Entrepreneurship 101 and 102 are MOOC courses by MIT that intend to teach Entrepreneurship.
The courses cover two primary sections from the book Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful startup -
- 101 - Who is your customer? (blue section)
- 102 - What can you do for your customer? (red section)
I am working my way through the 101 course right now. In the past I’ve made attempts at starting a business and failed for various reasons. Because of my engineering mindset, I’ve always wanted to jump directly into implementing a solution without necessarily thinking about the viability of the business. The book and the course are especially pertinent to me for this reason.
Myths
Some of the myths about entrepreneurship that are debunked are-
- Entrepreneurs are born not made - Teaching the process is the aim of the course.
- Individuals start companies - (Diverse) Teams start companies. I’ve not been able to get more people involved in my earlier ventures.
- Smartest people start companies - Focused & dedicated people are needed.
- Charismatic - Vision, Systematic thinking, Strong analytical skills, Humility and Ambition and Disciplined execution skills.
- Love risk - Calculated risk is the key.
- Undisciplined - In fact need great execution skills.
101 goals
In the first course, the goal is to figure out who the customer is. Some of the key points mentioned are-
- Getting paying customers is a necessity
- Brainstorm ideas and then narrow to a beachhead market where you can start the attack.
- Talk to people and figure out their pain points.
- Focus is emphasized multiple times because at the start a team has very limited bandwidth.
- Figuring out the TAM.
- Build an end-user profile and persona. This will help maintain focus on who the customer is.
Conclusion
The course and book definitely add a lot of structure to the process of starting a business. It helps understanding areas of risk and the importance of focus. The assignments also involve field work of going out and talking to real people, potential customers.
Now the only thing that remains is actually following the steps and starting a business!