The Entrepreneurial Fellows Program -An experiment in Education

Dr. Kenneth A. PickarStanley Johnson Professor

Visiting Professor of Mechanical Engineering

California Institute of Technology

October 21, 2001X4185, [email protected]

www.its.caltech.edu/~kpickar

The Entrepreneurial Fellows Program

-An experiment in Education

mailto:[email protected]

The Caltech/ Art Center Entrepreneurial Fellows Program

Environment

Caltech- a small institution in Pasadena known for educating students in Science and Math

Art Center- a small institution in Pasadena known for educating students in Design


Many Caltech and Art Center students are interested in Entrepreneurship – Started their own company– Joined somebody else's

Caltech and Art Center have considerable resource to assist these students– Some Courses and Clubs– Technology Transfer Office– Industrial Relations Center– Extensive networks in and outside region– Tradition of Entrepreneurship

Candidate Solutions“Just do it”

“Entrepreneurship cannot be taught; it has to be learned by making mistakes in the “real world”

Partially true but. . .

Get an MBATwo years plus 2-3 years previous business experience$$$

Join a large company and attend training programsCompanies do not necessarily offer entrepreneurial

programs

Self studyHuge library available but- where to begin?More than book learning is required


Then, what’s the problem?

There exists a gap- a big gap- between a student’s business knowledge and what is required to start a company

There is a cultural impedance mismatch between the academic culture of Caltech and Art Center and the business culture of the outside world


To address this, we created the EFP last year

a “boot camp” for intense education in business

Characteristics

-9 month

-Post-Grad

-Team Based

-Mentors

-Fellows receive stipend, business expenses

-No degree or certificate awarded


Experimental curriculum

-Orchestrated practitioner/ instructors-Learn/Do

-Integrated Caltech Courses

-Charettes

-Tech Coast Angel Meetings

-Team building

-Fellows act as TAs in Entrepreneurial Class


• Strategy and Leadership• Team Building• Communication and Presentation Skills• Marketing• Intellectual Property and Business Law• Finance and Accounting• Capital Acquisition• Human Resources• Product Design and Management of Technology

Curriculum Learn/Do modules

BUSINESS PLAN

HOLD

Investment

STEERING COMMITTEE

Advice,Oversight

INDUSTRY EXPERTS / FUNDING COMMUNITY /

EDUCATION NETWORKING MENTORING

SE

LE

CT

ION

PR

OC

ES

SBUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PATH

TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY

LEARN/DOMODULES

9 MOS. FELLOWSHIP

CALTECH TECHNOLOGY

BUSINESS INSIGHT

FORMFORMTEAM

CALTECH/ART CENTER

STUDENTS

WriteProposal

Organization and Process


.

Teams chosen through a competitionBubble Imaging Technologies three-dimensional liquid motion technology for dynamic displays

Centoid

economic algorithms that will make the collection of small

sums of money over the Internet extremely efficient

KnowNetInternet communication system for forming "trust networks"

Synthesized Animationreal-time motion synthesis software for easier computer animation


•The first group of Fellows will be ending at the end of March

–Celebration and Introspection

•We are in the selection process for the second group of Fellows

–Looking for business viability

•We are planning some changes for this next group

Where are we now?


Educational Mission Fulfilled

Large network of Instructors vetted

Major cultural issues resolved

Model for second year

What have we accomplished?


Affordability

Should you pay entrepreneurs?

Lessons Learned


Organizational

•Too many (part-time cooks)

Lessons Learned


Big cultural issues need lots of time for resolution- what a surprise!

•Art Center/Caltech approaches differ

• Students are well. . . Students

Lessons Learned


•Affordability issue

Remedy: Pay less, reduce from 9 months to 6 months

•(Dis) Organizational issue

Remedy: One Leader in charge

•Cultural Issues

Remedy: Increased sensitivity

Lessons Learned


Lessons Learned

Student Application Process

Initial impact- widespread confusionWhat’s a prototype business plan?

What’s a business plan?

What’s a business?

Expectations Delivery Capacity

Remedy: coaching and iteration


•Expect “breakage”–Teams–Business approaches

•Increase structure- particularly expectations

Lessons Learned


The Fellows

Caltech

Boris Axelrod, Eagle Jones, Fred Romberg,, Yasufumi Shiraishi, Serge Sverdlov, Robert Sneddon

Art Center

Matthew Carroll, Joey Jones, Dan Schenck

Acknowledgementsa case study in reverse leverage

Sponsors – NSF, NCIIA, Mellon Ventures, Motorola Corporation, Intel, Microsoft, Convergent Ventures, ITU Ventures, Sienna Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, California Technology Ventures, Gemstar

Acknowledgements


Steering Committee – David Baltimore, Richard Koshalek, Richard Murray, David Goodstein, Michael Dobry, John Ledyard, Ron Jernigan, Larry Gilbert, Abe Zerem, Puneet Newaskar, Rohit Shukla, Eric Dysart, Jonah Schnel, Larry Gilbert, Phil Weilerstein,

Working Committee – Richard Murray, Michael Dobry, Tony Luna, Steve Diskin, Andy Davidson, Dan Frydman, Dean Schonfeld, Simon Niedenthal, Kit Baron

Visiting Lecturers – Tony Luna, Kimberley Heart, David Zuckerman, Rich Wolf, Dan Frydman, Andy Davidson, Steve Diskin, Chris Halliwell, Patty Burke, Tim Bailey, Bob Michelet, Ken Deemer, Bill Davidow, Jim Brown, Dave Anderson, Brenda Laurel, William Deverell, John Glanville, Sara Hammes, Bill Jenkins, Mark DeFond, Bill Thomson

Mentors – Jim Brown, Andy Davidson, Steve Diskin, Geoff Wardle

Administrators – David Zuckerman, Peter Mendenhall, Renee Rottner, Elliott Andrews, Marionne Epalle, Kathryn Shaw, Grant Stafford, Amit Kenjale, Jin Park, Scott Payne

Video documentary – La Mer Walker

Acknowledgements


Documents

The Entrepreneurial Fellows Program -An experiment in Education