Instructor Insights

Instructor Insights pages are part of the OCW Educator initiative, which seeks to enhance the value of OCW for educators.

Course Overview

This page focuses on the course 15.S21 Nuts and Bolts of New Ventures/Business Plans as it was taught by Joseph Hadzima and Joost Bonsen in IAP 2014.

This course explores the nuts and bolts of preparing a business plan and starting a new venture, and is open to members of the MIT community and to others interested in entrepreneurship. It is particularly recommended for persons who are interested in starting or are involved in a new business or venture. Because some of the speakers are judges of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, persons who are planning to enter the competition should find the course particularly useful.

January 2014 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of this course.

Course Outcomes

Course Goals for Students

For people who have never taken a course in entrepreneurship, the goal is to learn how to go about conceptualizing and starting a company.

For people who are ready to start new ventures, the goal is to give them the set of tools needed to conceptualize their companies and to put their teams together. We want them to catch the entrepreneurial virus!

Possibilities for Further Study/Careers

Participants in this course often go on to enter the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition.

 

Instructor Insights

Why do we keep doing this? Because I get emails, five and ten years after participants have taken the course from people saying, ‘I started a company, and I remembered something from the course.’ There’s some enduring value here.

—Joseph Hadzima

Below, Joseph Hadzima describes various aspects of how he teaches 15.S21 Nuts and Bolts of New Ventures/Business Plans.

 

Curriculum Information

Prerequisites

Permission of the Instructor

Requirements Satisfied

None

Offered

Every IAP

The Classroom

  • View of a lecture hall from the rear of the classroom. Chairs are affixed to the floor and are tiered. There are two aisles between three sections of seating. Blackboards at the front of the classroom.

    Room 1 of 1

    Lecture

    Class sessions were held in a large lecture hall with tiered seating and A/V equipment.

 

Assessment

MIT students may take this course for 3 units of Pass/Fail credit. Attendance at each session is required and the writing requirement must be fulfilled.

 

Student Information

58 students took this course during IAP 2014

Breakdown by Year

This is a graduate-level course.

Breakdown by Major

Typically, students from the Schools of Engineering, Science, Architecture and Planning comprise 50% of the class, while students from the Sloan School of Management make up the remaining 50%.

 

How Student Time Was Spent

During an average week, students were expected to spend 21 hours on the course, roughly divided as follows:

In Class

9 hours per week
  • Met 3 times per week for 3 hours per session; 6 sessions total; mandatory attendance.
  • Sessions featured experts from the field who spoke about different aspects of business plans and new ventures.
 

Out of Class

12 hours per week
 

Semester Breakdown

WEEK M T W Th F
1 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
2 No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled. No session scheduled.
3 No classes throughout MIT. A lecture and recitation were scheduled. A lecture and recitation were scheduled. A lecture and recitation were scheduled. No session scheduled.
4 No session scheduled. Lectures were scheduled. Lectures were scheduled. Lectures were scheduled. No session scheduled.
Displays the color and pattern used on the preceding table to indicate dates when classes are not held at MIT. No classes throughout MIT
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when lecture sessions are held. Lecture session
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when no class session is scheduled. No class session scheduled
Displays the color used on the preceding table to indicate dates when recitation sessions are held. Recitation session