Disciplined Entrepreneurship Lab (15.368)

About the Class

Faculty

What is DE Lab? Disciplined Entrepreneurship Lab (DE Lab) offers students the opportunity to enhance and apply their understanding of the fundamentals of entrepreneurship by engaging in a full-time project with a startup over a period of 3-4 weeks during IAP in January. The course builds on the academic framework of Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup and its application in a real-world environment. Potential projects include, but are not limited to: - Identifying new markets - Entering new markets - Launching a product - Developing a sales strategy Students may also provide general support to the startup over the course of the Lab. FORMS Student interest form: https://airtable.com/appou1sElBRmegqO9/shrIUMXtwngglnKLN Student sign-up form: https://airtable.com/appou1sElBRmegqO9/shr5OZhJvOI72A0JI Company sign-up form: https://airtable.com/appou1sElBRmegqO9/shrNmY8HT5kFoSJcp SCHEDULE - Kickoff: First week of IAP via Zoom (details to follow) - Final Presentations: End of IAP (details to follow) - Credits: 6 INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS The class provides students with a real-life application of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework by working with a startup of their choice for 3-4 weeks throughout January. Key dates for students include a kick-off call on the first week of IAP via Zoom (details to follow) and final presentations at the conclusion of DE Lab (details to follow). How many credits is the class? The class is 6 credits. Does the internship have to be in-person or can it be virtual? The set-up of the internship will depend on your final agreement with the host company. Can I source my own company to work for? Yes! Students are encouraged to source their own host companies to maximize their learning from the class. Companies can sign up here, including student companies: https://airtable.com/appou1sElBRmegqO9/shrNmY8HT5kFoSJcp When will the list of host companies be published? We are planning to share the list of host companies by mid-November. Is DE Lab open to non-MBA / non-Sloan students? Yes, DE Lab is open to students outside of the MBA / Sloan. Do I have to be present in-person for the kick-off call? The kick-off call will be hosted on Zoom. What is the expected workload? In general, DE Lab requires you to work with a startup for 40 hours per week over a period of three weeks. What are the deliverables for the class? Students are required to attend the kick-off session, submit a midterm reflection memo (2-3 pages), and do a final presentation (5 minutes, 5 slides). What is the structure of the final presentation? The final presentation will be a 5-minute, 5-slide presentation. Further instructions will be made available at a later stage. What is the format of the final presentation? The final presentations are to be delivered in-person. However, in case of class schedule conflicts, students may submit pre-recorded videos. Can I work for my own startup? Unfortunately no, DE Lab does not allow students to work on their own startup as part of the class. What is the matching process? Students will be required to reach out to their startup of choice and agree on the structure of their DE Lab internship individually. This also applies to companies that are included on the host company list. At what stages and from what industries are the companies? There is no limitation with regard to the industry and past startups have covered a wide array of different industries. In terms of stage, DE Lab is primarily focused on startups in pre-seed, seed, and series A stages. Can I get paid for my internship? No, DE Lab requires the internship to be strictly academic and does not allow for any kind of compensation. You will receive 6 academic credits upon completion of the Lab. Who can I contact with further questions? Please reach out to Kwang Jun Lee (klee21@mit.edu). INFORMATION FOR HOST COMPANIES DE Lab is hosted by Bill Aulet and Paul Cheek from The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and offers you the opportunity to work with a student intern from MIT on a real-life project and to build connections with entrepreneurial-minded MIT students. The project will take place during January and students typically work 40 hours per week for 3-4 weeks with their startup of choice. Students will receive a list of host companies and reach out to their preferred companies. Please note that, as students will select their startups independently, signing up to be a host company does not guarantee a match with a student. Companies can sign up for the Lab using this link: https://airtable.com/appou1sElBRmegqO9/shrNmY8HT5kFoSJcp When does the internship take place? The internship will be conducted during the Sloan IAP period which typically runs from January until early-February. The exact length and timing of the internship can be decided individually between host companies and students. What is the format of the internship? Students typically work with their host companies 40 hours per week for a period of 3-4 weeks. The details are to be agreed upon between the host company and the student on an individual basis. The internship can take place either virtually or in-person, which is also up to the discretion of the parties involved. How does the matching process work? Students will be provided with a list of interested companies by mid-November. Afterwards, they will reach out to their preferred companies to begin the interview process for the internship. Please note that signing up for the Lab does not guarantee that your company will have a match. Do I have to pay my intern? No, DE Lab requires the internship to be purely academic and does not allow for any kind of compensation of the student. Do I have to have a specific project to participate in DE Lab? No, companies do not have to have a specific project in mind to participate in DE Lab. However, to facilitate the matching process with students, our sign-up form includes a short paragraph about the work the student intern will be doing over the course of the Lab. What kind of companies is DE Lab looking for? DE Lab is open to companies from all kinds of industries. Given our focus on entrepreneurship, we generally focus on companies in pre-seed, seed, or series A stages. However, you are still encouraged to sign up for the Lab even if your company is slightly more mature. Do I have to be MIT-affiliated to participate in DE Lab? No, we encourage all startups to sign up for DE Lab, regardless of MIT affiliation. What happens if I no longer have capacity for a student intern? Please contact Kwang Jun Lee (klee21@mit.edu) to take your company off the host company list. Who can I contact if I have further questions? Please reach out to Megan Hung - mhung25@mit.edu

Bill Aulet

Bill is changing the way entrepreneurship is understood, taught, and practiced around the world. He is an award-winning educator and author whose current work is built off the foundation of his 25-year successful business career, first at IBM, and then as a three-time serial entrepreneur. During this time, he directly raised over a hundred million dollars and, more importantly, created hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder value through his companies. Since 2009, Bill has been responsible for leading the development of entrepreneurship education across MIT at the Trust Center. His first book, “Disciplined Entrepreneurship,” was released in August 2013, has been translated into over 20 languages, and has been the content for three online edX courses, which have been taken by hundreds of thousands of people in 200 different countries. The accompanying follow on book, “Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook,” was released in April 2017. He has widely published in places such as the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, theBoston Globe, the Sloan Management Review, the Kauffman Foundation, Entrepreneur Magazine, MIT Sloan Experts, and more. He has been a featured speaker on shows such as CNBC’s Squawk Box, BBC News, Bloomberg News, as well as at events and conferences around the world. He has degrees from Harvard and MIT and is a board member of MITEK Systems (NASDAQ: MITK) and XL Hybrids Inc. (privately held) as well as a visiting professor at University of Strathclyde (Scotland). On July 1, 2017, Bill was named a Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan, the first at the school in the area of entrepreneurship since Alex d’Arbeloff received the designation in 2003. Bill has earned external recognition as well for his efforts, which include Boston 50 on Fire, 2017 Favorite MBA Professors from Poets and Quants, and 2018 Nannerl Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. In 2019, Bill was awarded the Outstanding Contributions to Advancing Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award by the Deshpande Foundation. In 2021, Bill was recognized by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) as the 2021 Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year.

Paul Cheek

Paul Cheek is a serial tech entrepreneur, software engineer, an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and a Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Paul currently teaches the "New Enterprises" course and previously taught the Advanced Entrepreneurship course, "Building an Entrepreneurial Venture: Advanced Tools and Techniques.” He built MIT's entrepreneurship platform, Orbit, and also coaches entrepreneurs in various programs like the MIT delta v accelerator, MIT fuse, Sandbox Innovation Fund, workshops, and hackathons. Paul is currently building Oceanworks, the global marketplace for recycled ocean plastic materials and products aimed at accelerating the market for recycled ocean plastic to clean up our oceans. Prior, Paul co-founded Work Today, a venture-backed digital staffing and recruiting company. As CTO, he designed and built the company's technology platform and grew the business from 0 to 50,000 workers. Paul has also built technologies for and consulted with LogMeIn, BlackRock, Prudential, Mazda, and more.