Four Key Elements of an Entrepreneurial Venture

Course Description

Lectures

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   Lecture 1 - The Best Money Comes from Customers

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, argues that revenue generating business models are the best source of funding and that entrepreneurs should focus on generating income from customers rather than on raising VC funding.

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   Lecture 2 - Choose Venture Investors Carefully

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, suggests that when raising money, entrepreneurs should carefully select venture investors based on the quality and value of the partnership not funding terms alone. Specifically, Sahlman argues that although all VCs claim to be value-added investors, the entrepreneurs job is to find the investors who add rather than subtract value.

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   Lecture 3 - Opportunity Recognition and Leveraging One's Experience

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, provides an example of opportunity recognition by relating the story of how John Osher, the creator of the Spin Pop, leveraged his experience into a new market--spin toothbrushes. Sahlman highlights how Osher and his team took their experience and applied it in a new setting by proactively searching to identify a gap in the current market that had potential for high profit.

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   Lecture 4 - Four Key Elements of an Entrepreneurial Venture

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, talks about the four key elements of an entrepreneurial venture: 1) People, 2) Opportunity, 3) Context and 4) Deal. He illustrates with the example of John Osher who developed the spin toothbrush.

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   Lecture 5 - Changing the Game

   After discussing the four key elements of any entrepreneurial venture (people, opportunity, context and deal), William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, argues that the greatest value can be achieved by "changing the game," that is changing the relationship of the core elements to one another. Sahlman illustrates this strategy with the example of John Osher and the spin toothbrush. To change the game, Osher brought in the most relevant people for the job, experimented to find a great opportunity, and reshaped the context in which he, his team and his partner operated to quickly capture the new market.

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   Lecture 6 - Three Factors to Improve Entrepreneurial Success

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, reflects on three things that helped John Osher, the developer of the low-cost spin toothbrush, succeed. Sahlman identifies three factors: 1) Reflecting on your experience to improve your understanding, 2) Looking at the situation differently to successfully innovate, and 3) Scanning your environment to find new opportunities.

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   Lecture 7 - Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, argues that entrepreneurship is not about possessing the right psychological traits, but that it is about a way of managing that is focused on opportunity pursuit, future orientation and relentless execution regardless of the resources one actually possesses. Sahlman emphasizes that relentless execution is the most important part. There are many ideas but what matters is who most successfully executes.

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   Lecture 8 - Opportunity Driven Entrepreneurship

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, asserts that entrepreneurship is about being opportunity driven: recognizing opportunity in all types of circumstances. Specifically, being opportunity-driven is about looking at a bad situation and turning it around to see the opportunity.

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   Lecture 9 - New Ventures Must Adapt

   William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, observes that almost all entrepreneurs and their ventures must inevitably change and adapt. In all the business plans Salhman has seen, he says that almost every single business has had to change as they discover their customers, their market, etc. So the key to successful entrepreneurship is anticipating and dealing with change.

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    Lecture 10 - Managing the Risk / Reward Tradeoff

    William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, maintains that entrepreneurs must manage the relationship between risk and reward, illustrating his point with the example of John Osher, creator of the very successful spin toothbrush. Specifically, Sahlman argues that entrepreneurship is fundamentally about decreasing risks and increasing the chances of success - an issue that is fundamentally related to the people in the venture.

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    Lecture 11 - Four Qualities to Look for When Hiring

    William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, highlights for critical elements to observe in the process of hiring people: 1) Integrity, 2) References, 3) Attitude and 4) Adaptability. He highlights the importance of seeing through a resume to the core of the person underneath, one way of which is to use your network of contacts to get the back story on an individual.

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    Lecture 12 - Challenges of Hiring Good People

    William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, argues that recruiting good people is hard and while an entrepreneur is bound to make mistakes, fixing those mistakes is critical. Sahlman suggests that interviewing is difficult because of the impetus to assume the candidate is the right fit, but entrepreneurs must expend extra effort to assure they have the right person or it can cost the whole company. And in the cases where a mistake is made, entrepreneurs must be ruthless in fixing that mistake quickly.

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    Lecture 13 - Three Most Critical Elements of Venture Success: People, Customers and Sales

    William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, states that people, customers and sales are the critical ingredients of venture success. Specifically, Sahlman states that 1) Having the right people, 2) Focusing on customers rather than technology, and 3) Concentrating on sales instead of marketing are critical elements of success.

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    Lecture 14 - Teams Are More Important than Individuals

    William Sahlman, professor at Harvard Business School, asserts that although individuals are important, teams are the central unit of entrepreneurial success. Indeed, Sahlman argues that the reason why many companies succeed is because of the team, not any particular individual, and so entrepreneurs should think carefully about breaking up teams as well as the effect that replacing an individual has on a team.