Self-Paced Online Course
Entrepreneurship
What it really takes to start, fund, and steer a high-tech venture — from the first idea to the exit, and every momentum-defining decision in between.
Subscribe to Start →About This Course
The startup journey, mapped end to end
This course explores what it means to be an entrepreneur, what entrepreneurs actually do, the risks involved in forming a startup venture, and the challenges and potential rewards of the entrepreneurial path. The startup journey is discussed, a roadmap is provided, and the pros and cons of various exits — sale of the company, IPO, sale of assets, shutdown and bankruptcy — are compared and contrasted.
Business planning, business models, routes to market, and business momentum are all covered. Advanced management maneuvers — such as reinventing the company and restarting the company — are explained, giving founders the playbook to breathe new life into a stalled or failing venture.
A certificate of completion is awarded when you successfully complete the course.
Learning Objectives & Outcomes
What you'll be able to do
- ✓Generate buzz and a sense of momentum around a startup venture.
- ✓Implement management maneuvers designed to boost momentum in a startup.
- ✓Execute radical maneuvers — reinventing or restarting the company — to revive a stalled or failing venture.
- ✓Weigh the risks and challenges of high-tech entrepreneurship against the potential rewards of the career.
- ✓Anticipate the significant challenges and experiences entrepreneurs meet along the startup journey.
- ✓Write a business plan for a startup, and see why planning is essential when raising venture capital.
- ✓Appreciate how distribution channels and routes to market drive success in high-tech and other sectors.
- ✓Understand how to assemble a winning team: founders, CEO & officers, employees, contractors, board, shareholders, advisors.
- ✓Explain how power is split between shareholders, officers, managers and the board — and the special challenges foreign companies face entering the U.S. market.
Course Sections
Ten stages, in sequence
- 01Introduction
- 02Entrepreneurship Challenges & Potential Rewards
- 03Silicon Valley Entrepreneurship
- 04Alternative Routes & Destinations for the Startup Journey
- 05Assembling a Winning Team
- 06Planning & Company Navigation
- 07Business Models
- 08Routes to Market
- 09Business Momentum
- 10Business Momentum — Radical Momentum Maneuvers
Goes Well With
Build the full founder's toolkit
Entrepreneurship covers the essence of the journey, but a successful founder draws on many disciplines. These SVBS courses extend your skills where it counts most:
Sherpa · Your AI Startup Guide
Take the journey for real, with Sherpa
This course maps the startup journey — momentum, business planning, exits, and the maneuvers that revive a stalling venture. Sherpa turns that map into your route. As your AI guide, Sherpa helps you target your destination, plot your milestones, and track your momentum stage by stage, drawing on the same "Zero to IPO" methodology behind this course to keep you climbing toward your summit.
Sherpa is included with the Entrepreneur subscription ($50/month), which adds startup guidance and the Milestone Progress tracker on top of the full course library.
Get Sherpa →Ready When You Are
Start the Entrepreneurship course today
Self-paced, 34 study hours, included with your SVBS subscription alongside the full course library and Prof, your AI course tutor — and you earn a certificate of completion when you finish.
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