EEE 370

INTRODUCTION TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Whitman School of Management
Syracuse University
Spring, 2018

INSTRUCTOR
Professor David Park
E-mail: udpark@syr.edu
Office: WSM 533
Office hours: By appointment

CLASS HOURS
Section M003: Mondays and Wednesdays 12:45 PM – 2:05 PM @ Management 004
Section M006: Mondays and Wednesdays 2:15 PM – 3:35 PM @ Management 201
Section M007: Mondays and Wednesdays 5:15 PM – 6:35 PM @ Management 101

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course introduces the fundamentals of entrepreneurship with a focus on identifying and validating high-
potential ideas. Launching a new venture involves identifying an idea, validating that customers exist for it and
assembling resources, such as talent and capital, to help execute the idea. Thus, these topics are the focus of the
course.

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS

 Textbook: Introduction to Entrepreneurship. This book is customized by the EEE department to focus on
the most relevant material from a larger textbook (Barringer & Ireland, 2015). You many purchase the
hard copy of the book from the SU bookstore or the soft copy from here:
http://www.pearsoncustom.com/ny/syracuse_eee370/
 A course packet: which is composed of book chapters, articles and cases is available for purchase here:
http://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/72199700
 Additional readings (required and optional) and videos are on the course website. Make sure to look at the
appropriate session page before each session to see additional required prep including readings, videos,
etc.

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living
with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you
truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Steve Jobs

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision”
Peter F. Drucker

“Luck is preparation meeting opportunity.”

Oprah Winfrey

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill

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COURSE OBJECTIVES
The course is built around five core objectives. By the end of the semester, you should be able to:

 Recognize the entrepreneurial potential within yourself and others in your environment;
 Develop an appreciation for opportunity, how to recognize it, and how to evaluate it;
 Appraise the nature of creative new business concepts that can be turned into sustainable business
ventures;
 Understand the process nature of entrepreneurship, and ways to manage the process including some of
the ethical dilemmas that entrepreneurs may face;
 Appreciate the role of entrepreneurship within society, and how it manifests itself in different contexts
(start-up, corporate, social, public sector) and people.

In order to achieve these objectives, you will learn about entrepreneurial ideation, validation, and resource
assembly through case studies, lectures, activities, workshops, and projects that cover high-growth ventures in a
variety of industries. By actively contributing in class, and completing each assignment, you will learn the tools
necessary to successfully identify and develop a viable true business.

METHODS OF LEARNING
Entrepreneurship is both an individual and team activity. Students will form teams early in the semester and are
required to meet weekly to prepare for class discussions. Research, as well as my experiences teaching this
course, indicates that the highest performance teams include people from diverse backgrounds, experiences and
majors.

In order to meet other students in the class, and to begin thinking entrepreneurially, your first assignment will be
the Idea Machine Exercise. In addition, each team will be required to complete written case analyses throughout
the semester. Teams are also required to complete two papers and in-class presentations for their term project
assignment. Students will also submit individual case write-ups and complete a “Personal Business Plan”
Group discussion is encouraged in preparing for both the team and individual assignments. Note that learning to
successfully manage group dynamics, including conflicts and roles, is a key educational component of the course.

GRADING
Students will be evaluated based on contribution to in-class discussions, as well as timely completion of assigned
readings and assignments. The course is designed to teach you to stretch yourself and learn skills like teamwork,
public speaking, persuasive writing, and defending your ideas, as well as the fundamentals of the entrepreneurial
process. Student evaluation and final grades will be based upon the following:

Individual grading (40%)

1. Professionalism & Participation (15%)
2. Individual Case Write up (10%)
3. Personal Business Plan Executive Summary (10%)
4. Peer Evaluation (5%)
Team grading (60%)
5. Ideation Exercise (10%)
6. Written Team Case Analyses (20%)
7. Opportunity Analysis Project (10%)
8. Opportunity Execution Plan (20%)
* For detail information on each assignment and how to submit it, please refer to APPENDIX.

Everything is graded on a 100 point scale. You can convert your grade to the 4.0 system using the following
formula:

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 Final Grade = (Weighted Sum of Each Score – X) × 4 / 100,

where X is a whole number that sets the mean of the class between 3.2 and 3.4 to meet the Whitman School of
Management grading policy for our undergraduate program. This policy has three goals: 1) To ensure that grading
is fair and consistent across courses; 2) To encourage excellence in student scholarship; and 3) To ensure faculty to
deliver a challenging academic experience. All instructors who teach undergraduate courses at Whitman are
required to follow this grading policy and for all undergraduate courses taken at the Whitman School of
Management with 15 or more students enrolled, the mean grade shall be no higher than 3.30 and the maximum
percentage of A/A-s is 33%

Generally speaking, final grades will be normally distributed around the business school mean. This does not
necessarily apply to grades on individual assignments. Final grades are at the discretion of Professor Park, and are
subject to change based on class performance and peer evaluations.

If you have questions regarding your grade, do not wait until the end of the semester to ask them!

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Syracuse University sets high standards for academic integrity. This includes emphasizing 1) HONESTY: I will
be truthful with myself and others; 2) INTEGRITY: I will be a leader of character. I will be fair in all relations
with others; and 3) RESPECT: I will show consideration for others and their ideas and work. These standards are
supported and enforced by students, including those who serve as academic integrity hearing panel members and
hearing officers. The Whitman School of Management requires all students who take Whitman courses to certify
in writing that they have read, understood, and agreed to comply with the University's Academic Integrity Policy.
The policy is available at http://academicintegrity.syr.edu. Whitman students should have already completed a
certification statement. All other students enrolled in this course, including EEE minors, are also required to
complete a certification statement available in the Undergraduate Office (Suite 215). Completed statements will
be kept on file in the Undergraduate Office. Plagiarism and academic dishonesty are serious offenses. University
policy dictates that any acts of academic dishonesty will lead to a grade of FX for the course, accompanied by a
note in your transcript of “Violation of the Academic Integrity Policy”. Academic dishonesty includes team-based
assignments where individual team members behave dishonestly or deliberately try to claim others’ work or ideas
as their own.

Turnitin
In order to ensure academic integrity, this class will be using Turnitin, the plagiarism detection and prevention
program in Blackboard. This means that your assignments will be checked for plagiarism against documents on
the Internet and previously submitted papers at SU and at other institutions. Please note that your assignments
may be uploaded to be part of the Turnitin.com database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism in the
future. In class, I will ask you to sign a consent statement for using Turnitin as a part of the class. For more
information, please visit www.turnitin.com.

ACCOMMODATION POLICY
If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services
(ODS), http://disabilityservices.syr.edu, located in Room 309 of 804 University Avenue, or call (315) 443-4498
for an appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting accommodations. ODS is responsible for
coordinating disability-related accommodations and will issue students with documented Disabilities
Accommodation Authorization Letters, as appropriate. I am unable to provide specialized assistance on my own;
this must go through ODS. Accommodations, such as exam administration, are not provided retroactively;
therefore, planning for accommodations as early as possible is necessary. It is the student’s responsibility to
communicate these needs clearly and in advance. I am here to provide you the support you need but taking care of
contacting ODS immediately will help you to achieve success!

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RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES
SU’s religious observances policy, found at http://supolicies.syr.edu/emp_ben/religious_observance.htm,
recognizes the diversity of faiths represented among the campus community and protects the rights of students,
faculty, and staff to observe religious holy days according to their tradition. Under the policy, students are
provided an opportunity to make up any examination, study, or work requirements that may be missed due to a
religious observance provided they notify their instructors before the end of the second week of classes. For fall
and spring semesters, an online notification process is available through MySlice/Student Services/Enrollment/
My Religious Observances from the first day of class until the end of the second week of class.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Class Date Topic Assignments / Note

1 Jan 17 Course Introduction and Overview
2 Jan 22 Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
3 Jan 24 Ideation Exercise / MakerSpace Tour Individual Ideation Exercise write up
4 Jan 29 Creativity and Ideas Form a team by the end of this session
5 Guest lecturer series (1): Ideation Feb 2nd 3:00-4:00 PM @ Lender Auditorium
6 Feb 5 Entrepreneurial Research Team Ideation Exercise write up / presentation
7 Feb 7 Business Model Development
8 Feb 12 Case Method Workshop
9 Feb 14 MVPs Bring your laptop
10 Feb 19 From Idea to Opportunity Sirtris case
11 Feb 21 Customer Development IMVU case
12 Feb 26 Lean Startups
13 Feb 28 Partnerships WebTV case
14 Mar 5 Building the Startup Team NanoGene case
15 Mar 7 OAP Presentations OAP paper / presentation
Spring Break
16 Mar 19 Venture Finance: Introduction
17 Mar 21 Venture Finance: Founder’s dilemmas Evan Williams case
18 Mar 26 Venture Finance: Crowdfunding Kickstarter Board Game case
19 Guest lecturer series (2): IP and Legal Essentials March 30th 3:00-4:00 PM @ Lender Auditorium
20 Apr 2 Team Consultation / Team Workshop
21 Apr 4 Team Consultation / Team Workshop
22 Apr 9 Stock Option and Employment Decisions
23 Guest lecturer series (3): Live case April 13th 3:00-4:00 PM @ Lender Auditorium
24 Apr 16 Social Entrepreneurship
25 Apr 18 Exits Individual Live case
26 Apr 23 OEP Team Presentation part 1 OEP paper / presentation
27 Apr 25 OEP Team Presentation part 2
28 Apr 30 Course Wrap-up Personal business plan
*The exact schedule may change so pay attention to Blackboard

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 APPENDIX

SUBMITTING ASSIGNMENTS
All written assignments must be uploaded to Blackboard by the time indicated below on the Blackboard
homepage. No written work will be accepted unless it is uploaded on Blackboard. All presentation assignments
should be uploaded to Google Drive Folder (link to be shared) by the time mentioned below. Late assignments
will have points deducted.

Individual Assignments - These assignments MAY be discussed in teams, unless the assignment explicitly states
otherwise. However, each person must write up their own assignment and submit work that is their own. Online
assignments should be clear and concise, and expressed in the same style as case analysis submissions.

Team Assignments - Team assignments and case analyses are to be discussed as a team and then submitted via
Blackboard to the appropriate homework list. The person who submits the assignment via Blackboard should
include the team name and member names at the top of the submission. The team assignments will count towards
the team grade.

1. Professionalism & Participation (15%)

Professionalism:
Professionalism is a subjective term, so keep a couple things in mind. Please note that a “professional manner”
does not mean that you should “not speak until spoken to…” or that you should not challenge my ideas or the
ideas of your classmates. It just means that you should interact with your peers and team members in a
constructive and respectful manner. I also recommend that you and your team members talk explicitly, but not too
hypothetically, about goals and expectations up front so there aren't misunderstandings later on.

Participation:
For you to benefit most from the class material and discussion, it is important that you prepare for each class
session. I will call randomly on students of my choosing at various times during class discussions, asking specific
questions about the case. Reading the cases & text prior to class allows you to better learn from the comments of
other students in class as well as to actively participate in discussions yourself. Class participation means you have
attended class regularly, completed the assigned readings prior to each class, and actively participated in class
discussion in a professional, value-added manner. In order to participate, you are expected to speak up in class.
Do not be afraid to express your opinions in class; more so, I expect you to make mistakes and learn from each
other. This is the only way you avoid making them in the real world. Do not underestimate the importance of
participation in your final grade, as well as in the learning you take away from this class.

Students will be evaluated on their participation in classroom discussions, whether about the case under
consideration or about the topic of the lecture. The grading of classroom participation is difficult because of an
element of subjectivity not present in grading written assignments. Nevertheless, it is a vital part of the course.
Most students feel comfortable in speaking up with thoughtful comments and questions, but some do not, and I
wish to be fair to everyone. I will not be grading on “air time”, but rather on the quality of the question or
comment. Specifically, I will evaluate:
1) The frequency of your class contributions (online and in class)
2) The quality of your contributions (ability to draw on course materials and your own experience productively;
ability to advance or sharpen our discussions; willingness to take risky or unpopular points of view; use of
logic, precision, and evidence in making arguments)

Student can also participate by sending insights and articles related to course discussion topics to the instructor—I
will gladly share them with the rest of the class (with attribution). Such contributions will be considered in the
individual participation grade.
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2. Individual Case Write up (10%)

Based on a presentation by a real-life entrepreneur, you will write a memo conducting a “DWI” analysis of the
venture and its entrepreneurial opportunity. You should write the memo from the perspective of a potential
employee deciding whether or not to join the venture. You should apply the DWI framework as outlined in class
to analyze both the venture’s strengths and its current challenges.

For the purposes of the exercise, assume the following: that you are graduating from SU and have received an
offer from the venture. While there is a high-fit between your skill set and the needs of the venture, the offer is
slightly less than what you would earn at a bigger, more established company. The offer does, however, include
equity options that could be worth several times the salary if the company does well (do not worry about the
financial specifics here, just know that the payout would “sizeable”). Accordingly, in addition to applying the
DWI framework, please also draw a conclusion about your interest in joining the company based on your DWI
analysis.

Your submitted memo should be no more than one page. The assignment is an individual assignment and you
must turn in your own work. However, you can discuss the speaker’s presentation with your classmates. In
addition to the entrepreneur’s presentation, you may also draw on the venture’s webpage and any news stories
about the venture.

Note that you may have open questions that remain about certain aspects of the venture. This is fine and it’s part
of the assignment. Accordingly, also feel free to note what information you would also like to gather further –
though do be sure to restrict yourself to information that would be reasonable to obtain and questions that could
be answered.

Deliverable: Your write up of no more than one page should be submitted to Blackboard by April 18th at 12 noon.
Make sure to be clear about whether or not you would accept the offer. Also bring a HARD COPY to class.

3. Personal Business Plan Executive Summary (10%)

The entrepreneurial process is at its core concerned with “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to the
resources already under control”. This process is as applicable to your career as it is to starting a company. The
goal of this assignment is to identify where you want to be and how you will get there. Do not worry about your
current resources. Think entrepreneurially!

Your personal business plan should include a long-term vision statement, the “external” opportunities that exist,
your “internal” (personal) strengths, and a strategy for yourself and your life over the next two to three years. In
addition, please share one “failure” from your past and what you learned from it in terms of maximizing your
potential for the future.

Deliverables: The assignment should consist of a one-page write-up (in bullet points or prose) that summarizes
EACH the areas discussed below, as well as the one “failure” (and what you learned from it) wherever you feel it
best fits. This assignment constitutes 10% of your grade.

 Vision and Opportunity

1) What are your goals (career and/or educational) after you leave SU?
2) What is your purpose, your values and your mission? List the 3 key questions that guide your
choices. These should be essential questions that serve as touchstones to direct your life and
work. For instance, how can I have impact? What do I love? What do I fear? What engages my
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 passions? How do I want to be remembered? The answers to these questions may well change
over time, but when the questions themselves are fundamental they tend to last a lifetime.
3) What is the market and opportunity that align with your goals? Don't restrict yourself to matters
of career or work; think more broadly about your opportunities to make a difference.

 Marketing and Implementation Strategy

1) Create your market positioning statement. This may be directed at a hypothetical employer,
industry, organization, or the world at large.
2) What compelling value will you offer to your employers and society?
3) How will you differentiate from other SU students? How about from the broader populace?

 Risks and Mitigation

1) What are the key milestones and checkpoints in your plan?
2) How will you measure/determine if you have successfully attained these milestones? How do you
define success?
3) What external factors might affect (positively or adversely) attaining your success?
4) Develop contingency and risk mitigation strategies.

 Personal “Board of Directors”

1) If you could assemble any 3 people to advise and mentor you who would they be? They may be
alive or dead, family or world leaders, friends or strangers. Why would you choose each? Is it
their wisdom, their accomplishments, their words, their creativity, their character, their heroic
deeds………..?

Deliverable: Your write up of no more than one page should be submitted to Blackboard by April 30th at 12 noon.
Please bring a HARD Copy to class that day.

4. Peer Evaluation (5%)

60% of total grading is assigned for team grading. To help mitigate uneven work issues by team members (either
people who provide much more valuable work or others that are social loafing or “free-riding”), students will have the
opportunity to provide the instructor with peer evaluations of overall team member performance at the end of the
semester.

As an effective leader in the business world, part of your responsibility will be living up to the expectations of your
peers, employees and bosses. Thus, I expect the same. I will ask you to review your team members'
professionalism and contribution. I will also ask whether you thought there was anyone in the class who was
particularly professional or unprofessional. I will reconcile these assessments with my own opinions to come up
with a grade.

Peer evaluation forms will be provided and will ask you to assess each team member on areas of:
1) Self-management/Accountability: Includes meeting attendance, preparation for meetings and communication
2) Quality of Work & Contextual Performance: Includes quality of contributions, consideration of other members and
dispensability
3) Quantity of Work: Covers willingness to do a ‘fair share’ of necessary work

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5. Ideation Exercise (10%)

Where do the ideas for great products and companies come from? This assignment is designed to help you better
understand the process of ideation, or the way that ideas are generated and iterated upon. Because
entrepreneurship is both an individual and a team activity, this assignment will also be a chance for you to
evaluate other student’s ideas, to form a term project team, and to begin to think about the project you will pursue
this semester. You will submit a one- to two-page write up as an individual) and two-page write up, as well as a
single PowerPoint slide as a team that you will present to the class. The assignment will constitute 10% of your
course grade and has both individual and team components as outlined below.

As an individual (4/10 points):

 I will share Ideation Exercise prompts at the end of second session. Complete each prompt that before the
next session. Don’t think too hard and long on each prompt - it is fine to give them some thought, but
elaborate planning / staging is not necessary at this point. Respond with a photo, video, or text to answer a
question.
 Comment and like other student’s ideas during the 3rd class session. Actively evaluating and interacting
with other student’s ideas. Please note that I expect that all interactions will be constructive and
professional.
 Think about whom you might like to be on a term project team with, based on the ideas they have on this
assignment.

Deliverable: Your responses to prompts (less than 2 pages) should be submitted to Blackboard by January 24th at
12 noon. Please bring a HARD copy to class that day.

As a Team (6/10 points)

Each team will complete a 2-page write-up and make one PowerPoint Slide about what they have learned about
ideation via the Ideation Exercise experience.

In your write-up, you should discuss the following:

 What are the most interesting things you learned while doing this assignment? You can answer this
however you like. Some possibilities include your team dynamics, understanding what people would
actually participate in, how things would go etc. What might you do differently if you were to do this
assignment again? Why?
 What your initial reactions to the Ideation Exercise prompts were. How did your ideas change after
interacting with other students and based upon our class discussion on ideation? How do you think you
will use ideation to develop your term project?
 One member of each team should submit the write-up in Blackboard.

PowerPoint
 Each team must also submit a single PowerPoint slide to Google Drive folder (link to be shared) to
Professor Park outlining their experience. Each team will have 90 seconds to show this slide to the class
and tell about their experiences. A prize will be awarded to the audience favorite.

Deliverable: 2-page team write-up should be submitted to Blackboard by February 5th at 12 noon. Your single
PowerPoint slide should be uploaded to Google Drive folder (link to be shared) 30 minutes before the start of
class on February 5th. Please bring HARD copy for the write-up to class that day.

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6. Written Team Case Analyses (20%)

The case study is intended to give you an opportunity to apply the concepts of the course in the context of a “real”
business situation. Each of the cases is based on a key situation or event in the history of a young company. The
cases we will cover in EEE 370 are: Sirtris, IMVU, WebTV, NanoGene, Evan Williams, and Robot Turtles.

Each team should complete FOUR (out of six) case write up (5% of your grade each) over the course of the
semester. Submissions should reflect an understanding of the critical issues of the case, integrate the material
covered in class and present concise and well-reasoned justification for the stance that the group takes. Each case
analysis should consist of:
 A response to the question(s) under “Team Case Analysis” on the relevant session page of the 370
website (this is not necessarily what is shown at the end of the case itself - please refer to the session page
on Blackboard). Clearly state the decision or recommendation for action, with the appropriate supporting
arguments.
 A brief analysis of the situation and pending decision problem, as presented in the case, and as relevant to
your answer. This should be exceptionally brief and you should assume the person reading the assignment
is familiar with the details of the case.

The total length of each case analysis should be no more than two pages. Team case assignments should be
prepared as a team, but only one submission is required per group and the assignment should be submitted before
we discuss a case in class. Assignments should be submitted to Blackboard by the noon before the corresponding
session.

In general, use a bullet-point format and keep the submission short and concise.

Submission Format Guidelines

Make sure to include:
 Team Name and names of the student in the team
 First sentence should be whether or not you agree with the prompt

Style Guidelines for Case Submissions

 Avoid the following:
o Focusing too heavily on minor issues or those on which there are little data.
o Lamenting because of insufficient data in the case and ignoring creative alternatives.
o Rehashing of case data - assume the reader knows the case.
o Not appropriately evaluating the quality of the case's data.
o Obscuring the quantitative analysis, making it difficult to understand.

Typically, lower grades result from submissions that

 are not well integrated and lack clarity
 do not address timing issues
 do not recognize the cost implications or are not practical
 get carried away with personal biases and are not pertinent to the key issues
 are not thoroughly proofread and corrected
 are late
 exceed the page limit

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7. Opportunity Analysis Project (Identification and Validation) (10%)

The learning model in the course is in large part ‘learning by doing’. While the readings and in-class discussions
will provide raw material for building your discovery skills, much of the learning will come through the
ambiguous and uncertain challenges to be tackled in your group project for this course. I will ask you to study
customers in a market of your choice with the goal of identifying underlying needs and using the toolbox of skills
I will give you to discover accompanying opportunities for innovation.

Throughout the course you and your team will work together to identify a real and credible unmet need, a superior
solution to that unmet need, and a plan for further testing the problem and solution.

The project will be broken into two stages. First, your team will conduct an Opportunity Analysis Project
(OAP, as described in this document. Your goal at this stage are to identify and understand an unmet need in a
market of your choosing, to conceptualize a solution to that need, and to evaluate the solution and the unmet to
the extent possible without launching the venture or prototyping the product. In other words, the opportunity
analysis project is intended to simulate the initial phases of the entrepreneurial process, including both the
development of an idea and its preliminary (pre-market) analysis. After completing the opportunity analysis
project, the team will then engage in a second stage analysis as part of the Opportunity Execution Project
(OEP).

Guidance on Discovering an Opportunity

The first several sessions of the course are going to introduce you to a variety of different approaches to finding
opportunities. I highly recommend instead of starting with a business idea, to select an existing or rapidly growing
market, and then use the introduced tools to find an unmet need. Then let your research on the unmet need
drive your solution. My experience has been that starting with a disciplined and thorough understanding of an
unmet need consistently helps teams find more interesting and more credible opportunities.

The Scope of the Opportunity Analysis Project

Your “Opportunity Analysis Project” should articulate an unmet need, identify a credible and superior solution to
that need, and begin to analyze the attractiveness of the opportunity using the DWI framework from class and a
combination of primary and secondary sources. However, you should NOT develop either a full-fledged business
model (e.g., with the business model canvas) or begin testing the market as described in lean entrepreneurship;
you will complete those exercises as part of your “Opportunity Execution Plan”.

Note that part of the entrepreneurial process is navigating setbacks and unexpected surprises. Accordingly, you
are allowed to make changes to both your opportunity and solution between your Opportunity Analysis Project
and your later Opportunity Execution Plan.

Suggested Discovery Process

1. Identify markets of interest. Identify markets of interest to the group based on a combination of team
members’ interests, market growth, and broader social and technological trends. You may find external forecasts
and trend reports produced by consultancies, think tanks, and design firms helpful here. For instance, see
http://www.frogdesign.com/techtrends2015/ and http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends.

2. Gather primary and data to understand unmet needs in the market. Use tools such as surveys, interviews
and ethnographic observations to identify unmet needs in the market. Beginning with original, primary research
will help you better understand needs you may not have anticipated and to more fully understand the purchasing
process of potential buyers. Potential investors will also place more trust in well-conducted primary research than
in stacks of data from secondary sources. Each team is required to have each team member conduct 1 interview on

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their own, and must have a total of 8 interviews for their OAP. I highly recommend conducting interviews before
you do other data collection, as it will provide the most novel insights to you and your team.

3. Identify a target unmet need and a credible solution. Based on your primary research, identify an unmet
need on which to focus. This unmet need should be credible, and substantial enough that target customers are
willing to pay to have it addressed. Based on your research so far, begin to develop a solution that is credible (can
actually be implemented) and which is superior to existing offerings in the market place.

4. Gather additional primary and secondary data to identify a credible and superior solution. Gather
additional primary and secondary research as needed to better understand the fit between your solution and
potential customer’s unmet needs.

5. Gather data from secondary sources. Countless secondary sources exist on the web and in SU’s various
library resources. Bird Library and librarians are especially helpful. Try not to get too bogged down in financial
and accounting data. The goal here is to flesh out remaining unknowns around the size of the market, relevant
trends, and what you can learn from competitors.

* You should find mentor(s) for OAP and OEP who can assist you with the project, help you to “get you out of
the building” for research, offer “real-world” entrepreneurial advice, and provide the start of a social network in
the Syracuse ecosystem for you. Mentors are typically local entrepreneurs, investors, and others involved with
entrepreneurship. Check out places like Launchpad (http://launchpad.syr.edu/), Falcone Center
(https://whitman.syr.edu/programs-and-academics/centers-and-institutes/falcone/index.aspx), and TechGarden
(https://www.thetechgarden.com/), to find your mentors.

Final Deliverables
You will have two final deliverables for your Opportunity Analysis Project, a written summary of your project
and research and a brief in-class presentation. The material from the presentation and written executive summary
will evaluated as an integrated whole.

Written OAP
First, you and your team should present a write-up of no more than four pages describing your opportunity and
analysis (page count does not include bibliography or appendices). In essence, this report should focus on the
“Doable” aspect of the DWI framework introduced in class and in the “Bird-in-Hand”.

Your report should be structured as follows:

 A one-paragraph executive summary identifying the customer need and describing your solution
 Three pages describing your target unmet need, the research behind this unmet need, your solution, and
the research behind the credibility of this solution. Show relevant information from your research to
convince the reader that you have indeed found an unmet need, and that your solution can solve the
customer problem in a superior way to other ways customers can solve it. Note that you should only
include representative quotes or summaries of your primary / secondary research here. Some guidelines
on what to cover here:
o Customers. This is extremely important. You need to have a clear idea of who your target
customer is. The only way for you to be able to do this is to “get out of the building” and speak
with your potential customers. You will need to answer questions such as: What does the
customer need? Why does the customer need it? What is the customer using today? What is the
customer willing to pay for your solution? Why? How will you reach this customer? You should
include both primary (or first-hand) research and secondary research, emphasizing primary over
secondary.
o What industry are you addressing? Why is this market attractive? What segment of the overall
market are you pursuing? What market research data can be gathered to describe this market
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 need? What are the total industry or category sales over the past three years? What is the
anticipated growth for this industry? If this is a new market, what is the best analogous market
data that illustrates the opportunity? Project the potential market size and growth for your
opportunity.
o Solution. What is your solution? What makes your solution particularly compelling? Has anyone
tried something like this before? If so, why did they fail or succeed, and why is the opportunity
still attractive? If there are existing substitute solutions, why are customers likely to prefer your
solution? What assumptions are embedded in the viability of the solution, and why are those
assumptions realistic?
o Business Model. Now that you have discovered an opportunity and talked to potential customers,
how will you turn it into a business? How will you make money and when do you expect your
venture to be profitable? (You will get to think about this more in the Opportunity Execution
Project.).
o Competition. Who else serves this customer need? Who might attempt to serve this market in the
future? What advantages and weaknesses do these competitors and would-be competitors have?
o Bibliography – You MUST include an extensive bibliography indicating which sources (primary
and secondary) you have consulted. This does not count against your page limit.
o Appendix – include summary information for other primary research here. This is the place to
provide a broader set of quotes, or additional supporting data. Please do not include all individual
interviews or all survey responses. The appendix should be no more than 10 pages (but may be
much shorter).

Presentation
You will also pitch your opportunity and proposed solution in 5 minutes to the class.

Please NOTE
For grading I will consider your use and execution of each of the areas listed above, in addition to your creativity,
and the polished final product.

****** If you would like to use a project that you have used in a former class, or plan to use in a current class,
you must first clear it with Professor Park. ******

Due Date
Final OAP Presentations will be in class during session 15. Write-ups are due March 7th at 12 noon and
PowerPoint slides are due 30 minutes before the start of class on March 7th. You should submit your write-up to
Blackboard and your PowerPoint slides to Google Drive Folder (link to be shared). Please bring a hard copy of
your write-up to class for submission as well.

8. Opportunity Execution Project (20%)

Now that your team has identified an unmet need and conducted customer research to validate it, the Opportunity
Execution Project (OEP) is your chance to think about how you would take this from a market opportunity to a
business plan and a real company.

Your OEP should include the following components and should draw on relevant course frameworks to make a
compelling argument about how your idea should be executed:

A one-page executive summary identifying the customer need and describing your solution. Give a quick recap
of your OAP – just a reminder of your key points, the underlying evidence, and the takeaways.
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A four-page description of how this opportunity should be pursued. One page should be a Business Model
canvas, and three pages should build on the business model to address each of the following:
 Team: Analyze the team’s strengths and weaknesses for pursuing this opportunity and identify key gaps.
Who would you need on your team in order to make this venture a success? What kind of experience and
skills would your team need? How would you go about attracting them to your company?
 Partners and Allies. Who will be your major partners? How will your product or service be made? Will
your company produce all of the parts, or will it use external suppliers? How would you go about
attracting these partners and allies to work with your company?
 Funding. How would you fund your venture? Make sure to tie the source of funding to the (rough)
amount you would need to get things off the ground. Would you bootstrap, crowdfund, apply for
government grants, take money from venture capitalists, take funding from a corporate investor, etc.?
 Risk. Which type of risk (financial, technical, people, & market risk) is of most concern for your
project? Which would you choose to address first and why? How would you manage or minimize each of
the high-priority risks going forward?
 Sales & Marketing Strategy. How would you sell your product? What distribution channels would you
use? How would you create demand for your product?

Make sure to include a Comprehensive Bibliography, with separate sections for references identified for the
OAP and OEP portions of the project. There is no page limit for the bibliography

Appendices: Append any additional data (such as survey questions or results, interview questions, summary of
secondary data collected, etc.) that is referenced in your write-up. Appendices do not count against the page limit.

Mandatory Milestones & Deliverables

Presentation
Presentations are limited to 10 minutes per team. Each team member must participate in the presentation. Slides
should be in PowerPoint format. The best presentations are often the shortest and most succinct. Build on what
you have learned from your classmates’ presentations throughout the quarter.

Due Date: All teams, regardless of which day they are presenting, must submit their PowerPoint and write-ups by
April 23rd at 12 noon. This will give me time to assemble all the files and make sure everything works correctly.
Please submit the slides to the Google Drive link I will provide and submit write-up to Blackboard. You must also
bring a HARD copy of the write-up to class.

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