MANAGEMT 490 - Duke New Ventures Clinic

This course spans Term 1 and 2.

Course Overview

The Duke New Ventures Clinic ("DNVC") is part of a broadly coordinated, university-wide effort to provide institutional support for entrepreneurial activity within the university. The course provides students the opportunity to participate in an attempt to start a new venture out of Duke-based intellectual property. The course is intended for students interested in becoming entrepreneurs, working in venture capital or other positions related to start-up and early-stage companies, or who are interested in understanding the process of entrepreneurship.

The goal is to assist in launching actual companies, including market identification, technology assessment, strategy development, team formation, financing strategy and securing seed capital for these projects. The technologies will be identified in cooperation with Duke's Office of Corporate and Venture Development.

Student teams will be formed to work with Duke researchers on the commercialization of technologies developed at Duke. Under the supervision of an experienced entrepreneur and venture capitalist, student teams will produce complete business assessments and plans. Each team will prepare a business idea for submission to the venture capital community. The plans will be expected to cover market analysis, go to market strategy, definition and protection of competitive advantage (including IP protection), organization design, operating plan and financial plan (including capitalization). Teams will be collectively responsible for all of the work.

The class will meet roughly weekly. In addition, teams will have regular meetings with the instructor. The course is completely focused on developing the business plans. There may be additional readings based on the needs of the teams. Students are expected to share ideas from their previous course work or work experience. Significant class discussion will be devoted to the critical issues of leadership and team building.

All DNVC projects will be undertaken in accordance with the University Intellectual Property and Patent Policies. Neither DNVC nor student participants will maintain any proprietary rights to the subject matter of the projects or the work product emanating from the program. Students may be asked to sign confidentiality agreements and other similar agreements in order to participate in these projects. Second year standing is required.