Deshpande Center - Starting a Company

Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation

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So you want to start your own company? Congratulations -- now, get ready for the hard part. We've provided some good resources on partnering with entrepreneurs, identifying and addressing specific market needs, raising money, and more.

ARTICLES

Nuts and Bolts of Starting a Company
Course notes from the popular IAP course taught by Joseph G. Hadzima Jr. '73, a Senior Lecturer at Sloan School of Management.
http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/15975/materials.php

Angel Investors
The MIT Entrepreneurship Center's report on angel investors - a primer for student entrepreneurs.
http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/Downloads/AngelReport.pdf

See also a presentation (pdf) from a Deshande Center Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop on angel funding.

"Starting Up"
Boston Business Journal Column Reprints on everything from staffing up, to financing, to intellectual property.
http://enterpriseforum.mit.edu/mindshare/startingup/index.html

How to Split Equity
A summary (pdf) of a Deshpande Center Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop on the challenge of dividing founders' equity in a startup.

Creative Ways to Raise Early-Stage Capital
A summary (pdf) of a Deshpande Center/i-Teams panel featuring two CEOs and two investors.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP SEMINARS

Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January offers many other entrepreneurship classes. Please note that eligibility varies (many require registration or are only open to the MIT community) and some may already be full, so please check the websites or with the instructor for details. Some suggested courses for 2005:

15.962 High-Tech Start-ups by Ken Morse and Jack Gill
A pragmatic, fast-paced primer course on the dynamics of high-tech entrepreneurship. Features prestigious industry guest speakers. (for credit)
15.975 The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans by Joe Hadzima - The original business plan course at MIT! Geared towards putting together the preliminary executive summary for the $50k competition. (for credit)
15.976 Starting and Building a Successful Technology-Based Company by Bill Aulet and Mike Grandinetti - How to turn a start-up into a viable business. (for credit)

See the complete list of non-credit and for-credit entrepreneurship and management IAP classes.

Courses may change a bit from year to year, and we will update these listings as they become available.

ORGANIZATIONS

MIT Venture Mentoring Service
VMS supports innovation and entrepreneurial activity throughout the MIT community by matching prospective entrepreneurs with volunteer mentors who can boost the probability of a start-up's success.
http://web.mit.edu/vms/

MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition
Over 100 teams of students enter this competition each year, writing business plans in hopes of sharing in the $50,000 prize. Venture capitalists keep a close eye on MIT's competition. The MIT $50K has launched over 70 companies, including Akamai Technologies, with many competition alumni acquired by the likes of Microsoft, Motorola, and Broadcom. Seminars and get togethers leading up to the competition are a good way to find teammates to launch a new business based on MIT technology.
http://50k.mit.edu/

Entrepreneurship Center
http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu

MIT Venture Capital and Private Equity Club
VCPE is actively involved in helping to educate the MIT community on the venture capital process, including their popular annual conference in early December.
http://www.mitvcpi.org/

MIT Science and Engineering Business Club
The Club's mission is to serve as an unbiased, student-based educational resource and network for undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows seeking careers in business.
http://web.mit.edu/sebc/

MIT Enterprise Forum
Forum chapters offer advice, support and educational services for emerging technology-based companies, including case presentations, business plan workshops, and satellite broadcasts.
http://enterpriseforum.mit.edu

MIT COURSES

See the list of courses offered through the MIT Entrepreneurship Center. You can find course material from many of them on the MIT OpenCourseWare web site.

Other courses include:
1.462 Entrepreneurship in Construction
HST.906 Role of Physicians and Scientists in the Business World
HST.970 Law, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Health Care

WOMEN'S ENTREPRENEURSHIP RESOURCES

Springboard
Springboard Enterprises is a national, not-for-profit venture dedicated to increasing women's participation in the equity capital markets as both entrepreneurs and investors.
http://www.springboardenterprises.org/

Center for Women and Enterprise
CWE offers education, training, technical assistance, women's business enterprise certification and access to both debt and equity capital to entrepreneurs at every stage of business development.
http://www.cweboston.org/

Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology
Helping women trained in science and technology to explore their strengths and passions using an entrepreneurial mindset.
http://westorg.org/

Women in Technology International
http://www.witi.com/boston

BOOKS

Startup: a Silicon Valley Adventure
By Jerry Kaplan
Account of one person's attempt at articulating a simple idea of a business (pen-based computing), and the rise-and-fall saga of trying to make it happen.

The Billion Dollar Molecule: One Company's Quest for the Perfect Drug
By Barry Werth
True story from a biotech startup, from idea to IPO, as they try to discover an anti-AIDS drug. The twists and turns in the true plot match the excitement of a thriller.

Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond
By Ed Roberts
Written by practitioner and pioneer in entrepreneurial research at Sloan School, this bible of high-tech entrepreneurship has been engaging readers for 10 years.

Venture Café: Secrets, Strategies, and Stories from America's High Tech Entrepreneurs
By Theresa Esser
Anecdotal account of high tech startups, with many MIT alum examples in there.