Curriculum
SLP is not a bootcamp. We want our Fellows to be the world’s best-trained Startup CEOs when they complete the program and try to create an advanced, personalized learning experience. Our faculty is a mix of Entrepreneurs, VCs, Specialists and Faculty from leading business schools, as well as our Fellows.Every year, thanks to innovative ideas and feedback from Fellows, our curriculum improves by leaps and bounds, always staying relevant and cutting edge. Here are some aspects of our curriculum which we aim to deliver mostly activity based learning through simulations, exercises, HBS and SLP Startup cases and direct individual feedback, and in rarer instances, through talks and panels.Our curriculum consists of core, electives, and reading materials that will be available starting this year to all our Fellow for life. These materials include the following:
Inspiring Personal Stories
• Personal, unplugged, inspiring, fireside-chat stories of leading entrepreneurs and innovators
Why Are We Here?
• Introduction to SLP
My journey
Present your own entrepreneurial journey, and learn about the journeys, learnings and experiences of SLP fellows and mentors
Pitch & Business Plan Evaluations
• Group evaluations of 7-minute pitches
• Business Plan evaluation by funded startups
• Learn to write short “elevator pitches”
• Idea feedback by experienced entrepreneurs and VCs
Ideation
• How We Found our Ideas – SLP Fellow Panel about how they selected their startup idea
• Ideation Workshop and Exercise – ideation process, rules of brainstorming
Business Plan & Business Model Canvas
• Feedback on pitches
• Business model canvas
Financial Models
• Financial Model exercise – P&L and Cash Flow Statements Exercise (what’s wrong with this model)
• What’s wrong with these models: Play Associate at VC firm
• Best practice models for various industry sectors
• Feedback on Fellow models
Lean Startup Strategy & Customer Development
• Understanding your customer needs and applying the principles of “Lean Startup Strategy”
• Increasing Traffic, Finding Partners
• Finding your first customer
Product Day & Customer Day
• Using Agile Strategy to select markets and understand customer needs
• Generating Customers – Business Development and Sales
• Product Feedback and Demos
• Design
So You Have a Business Plan – Now What? Operational Nuts & Bolts
• Dig into the nuts and bolts of getting started and building your company – Incorporation Options, Accounting & Payroll, Human Resources, Insurance
• CEO advice on surviving the first 18 months of your company
Leadership
• All about leadership
• Exercises to learn and open discussions on leadership style, issues
Cofounder Conflict
• Harvard Business School case on co-founder conflict
• SLP Cases in Co-founder Conflict
Cases in Startups & Creativity
• Problem-solving around real life cases of problems being faced by Fellows
• Two games focussed around creative problem solving
Doing Deals with Corporations
• A discussion on the complicated relationship of dealing with larger companies and your options – licensing, commercial agreement, investment, or acquisition – when dealing with them.
• A simulation game where teams try to get a licensing deal, commercial agreement or acquired by big companies. Learn the technical issues.
Termsheet Competition
• Simulation exercise where each cohort will act as a startup and will receive term sheets from “venture funds”. Cohorts will negotiate and close a venture round investment, and the cohort negotiating the best deal wins.
• Understand financial models, the drivers within them, and look at various “what if” scenarios
• Review the basics of term sheets
Venture Capital Competition
• Simulation exercise where you play a VC, spend a day doing due diligence, negotiate termsheets, and then present reports to investment committees who are real VCs who play limited partners of funds. An eye-opening game that teaches entrepreneurs to think like investors.
Selling your Company
• Learn from real-world stories of entrepreneurs who successfully built and sold their companies.
• Also understand the legal terminology and ramifications of the selling process from an attorney.
Meet the Investors
• An evening meeting investors and either short pitches and a discussion or a speed meeting session to get feedback on current problems
Where Do We Go from Here?
• Reflection by SLP Fellows on SLP, their entrepreneurial journeys, paying it forward, and next steps.
• Advice from SLP Mentors
Graduation
• Its time to party !
