Starting a business? Start here.
Entrepreneurship 101 is a free, non-credit, introductory course by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.
Over 30 weeks, Entrepreneurship 101 takes you through the fundamental steps of building a business, covering everything from business structures to strategic marketing to market intelligence to funding models―and more!
Join us for our inspiring introductory lecture to see how the course educates, motivates and connects aspiring and existing entrepreneurs. We talk about why entrepreneurship matters in today’s world, what makes entrepreneurs successful and how you can transform your idea into a business.
9. Tonight’s Agenda
I. Why entrepreneurship matters
II. About MaRS
III. What is entrepreneurship?
IV. Do you have what it takes?
V. Can entrepreneurship be taught?
VI. Course overview
VII. Up-Start! Competition
VIII. Other resources
IX. Finding and validating your idea
X. Stamp cards
11. Why entrepreneurship matters
- Innovation and entrepreneurship drive productivity and global
competitiveness"
- The majority of new jobs in modern economies are created "
by firms that are less than 5 years old "
- 4-10% of startups become high growth firms – they create "
most new jobs, and they create them faster
12. Young high growth firms create
the majority of new jobs in
modern economies.
13. II. About MaRS
- MaRS is focused on building the next generation of Canadian companies.
We help entrepreneurs start and grow successful new companies, creating
the jobs of tomorrow.
- We connect science, business and capital to improve "
the efficiency and output of the commercialization process.
- MaRS is connected to 16 regional innovation centres that are "
part of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE).
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17. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art
Royal Ontario Museum
Women’s College
The MaRS Centre
UHN Toronto General"
Hospital for Sick children
Entertainment District
Four Seasons Centre
University of Toronto
UHN Princess Margaret
Mount Sinai
Art Gallery of Ontario
Royal Conservatory of Music
TIFF & OCAD
Financial District
Toronto Rehab
Ryerson University
MaRS: Urban innovation hub
Linking Toronto’s creative and business assets!
19. How do we help entrepreneurs?
Acceleration programs for high growth firms !
Business
Advice & Mentorship
Market
Research
High Growth Firms
Networks | Talent | Customers | Partners
Networks | Talent | Customers | Partners
Access to Capital
Business Advice &
Mentorship
Market "
Research
Entrepreneurship"
Education
20. MaRS Entrepreneurship Programs
Events!
Online !
Resources!
Workshops!
Comprehensive suite of "
integrated, high quality
educational programs to support
Ontario entrepreneurs through
the different stages of growing
their businesses.
21. Memory at Work
Pg 21"
Our Programs
"
Largest and most comprehensive entrepreneurship education
in the world
• 60 events/year
with 11,000 attendees
in 2012
• 120 workshops
delivered to 1,500
attendees in 2012
• 18 workbooks
• 500 articles
• 850 videos
• 1,000,000 page views
• 300,000 video views
WORKSHOPS
EVENTS
ONLINE
RESOURCES
22. Entrepreneurship and innovation series
Entrepreneurship 101 | MaRS Best Practices | MaRS Market Insights
MaRS Global Leadership | MaRS Startup Bookclub | MaRS Future Leaders
Entrepreneur’s Toolkit Workshops
179!
Number of entrepreneurship
educational events programmed "
and delivered in 2012
12,415!
Number of MaRS
entrepreneurship education
attendees in 2012
18,995!
Hours of live education
provided to entrepreneurs
in 2012
24. How do we help entrepreneurs?
Acceleration programs for high growth firms !
Business
Advice & Mentorship
Market
Research
High Growth Firms
Networks | Talent | Customers | Partners
Networks | Talent | Customers | Partners
Access to Capital
Business Advice &
Mentorship
Market "
Research
Entrepreneurship"
Education
25. Who do we work with?
MaRS Business Advisory Services!
SECTORS
SUPPORT
ADVISORS
Health | ICT | Cleantech | Social
Due Diligence
Financing
HR & Talent Mgmt
Intellectual Property
Market/Competitive Intelligence
Marketing & Sales
Corporate Governance
Financial Management, Accounting, Tax
Legal
Product Development and Marketing
Operations and Process
Strategic Partnerships
Strategy and Business Planning
MaRS Advisor | EIRs | Volunteers
26. MaRS Advisory Services
Clients by sector! Information Technology,
Communication and
Entertainment"
46%
Materials and "
Advanced Manufacturing"
5%
Cleantech"
18%
Social Purpose"
14%
Life Sciences and
Healthcare"
17%
• 1,200+ active clients
receiving "
Advisory Services"
• ~65% in GTA
28. III. What is entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship: individuals identify
opportunities, allocate resources, and create
value through the identification of unmet needs
or opportunities.
Social entrepreneurship is identifying a social
problem and using entrepreneurial principles to
organize, create, and manage "
a venture to make social change.
“The purpose of a business is to find and serve customers profitably.”
—Peter Drucker
29. “If people aren't calling you crazy, you
aren't thinking big enough.”
—Richard Branson
30. IV. Do you have what it takes?
Entrepreneurs’ capabilities (Five Minds for the Entrepreneurial Future):
1. Opportunity recognizing mind
2. Designing mind
3. Risk managing mind
4. Resilient mind
5. Effectuating mind
31. The key traits of a serial entrepreneur
Based on a control group of 17,000 working adults, serial!
entrepreneurs tested above or below average in the!
following skills: !
Above or below the control group’s average
Persuasion
Leadership
Personal accountability
Goal orientation
Interpersonal skills
Analytical problem solving
Empathy
Planning & organizing
Self-management
+1.17
+1.02
+.86
+.48
+.03
-.20
-.80
-.80
-.80
SOURCE TARGET TRAINING INTERNATIONAL | HBR.ORG
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“Most of what you hear about entrepreneurship is
all wrong. It’s not magic; it is not mysterious; and it
has nothing to do with genes. It’s a discipline and,
like any discipline, it can be learned.”
—Peter Drucker
37. How entrepreneurship education
has changed
1. Business plans rarely survive their first contact with customers/market. Long
range forecasts in multiple areas of uncertainty are essentially fiction.
2. Startups are NOT smaller versions of large companies. Startups must search for
a business model and product/market fit.
3. New tools and methodologies specifically for startups are being developed:
Steve Blank’s Customer Development, Eric Ries’ Lean Startup, and
Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas.
38. Startups evolve through
discrete stages of
development
The Startup Genome stages:
-Discovery (the value of the innovation is assessed)
-Validation (first customers are acquired)
-Efficiency (the business model is refined) and
-Scale (where growth is aggressive).
Ideation
Discovery
Validation
Efficiency
Scaling
39. The impact of mentors
Startups with a mentor raise significantly more money!
$0"
$500,000"
$1,000,000"
$1,500,000"
$2,000,000"
$2,500,000"
$3,000,000"
$3,500,000"
$4,000,000"
Discovery" Validation" Efficiency" Scale"
Have Helpful Mentors
Don't Have Helpful Mentors
40. Searching for a business model is different
than executing against one
41. Searching for a business model is different
than executing against one
Startups
42. Searching for a business model is different
than executing against one
Startups
Established businesses
43. Lean definition of a startup: !
A temporary organization designed to
search for a repeatable and scalable
business model
44. How can this course help you?
- We can’t create entrepreneurial drive that desire has to come from
you"
- What we can do is help you accelerate your ideas and build your "
company by providing you with tools, advice, and networks to help
45. VI. Course overview
Entrepreneurship 101 is a 30-session weekly lecture series with:!
- 23 lectures on key topics related to starting and growing a business"
- 2 ‘Lived It Lectures’ with celebrated entrepreneurs
- 4 ‘Meet the Entrepreneurs’ events: sector-specific panel session "
with startup entrepreneurs
- The ‘Up-Start! Competition’: business pitch competition to recognize and reward
promising participants
46.
47. The Modules: Our building blocks
- The Journey Begins"
- Model: How you’ll make money"
- Market: Targeting your market"
- Management: Building your team"
- Money: Funding your business
48. The journey begins
- Finding/validating your idea"
- Different types of entrepreneurship"
- Nuts and bolts of starting a business"
- Intro to entrepreneurial management"
- Value proposition"
- Product development
49. Model: How you’ll make money
- IP management"
- Business model"
- Business plan and other "
communication tools
51. Management: Building your A team
- Board/Governance"
- Financial planning"
- Recruiting"
- Entrepreneurial leadership
52. Money: Funding your business
- Bootstrapping"
- Terms of investment"
- Raising money from VCs"
- The pitch
53. Following Entrepreneurship 101
1. Attend the live events (get stamps for certificate)"
2. Watch the live webcasts: www.marsdd.com/ent101-webcasts "
3. View past videos and other resources online: www.marsdd.com/ent101-online"
4. Join the Entrepreneurship 101 LinkedIn Group for related "
resources and conversations."
5. Weekly e-newsletters are sent to registrants of the live course.
54.
55. VII. The Up-Start! Competition
MaRS Business Advisory Services!
Business pitch competition open to Ent 101 participants:!
- Stage 1: Those interested in the competition will be invited in November to
attend a series of Entrepreneur’s Toolkit Workshops to help them prepare their
application.
- Stage 2: Apply for the competition in early February. Ten individuals (or teams)
will be selected by end of February.
- Stage 3: Selected participants work with MaRS Advisors on their pitch in March
and April.
- Stage 4: Competition in May (10-minute pitch to panel of investors) for $15,000
first prize.
56. Up-Start! Competition eligibility
- Participants must be registered in Ent 101 and have attended at least 20
sessions (20 stamps or watched 20 live webcasts or combination thereof)"
- Can be a business you wish to start or have already started"
- Since inception, entrants must have received no more than $100K investment
money and earned no more than $100K in cumulative revenue"
- Eligible ventures must fall into one of four categories: ICT (ICE), cleantech,
social ventures, or life sciences and be able to work with an advisor from the
ONE network
57. Up-Start! Competition past winners
- 2013: TrendyMED - invented the MobileIV infusion device
- 2012: LifeBike – lightweight electric bike
- 2011: Eve Medical (medical device to test for STDs at home) and The Hot Plate
(multimedia platform for quick, simple, affordable cooking)
- 2010: Shape Collage – automatic photo collage maker
- 2009: Dreamcube – working with Apple on UiRemote (turns iPhone into universal
remote)
- 2008 (2nd): CognoVision – Acquired by Intel in 2010, their interactive digital
signage changes screen content in real time based on face detection and
tracking technology
63. The Funding Portal Search Tool
A new tool in the Entrepreneur’s Toolkit to help !
entrepreneurs connect to more than $30 billion!
in funding sources!
Three easy steps to access:!
- $30 billion in more than 7,000 total
funding sources updated 24/7
- 4,500 government sources in the
form of grants, contributions and
tax credits"
- 2,500 private sources, including
angel investors and venture
capitalists, private equity and bank
financing, and foundations and
alternate financing
64. Entrepreneur’s Toolkit Workshops
Suggested workshop path:
Pg 64"
• 5 hands on workshop series facilitated by experienced
entrepreneurs for groups of 9-15 entrepreneurs
individually or together as an intensive program
• Offer entrepreneurs tools, mentoring and peer feedback
to solve specific problems and build essential business
components
66. IX. Finding your idea
Steven Johnson’s ‘Where Good Ideas Come From’
67. Where ideas come from
- Solve problems; create products you would use
- Iterate: Ideas are not always flashes of insight, they are often developed and
refined over time
- Reassemble: Creativity is often the act of reassembling many known elements in
new ways
- Collaborate: Talk and listen to those around you
- Ask questions: Find the customer problem and then develop the solution
68. Validating your idea
- Validation is testing your value proposition and other assumptions inherent in
your business model in the market.
- Remember startups are searching for a business model, not executing one:
validation is key to their survival and success.
- “There is only one boss. The customer. And they can fire everybody in the
company from the chairman on down, simply by spending their money
somewhere else.” - Sam Walton
- The number one reason start-ups die is because they didn’t have enough
customers.
69. Customer development
Get out of the building! Talk to your customer/s: !
- Learn more about the problem
- Does your solution solve it?
- Is the problem a ‘bleeding neck wound’ meaning a real problem that they are
they willing to pay to solve?
- Can you build it economically?
- Can you sell it profitably?
The goal is to achieve product/market fit via trial and error early on in the
development of your product. !
71. Why startups are hard
1. High costs of getting first customer
2. High costs of getting first product right
72. Why startups are hard
1. High costs of getting first customer
2. High costs of getting first product right
3. Long technology/product development cycles
73. Why startups are hard
1. High costs of getting first customer
2. High costs of getting first product right
3. Long technology/product development cycles
4. People not always willing to take risks
74. Why startups are hard
1. High costs of getting first customer
2. High costs of getting first product right
3. Long technology/product development cycles
4. People not always willing to take risks
5. Finding financing – structure of VC industry, competition
75. Why now is a good time
1. Entry barriers not as limited by technology
76. Why now is a good time
1. Entry barriers lowered by technology
2. 98% of startups bootstrapped
77. Why now is a good time
1. Entry barriers lowered by technology
2. 98% of startups bootstrapped
3. Can reduce risk with customer development/lean startup
78. Why now is a good time
1. Entry barriers lowered by technology
2. 98% of startups bootstrapped
3. Can reduce risk with customer development/lean startup
4. Communities to help
79. Why now is a good time
1. Entry barriers lowered by technology
2. 98% of startups bootstrapped
3. Can reduce risk with customer development/lean startup
4. Communities to help
5. Decentralization of funding (crowdsourcing, accelerators, impact investing)
80. Why now is a good time
1. Entry barriers lowered by technology
2. 98% of startups bootstrapped
3. Can reduce risk with customer development/lean startup
4. Communities to help
5. Decentralization of funding (crowdsourcing, accelerators, impact investing)
6. Availability of tools and information online
81. X. Stamp cards
Pick up your attendance card on the way out. To register it, send your
name and card number to: entrepreneurship101@marsdd.com.
Attendance to 20 out of 30 lectures (or watching live webcasts) required for
certificate and/or participation in Up-Start! Competition.