FOU NDATIONAL COURSE I N EN T R EP R EN EUR SHI P

(FIRST OF THE TWO-PART SERIES)

A practitioner’s course to empower college students with an entrepreneurial mindset and business skills

to enhance their job prospects, encourage intrapreneurship, and drive long-term entrepreneurship
 FOU NDATIONAL COURSE I N EN T R EP R EN EUR SHI P
(FIRST OF THE TWO-PART SERIES)

A practitioner’s course to empower college students with an entrepreneurial mindset

and business skills to enhance their job prospects, encourage intrapreneurship, and

drive long-term entrepreneurship

CO U R S E G OA LS COURSE OVERVI EW

Students will develop an entrepreneurial
mindset through this two-course program.
In this first course, students will:
• Learn the concepts and develop
skills for identifying new business
opportunities and creating innovative
products and services.
• Learn how to translate these
products/services into viable and
sustainable businesses.
This course is the first of a two-part entrepreneurship
development curriculum from Wadhwani Foundation. The aim
of this course is to equip students to develop an entrepreneurial
mindset and become future entrepreneurs. It is designed to
help them learn and practice the skills necessary to identify and
develop an opportunity into a new venture.
In this course, the students will learn about themselves, the risks
and rewards in choosing entrepreneurship as a career option,
and how to identify new business opportunities and quickly
validate them by building a series of prototypes of their product/
service and test it with an initial set of customers.

• The course journey includes ideation

to a prototype and early customers.
COURSE PEDAGOGY

This course follows Wadhwani Foundation’s “Watch-Think-Do-

Explore -Collaborate” pedagogy in a highly experiential learning
TA R G E T AU DIE N C E format.

Any 3rd or 4th year undergrad or

WATCH - Provides the concepts and frameworks through a
graduate student.
concept video or animation

THINK – Exercises and class activities encourage students to

reflect on the concepts presented and internalize them

Foundational Course In Entrepreneurship 2


The aim of this course is to
equip students to develop an
entrepreneurial mindset and
become future entrepreneurs.
K EY L E A R NIN GS
• Self-assessment to determine if
entrepreneurship is for them
• Identify, analyze and validate new
business opportunities
• Create and define competitive
advantage
• Business models
• Team building
• Revenue, costs, and profits
• Financing new ventures
• Sales and Marketing basics
• Basics of business regulations and
compliances
• Project management basics for
tracking activities/progress
• How to get help to get started
Foundational Course In Entrepreneurship
DO – Activities and assignments in the context of a practice
venture for students to learn from experiencing entrepreneurship
EXPLORE - Additional reference material to dig deeper for
motivated students
COLLABORATE - Forums and social learning for students to
interact with others to further expand learning
The center of this pedagogy is the “Do.” Several real-world
experiences and activities are integrated into the pedagogy to
strengthen the concepts learned during the program and ensure
that the overall approach is highly experiential.
COURSE ORGANI ZATI ON
During this course, students will learn the key concepts through
online videos and activities, facilitated by a trained instructor
in the classroom. Each lesson also includes quizzes and
assignments to help the students self-assess their understanding
of the concepts covered.
The students will build a venture as they progress through this
course, applying the tools and concepts that they learn. All the
activities, assignments, and the Capstone Project are in the
context of their practice venture. The students are supported by
a trained mentor or venture coach in this journey.
LEARNI NG APPROACH
• Students work on a practice venture as they progress
through the course. This starts with the Foundational Course
in Entrepreneurship and continues in the second course.
Students form teams, invest a small amount of money in a
practice venture, and run it on campus.
3
 • This course follows the Lean Startup approach and uses the
Lean Canvas as a tool to quickly capture the business model
on a single page and go to an initial set of customers to
validate the key assumptions.

COURSE MATERI ALS AND PLATFORM

• All lessons are delivered as online videos accessible using

Wadhwani Foundation’s LearnWise™ platform.

• Reference materials for students can be downloaded from

the platform.

• Faculty notes and reference materials can also be

downloaded.

COURSE REQUI REMENTS

• Broadband Internet connection (minimum of 10 MBPS or

faster)

• Access to LearnWise™ platform

Quizzes and Assignments

CLASSROOM (Core) CLASSROOM (Flex)
(Including practice venture)

36 hours 12 hours 60 hours

Foundational Course in Entrepreneurship 4

 LESSON COVERAGE ACTIVITIES

• Identifying your strengths • Watch videos

Self-Discovery
• Effectuation and how it can help you get • Group activity

started • Case study

• Identifying your entrepreneurial style using

Wadhwani Foundation’s 5M model

• Identify problems worth solving through JTBD • Watch videos

Opportunity Discovery
• Introduction to design thinking; using empathy • Group activity
to further flesh out the problem identified • Group discussion
• Validate the problem by running interviews • Field activity (Run problem
• Seek solutions to the problem via interviews with prospects/
brainstorming potential customers)
• Do a back-of-the-envelope calculation to find
out the viability of the business solution

Customer and Solution
• Understand who is the customer, who is the • Watch videos
consumer, what are the market types • Group activity
• Identify customer segments and niche • Group discussion
• Identify jobs, pains, gains, and early adopters,
and use them to craft your value proposition

• Establish your venture’s unique value

proposition and competitive advantage

• Basics of Business Model and Lean Approach • Watch videos

Business Model
• Introduction to the Lean Canvas and • Group activity
understand the various components • Field activity (Competition
• Sketch a business model for your venture Analysis)
using the Lean Canvas

• Identify the riskiest assumptions of your

model

• Refine your value proposition using the Blue • Watch videos

Validation Ocean Strategy • Group activity (Four
• Build Solution Demo and conduct Solution Actions Framework,
Interviews Building the Solution Demo
• Fine-tune your canvas based on research and
and MVP)
customer feedback

Foundational course in entrepreneurship 5

 LESSON COVERAGE ACTIVITIES

• Product-Market Fit – Build and iterate rapid • Field activity (Conduct

prototype(s) to validate with early customers MVP interviews)

Finance • Understand the cost structures of your • Watch videos

products/services • Group activity
• Understand revenues, margins, and profits, • Case Study
• Bootstrapping and Initial Financing • Roleplay (Create a pitch
• Evaluate the pros and cons of each option and Presentation to class)
• Practice creating a pitch for your venture

Team • Shared leadership and the importance of a • Watch videos

good team for a venture’s success • Roleplay (Adopting Shared
• Define the roles and responsibilities for your Leadership)
team • Group activity
• How to identify the right team members • Roleplay (Pitch to
• Explore team collaboration tools such as Slack potential employees)
• Practice pitching to potential employees • Group activity

Marketing & Sales • Positioning and branding – Getting the word • Watch videos
out about your new product/service • Group activity
• Identify the channels available to reach your • Field assignment (Selling
potential customers to actual customers)
• Make a Sales Plan using the Funnel approach

• Develop selling skills – One-to-one selling

Support • Use basic project management to track your • Watch videos

activities and progress • Group activity
• Basics of business regulations of starting and • Field activity (Interviewing
operating a business entrepreneurs and business
• Importance of compliance and keeping proper owners)
documentation • Class discussion
• How to find help to get started (Advantages of different
legal entities)

Foundational Course In Entrepreneurship 6

 LESSON COVERAGE ACTIVITIES

Final Project • Presentation Day – Teams present their • Presentation (Final

practice venture, including the business practice venture project)
model, the prototype, and key learnings
to their classmates, faculty, and other
entrepreneurs

Foundational Course In Entrepreneurship 7

 Four Main Street, Suite 100, Los Altos, CA 94022

marketing@wfglobal.org | www.wfglobal.org

Note: As the subject of entrepreneurship is constantly evolving, the contents and syllabus of this course are subject to change at the discretion of Wadhwani Foundation.