Laurence A. Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship : Launch It Application

Quick Links

Launch It Application

Launch It is a 10-week journey that will provide you with real world knowledge and experience in launching a startup.

This course is designed for those serious about being entrepreneurs, and not for the faint of heart. During these ten weeks, you will be expected to work on the actual launching of a start-up. You will be talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the iterative process of how a startup actually works. You'll work in teams learning how to turn a great idea into a great company. You'll learn how to use a business model to brainstorm each part of a company, and customer development to get out of the classroom to see whether anyone other than you would want/use your product. Finally, you'll see how to rapidly iterate your product to build something customers will use and buy. Each week will be a new adventure outside the classroom as you test each part of your business model and then share the hard earned knowledge with the rest of the class.

Although there is no guarantee that your project team will be working on your specific idea, we will try to construct teams from individuals with similar ideas and/or ideas that will play in similar markets. Even if your specific idea is not selected for the class, the process you will experience wil be easily replicated for any new venture.

About You

Student ID Number
Name
Major
Graduation Year
Email (please provide Drexel address):
Skill Set: (Please list all) (e.g. Finance, Programming, etc.)

About your idea

a) In one or two sentences, what is your business or idea?
b) What is the current state of your idea (concept, prototype)? How long have you been working on it? (Please provide any links, videos, models, designs, prototypes or demos if available)
c) Why is this such a good business or idea? Why should anyone be interested?
d) Is there anything in the market like this already?: Yes No
If there is a competitor, why will yours be better?
If there is nothing like this in the market today, why not?
Who are your competitors?
e) Who is your prospective customer? Provide a brief overview of the market you are intending to sell to.
f) Do you already have customers? If yes, elaborate (how many, are they paying customers, etc.)
g) Have you received any money to build this business/idea? If yes, how much and from where?
h) How is this idea going to make money, what is your revenue model? If your business is up and running, how are you making money?

Critical Success Factors

a) What are your key assumptions? (i.e. assumptions for your idea/business to work, example: Late night cookie delivery – 1) That people will eat/need cookies late at night, 2) That people will want them delivered 3) That people will pay a delivery fee…)
b) Have you done any work to-date to de-risk these assumptions? In other words, have you engaged in any activity or research to increase your confidence that your key assumptions are correct? (example: Late night cookie delivery –1) ask potential customers if they’d pay a delivery fee, 2) Look at competitors or proxy companies)
c) What do you think could go wrong over the next ten weeks, what are the primary risks?
d) Do you have any additional information you’d like to share?

More About You

a) Why do you want to be an entrepreneur?
b) What is your ultimate goal for this idea/business?
c) What do you usually do on weekends?

CONTACT INFO

Baiada Institute
3225 Arch Street
Ground Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215.895.0300
215.895.0310 (fax)