Entrepreneurship and Starting New Ventures
RU innovation course
Entrepreneurship and Starting New Ventures
It is the largest course taught at RU. In the course, students in their first or second year develop their own business ideas over the course of three weeks. Students work in groups under the guidance of teachers and several experts from the business community. The course covers, among other things, business opportunities and their sources, preparation and creation of business plans, preparation and testing of prototypes, and presentations to investors.
Entrepreneurship
There is a lot of content about entrepreneurship available online.
Here you can find engaging content from Paul Graham, computer scientist, entrepreneur and investor:
Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the founders of the investment fund a16z, have written extensively over the years. You can find, e.g. old blog posts from Marc here.
Company Formation
When it comes to starting a business, raising capital, and generally bringing an idea to life, it is essential to seek advice at every step.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but it may help clarify the process.
Brad Feld is another investor who has written extensively on this topic, and is a good read. He is also one of the authors of a book (Venture Deals) used in the course.
Fred Wilson has written extensively about entrepreneurship, particularly regarding the relationship between entrepreneurs and investors. He is an investor but often speaks on behalf of entrepreneurs. It is especially interesting to skim over what he has written about VC & Technology.
Innovation
Zero to One - a very interesting and by no means traditional book on how to approach innovation from the point of view of creating something entirely new (from zero) vs scaling up something that already exists (from one up).
The Hard Thing about Hard Things - the experience of Ben Horowitz, who is the co-founder of the investment fund a16z. It is clear how unpredictable and challenging this process can be, and especially how flexible you often have to be for things to work.