6104.23 - Startups and Scaleups

6104.23

Startups and Scaleups

10

Pass grade in Mathematics B at the upper secondary level.

The objective of the course is to provide the students with insights into concepts, theories, and methods pertaining to scaleups and give the students ability to use these in practice. Students can use these abilities to as entrepreneurs, employees, investors or advisors for scaleups or other organisations that can learn from scaleups.

The course is organised as an entrepreneurial journey in four phases from idea to enterprise. 1) Begin: in the first phase you go from the idea to a company that has a product that the market wants. Emphasis is put on the founding team, startup financing and to reach product market fit. 2) Build: in the second phase you go from a usable product to a company ready for scaling up. Emphasis is put on getting the right organisation, product adaptation and fine tuning of the business model. 3) Grow: in the third phase you accelerate. Emphasis is put on growth financing, internationalisation and leading and managing a company that constantly changes. 4) End: in the fourth and final part the company goes from being a growth company to either be sold or becoming an enterprise. Emphasis is put on how founders and investors get their financial return.

The class lectures are used for shorter lectures, exercises and conversations with people in the entrepreneurial environment. Student presentations will also be used in this context. Study groups are recommended as part of the preparations for lectures.

Upon successful completion of the course the student should be able to: 1) distinguish between startups, scaleups and small businesses, 2) use tools to describe entrepreneurial business models, 3) describe the different roles in startups and scaleups, and how a diverse team can be organised, 4) analyse minimum viable products and evaluate when there is a product market fit and how to adapt the product and pivot, 5) divide the scaleup journey into different phases and evaluate what is required in each phase, 6) describe the different financing options, including bootstrapping, lending, seed capital and venture financing, and 7) identify how founders and investors get their financial return through dividend, initial public offering or mergers and acquisitions.

Written assignment max. 5.000 words.

External

7-

TBA

Herit Vivi Bentsdóttir Albinus