Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 3 sessions / week for 2 weeks, 3 hours / session

Prerequisites

No prerequisites for this course other than having an interest in entrepreneurship.

Course Information

This Independent Activities Period (IAP) Course 15.S21 was formerly known as 15.975.

Purpose of Course

The nuts and bolts of preparing a Business Plan and Starting a New Venture Plan was explored in this 25^th annual course offering. The course is open to members of the MIT Community and to others interested in entrepreneurship. It is particularly recommended for persons who are interested in starting or are involved in a new business or venture. Because some of the speakers are judges of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, persons who are planning to enter the Competition should find the course particularly useful. In the past approximately 50% of the class has been from the Engineering / Science / Architecture Schools and 50% from the Sloan School of Management.

Grading and Course Credit

• MIT students may take this course for 3 units of Pass / Fail Credit.
• Attendance at each session is required (unless otherwise approved) and the writing requirement must be fulfilled.

Calendar

SES #	TOPICS	SUBTOPICS	KEY DATES
1	Part 1: Introduction and Overview of Business Plans Speaker Joe Hadzima	Introduction to Business Plans Introduction to Virtual Ink	Team Building
	Part 2: Refining and Presenting Your Venture Idea Speaker Stephen Pearse	Presenting Your Idea
2	Part 1: Marketing and Sales Speaker Bob Jones	This session discusses issues and provided guidance on how to approach the marketing section of your business plan.
	Part 2: Business Models Speaker Rich Kivel  Serial Healthcare  Industry Entrepreneur	This session discusses some common business models and when are they most appropriately used.
3	Part 1: Financing Sources Panel Speakers Axel Bichara  Amir Nashat  Julianne Zimmerman	Bootstrapping the early stages Funding from the 3 F’s Angels Private placements Customer financing Consulting Venture capital Bank financing
	Part 2: Financial Projections Speaker Charlie Tillett	This portion of the program introduces some financial projection techniques based on actual business experience.
4	Part 1: Founder’s Journey Speaker Ken Zolot Panel Gihan  Amarasiriwardena  Nina Dudnik  John Harthorne	The speaker along with a panel of entrepreneurs provides an overview of important questions to explore when embarking upon starting a company.	Executive Summaries Due
	Part 2: Legal Issues Speaker Joe Hadzima	Intellectual Property Law-Patents Copyrights Trademarks and Tradesecrets Major hidden tax traps in starting a business General questions and answers on legal issues for the entrepreneur
5	Part 1: Negotiation Skills Speakers Mindy Garber  Victoria Bennet	Interactive presentation
	Part 2: Organizational and People Issues Speaker Joost Bonsen	Building an External Team and an Internal Team Developing and implementing a philosophy for the business
6	Pitfalls and Plan Execution Speaker Yonald Chery	What really happened to Virtual Ink	Writing Assignment Due