How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship Using the 1Mby1M Methodology and Case Studies: Domain Specialization

Every student is different, every entrepreneur is different, and every sector is different. It is important to study domain-specific case studies to validate a concept, discover product-market fit, and learn about various forms of startup funding. Based on your student’s interest, point them to the right resources that can help them understand a domain’s opportunities and pitfalls.

Our courses consist of in-depth interviews with the startup founders who have successfully built ventures in healthcare, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, online education, and cloud computing or SaaS. It is very helpful to trace how they gained traction, created market entry strategies, positioned their products, and so on. If your students study them carefully, they’ll be several steps ahead of the competition.

Thus, the third quarter or semester of our curriculum is to delve deep into domain-specific case studies.

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Geography Specific Case Studies

The region a business is located in plays a vital role in the market dynamics. The market for a business might be saturated in one region but could have white space in another. Concept arbitrage is a common tactic in finding business ideas. So, this course not only provides insights into the challenges and opportunities in a region, but it could also be a goldmine of ideas for businesses.

India

There are now thousands of entrepreneurs in India, and many more Indians are starting their own businesses as we speak. Even with mistakes, disappointments, and setbacks, all things considered, startup founders continue to want to realize their ambitions, no matter what.

India’s greatest achievement in the last decade has been the consistent unleashing of the entrepreneurial movement. The risk tolerance of the Indian population has increased. No longer is it the Holy Grail to lust after fat salaries at multinationals. The dream of building something of your own seduces people in India, even if that implies a built-in risk of failure.

The following course has some inspiring examples of successes both big and small during the early stages of their journeys.

Entrepreneurship Case Studies from India with Sramana Mitra

Use this course to teach students about some of the biggest entrepreneurship success stories out of India – how they got their start through in-depth conversations with several of India’s most successful founders. Also, discuss the little-known success stories and what they can learn from those too.

Latin America

The Latin America startup movement has accelerated recently. We’re seeing lots of e-commerce in various domains, of course, but also FinTech, AgTech, even B-to-B SaaS.

One of the first major Latin American successes was MercadoLibre, out of Argentina, which went public on NYSE in 2007. In fact, I worked with MercadoLibre early on and got to know a lot about the company’s thought process as they developed their strategy for dominating the continent’s e-commerce trend.

As other countries have figured out, if someone is trying to build a global B-to-B tech company, typically, these days, a SaaS venture, they’d need to access the US market relatively early in their progression. They can validate in their local market, get some customers going, but quickly, start the process of penetrating the US customer base.

Now, e-Commerce or FinTech are very different animals. These startups tend to be much more local businesses. One can build a very large e-commerce or FinTech business without ever leaving Brazil or Argentina, Mexico, or Colombia.

The following course features conversations with several successful Latin American entrepreneurs, as well as lessons learned and their best advice.

How to Build Tech Startups in Latin America with Sramana Mitra

Europe

My hypothesis is that Europe continues to be a mecca of culture, and there is adequate technical expertise on that continent to come up with more significant concepts that may become drivers of major trends.

The role I see for Europe is in reaching out to the rest of the world and taking a leadership stance in developing taste. Whether it is educating the Chinese market about French and Italian wines, or packaging culture for the consumption by Silicon Valley’s geeks, there is a European renaissance possible. But it will likely not be one concentrated in Paris or Florence; rather, it will be an international renaissance whereby Europe exports its strengths in culture, preservation, cuisine, and style to a world growing in wealth and sophistication.

The advantages of that kind of wide-ranging taste-making will benefit Europe both on its own soil and throughout the world, and it will help to promote economic growth across all European countries.

In pure tech, also, Europe is making great strides in building global ventures. The number of tech Unicorns is growing steadily.

The following course features conversations with several successful European entrepreneurs, as well as lessons learned and their best advice.

Entrepreneurship Case Studies from Europe with Sramana Mitra

Optional Course

If your students are largely from non-technical backgrounds, you may also consider the following course to encourage them:

How Non-Technical Founders Build Startups with Sramana Mitra

Assessment

A great assessment is to have each student pick a case study and evaluate if a concept arbitrage is possible in your region. Example: If you’re teaching this course in Ghana, have your students each pick a concept and analyze if there is enough whitespace to replicate that business in Ghana. If the analysis yields the conclusion that the market is already saturated, that is fine too. The important exercise is to learn how to assess.

In that process, also, students can explore how they would do things differently, and why.

A tool for assessment is this Udemy course:

VC Due Diligence Questions For Startups With Sramana Mitra 

Estimated Timeline

Your course should be split into three parts: domain specific case studies, geography-specific case studies, and a case study project.

Roughly speaking, students should dedicate 50 hours on the first part, 20 hours on the second part, and another 50 hours on the third part. This includes studying the online lectures and texts, in-class discussions, project work, papers, and presentations.

Outcome

At the end of your course, students should have a sense of multiple tech startup domains and an idea about how to find gaps in the market to position a new idea.

Photo Credit: MasterTux from Pixabay

This segment is a part in the series : How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship Using the 1Mby1M Methodology and Case Studies