager, [email protected]
• Mr. Tarun Rama is the CIE Ignite Manager, [email protected]
• Department Coordinators are in respective departments
• E-Cell is a student body located at the EC & RR campus
• EIE Teaching Assistants are Chirag C Shekar, Chinmay D, Dhruv Tandon, Ajay Rao, Arpan Mascarenhas
• Essentials of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (EIE) - Part 1: Highlights were from Aug-Dec 2024

Course Overview

• Objective: developing creative solutions and I&E mindset, and navigating idea-to-market processes
• 3rd-semester students across 21 PESU departments are the target audience
• The course credits are 2
• The format: 11 online sessions and 1 F2F session

Key Learning Outcomes

• Emphasize I&E mindset
• Learn the idea to market process and business acumen
• Understand technological transformations such as AI and Industry 4.0-5.0, and basic fundamentals
• Network with peers to participate in future I&E activities

Course Modules

• 11 Modules: From Introduction to I&E to AI & Innovation
• Key topics: Design Thinking, Business Model Canvas, Startup Finance, Pitching & Selling
• Features 8 interviews with startup founders

Student Feedback

• 85% Satisfaction: the course met or exceeded expectations
• Top Liked Aspects: Founder interviews, quizzes, YouTube examples
• Areas of Improvement: Team collaboration, soft skill development, more F2F sessions

Key Stats

• 3200 RR students, and approximately 1200 EC students are enrolled
• The course is in 21 departments
• There are 11 online and 1 F2F session
• There were 8 live founder interviews
• There were 2 panel discussions
• Quiz Performance: 68%-92% correct answers

Recommendations for EIE Part II

• Ideathon ("CIE-Ignite"): Hands-on problem-solving
• Hybrid Classes: Mix of F2F and live-streamed sessions
• Enhanced Engagement: Better two-way interaction
• Department Involvement: Deeper engagement in course content

Course Contents

• Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset.
• Idea-to-Market, Opportunity Identification, Ethics.
• Value Proposition
• Selling your Idea/Product and Pitching.
• Finance for Startups
• Developing Your Entrepreneurial Action Plan
• Introduction to Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• Human-centered Innovation -Design Thinking
• Building/Leading Teams in Startups
• Business Model Canvas & Protecting your IP
• Finance for Startups -1
• AI: Reimagining How We Innovate
• Startups and the challenges they face is the central topic of discussion
• EIE 2 empowers future entrepreneurs through hands-on learning and industry expertise

Course Contents:

• Customer Discovery (CD) - Why/What/How
• CD Deep-dive: Build Your Testable/Measurable Hypotheses
• Startup Finance Fundamentals II
• Digital Business Models
• Startup Pitching II
• Developing Your Entrepreneurial Action Plan
• Introduction to Startup Challenges/Failure and What You Can Do?
• CD Deep-dive: Interviewing Skills
• CD Deep-dive: Best Practices
• Startup Marketing Fundamentals II
• Digital Marketing and Use of GenAl for Innovation
• Startup Legal Fundamentals

Key Components:

• CIE-Ignite enables hands-on learning through ideation, and prototyping
• Develop communications, leadership, and teamwork abilities
• Provides top-performers rewards and recognition
• CIE-IM Mentorship involves assistance from mentors with 150+ years of related experience collectively
• Provide support with customer discovery, business modeling and pitching
• Expert Talks shares insights from industry leadership on entrepreneurship, startup challenges, and innovation
• Founder Talks provides real life stories and lessons from startup founders
• Students can discover their passion and interests through EIE
• Students can identify valuable ideas and opportunities like tech, businesses, research, and startups
• Students can find collaborators, startup innovators, founding teams etc
• Funding, prototyping, and mentoring can help students realize their ideas and teams

Sample path

• Semester 3: EIE-I
• Semester 4: EIE-II
• Summer: CIE / COE Internship
• Timeframe 5: Pick idea (Capstone?)
• Timeframe 6: Build idea (Capstone?)
• Summer: CIE / COE Internship
• Timeframe 7: Incubate Idea/Product
• Timeframe 8: Accelerate Idea/Product
• Discover business, tech, and soft skills that uncover true north/passion as well team-building abilities, and the building validate the prototypes, Applying to the CIE PESU IITx Co-Innovation-Center (mentorship, grants), Corporate/Govt Incubator/Accelerator, Faculty & Students

Course Objectives

• Kickstart I&E Journey.
• Provide opportunity to implement I&E skills via CIE Ignite system
• Exposure to innovations from transformative technology
• Interaction with founders, investors, and ecosystem experts
• Understanding of business acuity
• Learn about Business Model canvas and Design Thinking
• Create a safe startup from problem solving and proven principles
• Use Lean Startup as well as Customer Development principles
• Differentiate between"faith-based" & "evidence-based" entrepreneurship
• Find great teammates through future co founders
• Prepare yourself for your last years at PESU

How to get the most from the course?

• Apply commitment, discipline, and perseverance, as an entrepreneur
• Use framework tools, and develop appropriate skills
• Work through team settings
• Apply mentorship with industry mentors
• Design Makerspace prototype
• Apply what is accomplished for CIE Summer Internship

Student Engagement / Facilitation

• Online:
  • use MS Teams moderated TAs for Q&A sections
  • Polls Important Session Quizzes on the PESU Academy for attendance
  • contact [email protected] for assistence
• Offline:
  • go to Department Coordinator (DC) in assigned department

Module 1 Overview Topics

• Why Startups Fail and What Can You Do Differently?
• A startup is an operation structured to establish that a scalable and recurring business model exists
• Developing a very broad product can be detrimental to a startup
• The trick is to start small than continue to improve the product
• The conventional approach to creating new products is to first create a concept and then build the product
• The conventional process consist of marketing strategies, positioning, and general advertisements, for deployment
• It involves a business plan with large assumptions about customer availability
• It assumes startups are simply small companies, with a linear process
• Most startups fail because there are not enough clients and the customer base is too restricted

Fixing Startup Models

• Adopt the Lean Startup Method while focusing on customer interactions
• Incorporate the Business Model Canvas, which is a prototyping and planning tool
• Aspects of the Business Model Canvas
  • Customer Value Proposition, Customer Segments, Customer Relationship, Channel
  • Key Activities, Key Resources, Key Partnerships
  • Customer Development, in tandem with Business Model Canvas
  • The focus in EIE is to find the correct customer

Customer is the most important thing

• Customer Discovery: Understand customer base
• Agile development, and its important role by developing software which works for the consumer
• Use flexibility over perfection
• Ship early and often
• Build requirements that support custom solutions
• There is a need for improvement across the industry

Successful Lean Startups:

• Slack started as a tool within Tiny Speck before it was a standalone product
• A dedicated team refined the tool through customer requests and data analysis
• Through Lean Startup: Pinterest refined its focus on meeting its customer needs.
• It began with a very basic prototype and evolved over time.

Summary of lean methodology

• Customer-Centric Approach: focus on what your customers want, and validate your market.
• Iterative Progress: improve and adapt based on feedback.
• Test assumptions with a Minimum Viable Product
• Do not fear failure by learning to pivot and focusing on positives.
• Always be embracing Change
• Use the Lean Startup principles to validate the startup

Things to consider

• Think for the proper type of teammates
• Scouting must occur for a group that consist of five to six personnel
• Determine which role you are looking for
• Consider opportunity themes
• Determine the most important values for your team
• "Is it viable?" is important thing

Additional Material

• How to Succeed by Failing 'Ferrari Fast': eCorner, STVP (Stanford)
• The Monkey Business Illusion
• “Separating Ideas from viable Business Opportunity”
• The Best Way to Find an Idea is to Stop looking for it! (Gary Vaynerchuk interview)

Explore the core principles of the Lean Startup methodology and its application in the EIE-II program. Discover how EIE-II facilitates I&E skills, real-world problem-solving, and team formation. Learn about support through the CIE PESU-IITx Co-Innovation-Center.