How to Finance and Grow Your Startup – Without VC
€0, aangeboden door Coursera
About this course: Who? If you’re an entrepreneur at any stage of your journey, or even an aspiring one, and you need money to start or grow your business, this course is for you. What? This course will introduce, and help you put to use in your startup, the five models through which your customers can – and will, if you ask them! – fund your business. These five time-tested models have been put to use by entrepreneurial superstars like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and more. Sadly, though, the five models are rarely talked about and not widely understood. Until now! The five models will be brought to life by the real-world stories of an inspiring collection of incredibly creative entrepreneurs from around the world – including successes and failures – through a series of captivating no-holds-barred interviews with founders and others, and investors, too. Why? More than two generations ago, the venture capital community – VC’s, business angels, incubators, and others – convinced the entrepreneurial world that writing business plans and raising venture capital constituted the twin centerpieces of entrepreneurial endeavor. They did so for very good reasons: the sometimes astonishing returns they’ve delivered to their investors and the incredibly large and valuable companies their ecosystem has created. But the vast majority of fast growing companies never take any angel or venture funding. Are they onto something that most of today’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has missed? Indeed, should a business angel or VC be seen as the first port of call for getting your nascent entrepreneurial venture off the ground or growing it faster? Perhaps not. How? You’ll be asked to do a series of exercises – out in the real world – to put your growing toolkit to use in your business or the one you hope to start. Hands-on, practical tools to help your business start and thrive – without venture capital. You’ll join our discussion board of fellow participants, if you like, and learn from others who are putting the tools to work, just as you are. And to suit today’s fast-paced lifestyles, we’ve broken what you’ll get – short lessons, interviews, thought-provoking questions, even some optional things to read – into bite-sized chunks, so you can log in and grab them whenever and wherever you are.
Created by:Â Â Â University of London, London Business School
Taught by:Â Â Â Â John Mullins, Associate Professor of Management Practice
London Business School
Level
Beginner
Commitment
7 weeks of study, 5-6 hours/week
Language
English
How To Pass
Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings
4.7 stars
Average User Rating 4.7See all 26 reviews
Coursework
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
Help from your peers
Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.
Certificates
Earn official recognition for your work, and share your success with friends, colleagues, and employers.
About University of London
The University of London is a federal University which includes 17 world leading Colleges. Our International Programmes were founded in 1858 and have enriched the lives of thousands of students, delivering high quality University of London degrees wherever our students are across the globe. Our alumni include 7 Nobel Prize winners. Today, we are a global leader in distance and flexible study, offering degree programmes to over 50,000 students in over 180 countries. To find out more about studying for one of our degrees where you are, search for 'London International'.
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Introduction: Why this course?
A widely-held notion in entrepreneurial circles is that the way to start and grow a thriving business is to come up with a great “ideaâ€, write a great business plan, raise capital from angels or VCs, flawlessly execute the plan, and (Voila!) get rich! But it h...Â
1 video, 5 readings
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Module 1: Why taking venture capital is a bad idea
Welcome to Module 1! As you can see by the title of this first module, I hope to convince you in this chunk of the course that seeking (and taking) money from an angel or VC investor, at least early in the life of your venture, is an exceedingly bad idea. Here...Â
13 videos, 1 reading
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Graded: Entrepreneur or Angel Interviews
WEEK 2
Module 2: Matchmaker models
Welcome to Module 2! In this module we're going to focus on matchmaker models (sometimes called marketplaces - eBay, Airbnb, and Uber and the like) and how you can put them to work in your business. We'll see examples of both successes and failures and, as in...Â
9 videos, 1 reading
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Graded: Solving customer problems
WEEK 3
Module 3: Pay-in-advance models
Welcome to Module 3! In this module we'll see that taking a problem-solving perspective will be useful as we look at how to put pay-in-advance models to work in your business. You're also going to learn from another failure story, this one in India - from rags...Â
9 videos, 1 reading
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Graded: Assessing customer needs and reactions to your business idea
WEEK 4
Module 4: Subscription models
Welcome to Module 4! In this module we'll dig into the economics of subscription models, while exploring the key building blocks that underlie many other kinds of e-commerce models, too. Because subscription models have been, in my view, over-hyped, you're go...Â
11 videos, 1 reading
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Graded: Investigating subscription businesses
WEEK 5
Module 5: Scarcity models
Welcome to Module 5! In this module, we're going to look at the most counter-intuitive of the five models: the scarcity model. You'll get the story of a fashion retailer that's making life difficult for others in its industry, you'll get an extensive advice-la...Â
9 videos, 1 reading
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Graded: Scarcity and flash sale apparel opportunities in India
WEEK 6
Module 6: Service-to-product models
Welcome to Module 6! In this module, we're going to hear from an entrepreneur who started with nothing in 2003 and sold his business less than 8 years later for nearly $100 million. We'll also hear from his partner, whose entry into the business midway into it...Â
8 videos, 1 reading
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Graded: Determining a possible product to transform a service business
WEEK 7
Module 7: Putting a customer-funded model to work in your business
Welcome to Module 7! In this final module we're going to draw the learning of this entire MOOC together and get started on implementing one or more of the five customer-funded models in your business. And you're going to hear an interview with someone who can...Â
4 videos, 1 reading
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