2 course meal: Your choice of 1 appetizer and 1 entree
3 course meal: Your choice of 1
appetizer, 1 entrée and 1 dessert (includes coffee and tea)
4 course meal: Your choice of any 4
plates = either 2 appetizers or entrees along with 1 dessert
Note: you can choose to have as many desserts as you deem your belly can handle. Please use your judgment.
Note: you can choose to have as many desserts as you deem your belly can handle. Please use your judgment.
Appetizer (includes complimentary glass of
pinot grigio) (300 words minimum)
Why are you taking this class?
What did you get out of EF1 and how do
you hope complement EF2 with it?
If you were teaching Entrepreneurship to
graduate students, what 3 elements would you focus on?
In 3 years, what do you hope to be doing
professionally and personally?
In 10 years, what do you hope to be doing
professionally and personally?
In 20 years, what do you hope to be doing
professionally and personally? (please revisit this blog then and tell your
spouse or kids about this class)
DIY: Make your own ‘rhetorical’ appetizer
up and answer it effectively.
Entrée (comes with your choice of sides:
fries, fresh fruit or salad) (600 words minimum)
Walk me through your business model as it
stands (or sits) in March 2015. Include as many relevant ingredients as
possible.
Walk me through your business model as it
stands (or walks) in April 2015. Include as many relevant ingredients as
possible.
Steve Blank is the Man (or at least one
of the Men). Please deconstruct the 5 most important elements of his point of
view and philosophy and then connect the dots with your own venture.
Gerald Chertavian’s YearUp venture was
filled with many important decisions along various juncture points. Please walk
me through 3 key decision moments and also connect the dots with your own
venture. Please use Exhibits and technical analysis as you deem fit.
You are off and running (not walking) with
your Venture and now need to make a gameplan for how to raise financing. Walk
me through the key steps and also inject a recent business example from the Wall
Street Journal or BusinessWeek (or any other credible news source).
Alex Osterwalder (‘Alex’) and Yves
Pigneur (‘Yves’) talk about Business Model Generation and key business types. I
would love to get you take on their take of the Three Core Business Types.
Where does your Business/Venture fit in? (see Alex and Yves, pages 58-59)
Does you Venture have a long tail or
short leash? Explain the difference with 2 outside business examples. (see Alex
and Yves, pages 68-69)
Alex and Yves walk through myriad silly
exercises; the silly cow exercise is one of them. I would love to hear about
your silly cow exercise. (see pages 144-145)
Back in the Cenozoic period (i.e. EF1),
we talked about company valuation and metrics. Can you walk me through ROA,
ROE, ROI, ROIC with reference to two real businesses. Would love to also hear
about these metrics specific to your venture. (see The Four Cornerstones of
Corporate Finance: Value, McKinsey & Company)
Back in the Paleozoic era (i.e. EF1), we
talked about cash vs accrual accounting. Can you walk me through how your
venture is handling credit lag times – accounts payable, accounts receivable
and the like.
How would you differentiate among these
scenarios and please rank order or combine them according to how they fit your
venture:
- Angel financed round through a friend of a friend of a friend (your Harvard friend’s friend connects you to her uncle) who is interested in becoming a passive partner in your venture
- Byers Venture Capital fund is impressed with your venture and wants to start talking term sheet with you. How do you frame it differently versus an Angel?
- Your rich aunt bequeaths you with some Benjamin Franklins (albeit less than Angel or VC) and all she asks is to generate stable returns with it (5-8% is fine).
Feld and Mendelson lay out some important
terms in the first five chapters of Venture Deals. Please excavate 5 relevant
deal terms that you should look out for in the context of your venture.
Please do some SWOT analysis on your
venture to date. You can answer this question twice. Once in March and the
other in April. (see Alex and Yves, pages 216-226)
Reasonably (and without too much
irrational exuberance) walk me through how you would value your own business.
Dessert (includes choice of coffee or tea)
Verbal Sprint: 1 minute video drill
Verbal Run: 3 minute video clip
Verbal Power Walk: 5 minute video
Bon Appetit! Salud! Enjoy!
