Business Simulations are a simplification of reality. Here, instead of trying to replicate thousands of real-life issues that could never be put adequately on a model, the focus is put on the most critical decisions that founders have to make while setting-up and growing a high-tech venture.
Participants should expect to gain a deeper understanding of:
- The special distinctive characteristics of high-growth ventures, their different stages of evolution and the challenges posed to entrepreneurs at each one of them;
- The importance of resource gathering in the early stages of a venture and the critical importance of the ability to attract and retain the right kind of talent in parallel with raising adequate amounts of financial resources and help for essay writing from the best edu blog for students, the fund-raising alternatives available at different evolution stages of new ventures and the pros and cons of each alternative;
- The critical importance of acquiring market and customer information in the venture decision-making context as well as the evolving nature of customer preferences;
- The importance of designing and effective value proposition and direct R&D efforts to develop products who deliver effective value to clients rather than pursuing founders’ a priori misconceptions and dreams;
- Measuring the value created to the different potential customer groups and how to construct an effective value proposition, price and market innovative products in a way to capture a part of that value and transform it into value for founders and investors;
- The evolutionary process of building an excellent team, including the evolving requirements of key skills and the process of recruiting and retaining the “right” kind of talent at the “right” time using adequate compensation and incentive mechanisms;
- Venture capital deals and corresponding term sheets but, more importantly, that selecting the “right” investor at each round is often more important that its proposed financing terms;
- That different types of investors (angels, VC’s, corporations) have different intentions and objectives, as well as different capabilities to add value to the ventures they fund;
- The importance of keeping cash expenses under strict control, while making sure to focus on the expeditious development of the technological and market proofs of concept and to minimize the product’s time to market;
- The difficulties associated with the commercialization of innovative B2B solutions and the importance of gathering the “right” network of connections through venture capitalists, business angels and key employees;
- The tools to attract and retain critical talent at all times, the importance of stock options on that process, the negative implications of high staff turnover and poor employee motivation;
- The importance and difficulty of getting access to the larger and most demanding customers in B2B markets as well as the factors that may induce them to test and adopt innovative risky solutions provided by a new unproven venture;
- The cash-flow implications of the sales process, namely by understanding the financing implications of net working capital requirements associated with inventories and payment terms granted to customers in combination with these agreed with suppliers;
- The importance of maintaining a continuous innovation process in order to stay one step ahead of (a dynamic) competition and keep delivering to the marketplace products that exceed customer expectations;
- The critical importance of Intellectual Property protection in innovative high-growth ventures and its key role as source of competitive advantage;
- Managing the balance between attracting finance and giving away “too much” of the upside and avoid being excessively hurt by dilution;
- The value of flexibility in new venture development;
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Key value drivers of a new venture at the “exit” or “liquidation” event.
