Startup Launch: Venture Design

The goal of our Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program course, Startup Launch: Venture Design, is to guide you through a practical, step-by-step process for creating your own startup called the venture design process. 

Over the course of the fall semester, you will develop your own startup idea, validate it with potential customers, and form a team with your classmates around the most promising ideas.

How to Register

Course Information

IPRO 497-622/MBA 576   

Semester: Fall 2022

Credits: Three

Format: Live and in-person (flipped classroom)

Time: Friday, 1:50–4:30 p.m. 

Room: Tellabs Innovation Alley, Kaplan Institute

CRN: 15330

Unit 1: Exploring Problems

Entrepreneurship is fundamentally about solving problems. You can start by choosing a problem that you have a unique perspective or passion for, and interviewing other people about their experience with it. 

Unit 2: Designing a Solution

After crafting a specific problem statement, the next step is to design a solution on paper that is significantly better than the status quo and then validate your hypotheses with potential customers. 

Unit 3: Running an Experiment

The final step is to develop and sell a minimum viable product, which is essentially a scrappy experiment to see if, when realistically given the option, people will pay for your solution.

We expect 10 startups created in this course to join the Startup Accelerator and compete in Kaplan Pitch Tank in 2023! During this year’s event, we awarded $62,000 in prizes. You can watch a recording of this year’s Kaplan Pitch Tank online.