Course overview
Recent research suggests that technological invention – the generation of technology-based ideas – has slowed over the past half century. At the same time, our societies need to further increase the rate at which they invest in technological innovation, i.e. the economic and societal application of technology-based ideas. The bridge between invention and innovation is most often a technology firm. Both academics and practitioners argue that there is much room for improvement in bridging the gap between technological invention and innovation. This course discusses the evidence on “how” this might be achieved.
The venturing process, also known as technology start-ups or entrepreneurship, is surrounded by many myths: Entrepreneurs are born, not made; technology-based ideas require STEM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) teams to succeed; and the venture must be based in Silicon Valley. Many of these ideas are not just myths but can be shown by evidence-based research to be wrong, potentially leading to poor decisions by scientists, entrepreneurs, businesses and policy makers. This is problematic at a macro level, for the progress of our societies.
At the micro level, this fragile bridge between invention and innovation is problematic as labor market statistics in many leading economies indicate that up to one in three people will be entrepreneurs during their working lives, and many more will work for a start-up or young company at some point.
Students will learn about the different stages of a technology venture and be exposed to recent research in competitive strategy, financial economics, innovation, organizational theory, science of science and sociology on how to think more systematically about the evaluation of ideas, scaling and eventual exit of a technology venture. As aspects of the venturing process clearly benefit from practical experience, the course will invite industry and policy experts to enrich the practical exercises and classroom discussions
Academic year
2024/25
Duration and dates
2 weeks from June 29 to July 11, 2025
Teaching format
Face-to-face on campus in Mannheim, Germany
Coordinators
Prof. Dr. Marc Lerchenmüller (Lecturer), Yvonne Hall (Intl. Affairs), Janna Ried (Intl. Affairs)
Biography
Marc Lerchenmüller holds the Assistant Professorship for Technological Innovation and Management Science at the University of Mannheim. He is also a Fellow at the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research. Professor Lerchenmüller’s research pertains to the economics of innovation and the science of science. His research has been published in top management and general science journals and has been covered by popular media, like the New York Times, the Economist, and Le Monde. Professor Lerchenmüller has served as an academic advisor on science and technology policy to the European Commission. He is a co-founder of AaviGen, a biotechnology company focused on developing next-generation gene therapies. The company completed a Series B financing round that placed it among the top ten in the industry in the year 2023 according to EY Germany. Prior to pursuing an academic career, Professor Lerchenmüller worked for the Boston Consulting Group in New York City and obtained degrees in the disciplines of financial economics and public health from Imperial College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the University of Oxford, WHU, and Yale University.
Professor Lerchenmüller will deliver the class with the support of invited academic and industry experts whose biographies will be made available on the course website.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this course a student should be able to:
While the course is built on rigorous theory and empirical evidence, the Global Innovation Challenge has a highly practical focus: How can technology ventures improve their odds to succeed?
Students will gain a deeper understanding of tech-based ventures, and the practical steps involved. By the end of the course, students’ ability to answer the following questions, among others, will have improved:
- Identify what makes an attractive technology-based venture idea
- What are characteristics of successful ventures, founders, and start-up teams
- Understand strategies for overcoming challenges in attracting resources,
g. financial and human capital - Analyze business case materials and how to make decisions based on the information
- Analyze the role of technology ventures in our economy and their broader societal applications
The learnings will be useful for students interested in eventually (co)founding or working for (technology) ventures, who wish to conduct research in the field of entrepreneurship, and students who will take up careers that require educated interaction with ventures, including investment banking, private equity, consulting, start-ups, STEM faculty, and positions in the life sciences and technology industries.
Course content
The course is taught through lectures and the case study method. Classes will be delivered in nine 3-hour blocks, spaced across the first six days of the course. To prepare case-based classes, students are expected to read the case and submit brief polls the night prior to class.
Module 1: Getting started
Class 1 | Technology ventures: What are we talking about
Class 2 | Starting-up: (Co-) founders, naming, structuring
Class 3 | Raising capital
Class 4 | Technologies that will change the world
Module 2: Scaling (and failing)
Class 5 | Protecting the idea
Class 6 | Product-market fit and pricing
Class 7 | Pivots
Module 3: Exit
Class 8 | Selling a company
Class 9 | Reflections on career development
Most of the second week of the course, will be focused on developing the final team project in partnership with a technology venture.
Course value
6 ECTS
Required background
No formal requirements, but basic knowledge in operations/supply chain management is recommended.
Assessment
Final presentation. Students’ performance in the course will be evaluated via three components: class participation and polls (30%), individual exercise on major problem identification of an example tech-based venture (10%), and the final team project (60%). *
*Class participation and polls:
On most case-based discussion days, the course will provide short online polls for students to complete the night before the next class. Responses must follow a concise format of no more than two bullet points per question. The polls will ask for students’ answers to key questions about the case, which will help to focus class discussion and assess class participation, even for those students who did not have the opportunity to speak in class.
Exercise on major problem identification:
For the final case of the first week of the Global Innovation Challenge, students are asked to identify a major problem facing the technology company as it develops. Your response will be a maximum of 200 words of written text describing (a) the situation, (b) the main problem, and (c) an idea for a possible solution. Your response may draw on the course material discussed during the first week of class.
Final team project:
By the end of class, students will produce a 12-slide annotated pitch-deck and an associated spreadsheet with a financial model for the scaling phase of a technology venture. Many of the elements of the pitch deck will be developed for a generic technology venture during the first half of class. Through interactions with an actual technology venture during the second half of class, students will tailor the pitch deck to the case at hand. The grading for the team project will solely depend on the final product. Teams that draw on learnings from the course content and can make these learnings explicit in the annotated pitch-deck will receive better grades.
The pitch-deck will follow the following format:
- Problem
- Solution
- Value proposition
- Proof-of-concept data
- Competition
- Intellectual property and other protections
- Market opportunity
- Business model
- Regulation
- Financial burn rate and runway
- Operational plan
- Funding needs
In the annotation, you should report the sources, research, and reasoning for your assumptions and hypotheses presented in the pitch deck.
Bibliography (subject to adaptation)
- Colombo, M. G., Guerini, M., Hoisl, K., & Zeiner, N. M. (2023). The dark side of signals: Patents protecting radical inventions and venture capital investments. Research Policy, 52(5), 104741.
- Gulati, R., & DeSantola, A. (2016). Start-ups that last. Harvard Business Review, 94(3), 14.
- Fleming, L., & Sorenson, O. (2004). Science as a map in technological search. Strategic management journal, 25(8‐9), 909-928.
- Lakhani, K., Klopfenstein, A. (2021). VideaHealth: Building the AI Factory.HBS No. 9-621-021. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
- Lassiter J., Sahlman W., Wasserman, N. (2014). Nantucket Nectars: The Exit.HBS No. 9-810-041. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
- Morales, A., Bayer A., Siegel R. (2023). ALL HANDS: A TALE OF TWO TERM SHEETS.Stanford No. E-822. Stanford GSB. CA: Stanford
- Nanda, R., Samila, S., & Sorenson, O. (2020). The persistent effect of initial success: Evidence from venture capital. Journal of Financial Economics, 137(1), 231-248.
- Rayport J., Rascoff S., Gonzales, G. (2022). GOAT Group: Jordans, Yeezys, and the Global Secondary Sneaker Market.HBS No. 9-820-060. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
- Sahlman, W., Nanda R., White R. (2018). Evaluating Start Up Ventures.HBS No. 9-819-039. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
- Stern, A. D., Brönneke, J., Debatin, J. F., Hagen, J., Matthies, H., Patel, S., … & Goldsack, J. C. (2022). Advancing digital health applications: priorities for innovation in real-world evidence generation. The Lancet Digital Health, 4(3), e200-e206.
- Wallace, C., Tango J. (2023). To Found or to Cofound? That is the Question.HBS No. 9-824-034. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
Extra cost
Travel & Aaccommodation, Course Fee (to be defined).
Miscellaneous information
Accommodation and travel must be arranged by the participants.
About the School
Located in the heart of Germany, the University of Mannheim, Business School is one of the leading Business Schools in Europe. It unites first-class research, internationality and a distinct orientation towards corporate practice.
Its innovative teaching methods and consistent quality management contribute to the best academic conditions.
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