One of the advantages of the
connection economy is the unlimited access we have to information. Information
is cheaper than it was in the past 50 years and this is something every
entrepreneur or startuper should leverage.
Starting up a business especially
for someone that knows little or nothing about businesses requires a lot of
research- You need to know about the market, how to build a great team, writing
a great business model, how to get funds and many other crazy stuffs.
Getting an MBA is expensive, so I
had to read a lot of books on business and attended series of
"paid-for" seminars before I launched my first business, that unfortunately
crashed after three and half months. But it is now possible to get an
extremely well-rounded business education even from the best professors in the
world without enrolling in a university or leaving your house.
Online courses may not necessarily
give you the pay boost of a traditional two-year MBA but they can give you many
of the core skills taught at top universities and business schools.
Last week I stumbled on a free
online business course from Stanford University that I think everyone starting
a business should download.
COURSE TITLE: Entrepreneurship Through The Lens Of Venture Capital
DESCRIPTION:
The
course explores how successful startups navigate funding, managing, and scaling
their new enterprise.
This
process is explored through guest lectures and mentor-ship from experienced
venture capital investors and seasoned entrepreneurs who manage these issues on
a daily basis in Silicon Valley.
Course
themes: customer value equation, board management, market strategy, company
culture, and hyper growth. This is a student initiated course.
The course covers the fundamentals for building a
successful company.While there is no set formula for building a successful
company, basic principles and general patterns are manifested in the most
successful start-ups. With assistance from experienced venture capital
investors and seasoned entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, this course proceeds
through the stages of growth and challenges experienced by startups
Why You Should Take It
The idea of getting
venture capital backing and scaling a business from nothing to an IPO sounds incredibly
intimidating. This course is an effort to explain that process, from the
perspective of the people that invest in tiny startups with the expectation of
making a massive return.
The course comes from
Stanford, which has produced its share of successful entrepreneurs, including
Sergey Brin and Larry Page. A variety of guest lecturers, both
successful venture capitalists and investors, gave advice as part of the
course.
Platform: This Material can only be accessed via iTunes.
So you need to download iTunes on your PC if you don't have it already
Here is the link to the
course -Entrepreneurship through the lens of venture capital You may also check out Stanford
Online for more courses on business and management.
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Sadiq Daniel is a certified Crazy Writer and Teens Coach that blogs on business, Self- development, Life lessons and Ideas that challenges the status quo... You can pursue him on Twitter: @sadiqspeaks LinkedIn: Sadiq Daniel and Email:Sadiqdaniel@gmail.com