Introduction to

Entrepreneurship
Dr. Saurav Snehvrat
Entrepreneurship and New Ventures (ENV)
Course Grading
● Assignments/Simulation/Quizzes – 35% (including Coursera material)
● End- Term – 30%
● Project – 35% (including a mid-term update of 10%)
Project Details
● Can be done using two approaches:
○ Development, pitching of an idea

■ Reference: https://www.startupindia.gov.in/

■ Reference: https://www.ycombinator.com/

■ Reference:
ttps://innocentive.wazoku.com/#/community/9396a088f8614c2eac89aacf2ae1c624/discover?entities=challe
nge&sort=-
posted&page=2&pageSize=15&include_ descendants&communityId=9396a088f8614c2eac89aacf2ae1c624

○ Field Study/Policy/Framework related to:

■ Enviropreneurship/Social/Sustainability (Prof. Kalyan)

■ Family Businesses (Prof. Arindam)

■ Venture capital/Financing (Prof Faisal)

■ Scaling/Harvesting Businesses (Prof Faisal)

■ Incubators/Accelerators (Prof Saurav)

■ Intrapreneurship (Prof Saurav)

● In case of field project, need to contact the respective faculty and confirm the project title by end of
4th session.
● Total 10 groups.
Source: https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/global-vc-funding-falls-q1-2023/ accessed on 25/4/2023
Source: https://www.bain.com/globalassets/noindex/2023/bain_report_india_private_equity_report-2023.pdf accessed on 17/06/2023
Can Entrepreneurship be taught?
Myths about Entrepreneurship
● There is a gene of entrepreneurship.
○ Myth: Personality traits like flamboyance or boldness are correlated with successful
entrepreneurship.

○ Real skills that increase the odds of success, such as people management, sales skills,
disciplined entrepreneurship, product conception and delivery – Which can be taught.

Source: Aulet, B. (2013). Disciplined entrepreneurship: 24 steps to a successful startup. John Wiley & Sons.
Myths about Entrepreneurship
● All successful entrepreneurs are charismatic and their
charisma is a key factor in their success.
○ Charisma is effective for short periods.

○ More important is the need to be effective communicators, recruiters, and salespeople.

Myths about Entrepreneurship
● Individuals start companies.
○ A bigger team actually adds to the odds of success. More founders = better odds of success

○ Especially in startups.

Source: Infosys
Positive enforcers of Entrepreneurship
o What’s common between MIT, Silicon Valley, Israel, Tech
City in London, Berlin and Bengaluru
o Culture that encourages people to start companies all the time and everywhere.

o Role models are everywhere :very real people no different from you.

o Social Herding – collaborating with fellow students/colleagues etc

o Not only do they learn from one another, but learning becomes part of their individual and
group identity.
What is Entrepreneurship?

“An entrepreneur is someone who jumps off a cliff and builds a plane on
the way down.”

- Reid Hoffman
What is Entrepreneurship?
Entreprendre- root French word. (to undertake)

Wide variety in definitions.

“Entrepreneurship is the process of creating or seizing an opportunity and

pursuing it regardless of the resources currently controlled.” (Timmons, 1994)

Entrepreneur:
“A person who identifies an opportunity and pursues it regardless of the
resources currently controlled.”

Source: https://hbr.org/2013/01/what-is-entrepreneurship accessed on 15/12/2019

What is Entrepreneurship?
Pursuit:
Relentless
Urgent

Opportunity (not mutually exclusive):

1) might be a new/better product/service
2) a new business model;
3) a new market.

Examples of non-opportunities: (lack of novelty)

Raising the price of an existing product/service.
Growth decisions: hiring more employees etc
Budgeted growth

Source: Essentials, H. B. (2005). Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Tools and Techniques to Launch and Grow Your
Business. Boston, MA, USA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Ideas and Opportunities
● Business Idea: patterns that suggest ● Entrepreneur turns an idea into
a solution to a compelling market opportunity by crafting a business
need. plan/model that identifies a strategy
for targeting a market segment with a
solution that will attract customers,
partners, investors, key employees
who create value for each
stakeholder.

● Includes forecasts about revenue,

cash flow in the future.
Example of an opportunity
Mr. Ajay owns a small firm producing e-rickshaws.

He sees the future of electric vehicles in general to be bright.

He understands that the service of electric vehicles will be costly from

OEMs.

The current crop of auto mechanics will not understand the new
requirements for servicing electric vehicles.

He sees an opportunity in setting up a low-cost service chain for electric

vehicles.
Characteristics of an opportunity
Characteristics of an opportunity worth pursuing (Identification):

Creates significant value for customers by solving a significant problem or

filling a significant unmet need for which they are willing to pay a premium.

Offers significant profit potential to the entrepreneur and investors –

enough to meet their risk/reward expectations.

Represents a good fit with the capabilities of the founder and the
management team – that is, something they have the skill and experience to
pursue (founder-market fit).

Durable, opportunities for profits persist over reasonable length of time.

The opportunity is amenable to financing.

Source: Essentials, H. B. (2005). Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Tools and Techniques to Launch and Grow Your
Business. Boston, MA, USA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation.
Broad Types of Entrepreneurship
● Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Entrepreneurship
o Likely started by one person to serve a local market.

o Most often closely held, likely a family business, where close control of a
small business is important.

o Founder’s benefits: personal independence and regular cash flows.

o Jobs created are local and generally not “outsourcable”

o Dominated by service businesses and retailers

Source:
https://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/reports/a-
tale-of-two-entrepreneurs-understanding-differences-in-
the-types-of-entrepreneurship-in-the-economy/ last
accessed on 12/8/2020
Broad Types of Entrepreneurship
● Innovation-Driven Enterprise (IDE) Entrepreneurship
○ More risky and more ambitious of the two.

○ Markets that go well beyond the local market. They are looking to sell
their offering at a global or at least at a regional level.

Source: https://www.kauffman.org/entrepreneurship/reports/a-tale-of-two-entrepreneurs-understanding-differences-in-the-types-of-
entrepreneurship-in-the-economy/ last accessed on 12/8/2020
What is a startup?

Source: https://www.startupindia.gov.in/content/sih/en/startup-scheme.html accessed on 26/04/2023

Broad Types of Entrepreneurship
● Innovation-Driven Enterprise (IDE) Entrepreneurship
○ Usually work in teams build their business off some technology, process,
business model, or other innovation that will give them a significant
competitive advantage as compared to existing companies.

○ Many times, companies start by losing money.

○ Slower to start, IDE entrepreneurs tend to have more impressive

exponential growth when they do get customer traction.

○ Seeking growth at the risk of losing ownership.

○ Most students interested in this type.

Broad Types of Entrepreneurship
● Other types:
○ Corporate Entrepreneurship/Intrapreneurship

○ Social Entrepreneurship

○ Enviropreneurship
  Introduction of a new product/service

 Introduction of a new production/service

process

 Opening up of a new market

WHAT IS  Securing of a new source of raw materials

INNOVATION?
 Creation and application of a new
organizational structure in an industry

 For economic gain

Source: Schumpeter, 1934