This seminar is about how to transform prospective business ideas into successful early stage ventures. Students will learn how to assess business opportunities, articulate their vision, create a viable business model, obtain funding as well as the importance of sustainable partnerships.
The set-up of the course is two-fold: The first part focuses on key concepts that comprise the academic subject of “Entrepreneurship” to provide a solid theoretical foundation for discussion.
In the second part of the course, students are to develop an idea for a venture of their own choosing in small teams. Based on the previous learnings, students are required to compile a business plan including sales/marketing objectives as well as financial projections. This business plan then needs to be presented to a panel of “potential investors”, followed by a challenging Q&A session.
Please let us know in the comment field if you already have a start-up idea or if you are already experienced with entrepreneurship.
Location: Zurich
Timeplan: Friday 14:00 to Sunday 18:00
Working language: English
Lecturers:
- oec. Yuan Yao: Studienstiftung Alumna, former UN Youth Delegate of Switzerland, certified lecturer/translator, Ph.D. in “International Business” with focus on entrepreneurship, serial entrepreneur (12 years of entrepreneurship experience, currently Founder and CEO of two food start-ups), professional chef & tea sommelier
- Thomas Zweifel: Rechtsanwalt, BBA HSG, LL.M. from UCLA. Thomas is an experienced business lawyer and currently works for one of the largest corporate law firms in Switzerland.
- Rayan Aebi (Guest Speaker): Studienstiftung Alumnus, BSc Mech. Eng., MSc Econ., MA Int. Mgmt@CEMS, Exec. Ed. @UC Berkley. Rayan is a Lead Venture Architect (Principal) at Stryber and a founding team member at Sparrow Ventures, he is further a start-up and digital innovation advisor as well as an Angel Investor. He previously co-founded multiple start-ups and worked as a VC Investment Associate, Rayan is also a coach, jury and advisory board member at several international accelerators and incubators (e.g. WebSummit, Kickstart etc.)
Direction: Dr. oec. Yuan Yao, discover more about her in this podcast (German) -> Link
Coordination: Dr. Sarah Beyeler
Administration: Nathalie Ellington
Number of participants: max. 20
Readings: Required readings and articles will be provided during class.
