BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship New Venture Idea Project

Objectives
• Develop ability to generate and research new business ideas
• Develop group brainstorming skills
• Develop feasibility testing skills to screen ideas for value
• Develop group work and project management skills
• Gain practical experience in presentation of ideas
Overview
Your team will develop, evaluate and report on a new, viable entrepreneurial opportunity
created from scratch. Actual revenues from the opportunity are not expected.

Deliverables & Grading

There are 4 key deliverables in this project, worth 40% of your final grade. They are due
before class start on the week indicated:
Marking
Stage 1. 50 Ideas report Week 6 (Not graded but submit) 0%*
Stage 2. Five Ideas feasibility report Week 8 10%
Stage 3. Final Idea feasibility report Week 11 20%
Stage 4. Final Idea class presentation Week 12 10%
Total 40%

Submissions should be made on CuLearn. Students are expected to fully contribute to

the group project and normally receive equal grades. “Freeriding”, however, is as
unacceptable in this course as it is in the working world. Your title page should list the
group members who actually contributed to the report; a missing name is an indication of
no contribution. “No contribution” means a zero grade. Late submissions of project
deliverables are not accepted.
________________________________________________
* This report is not graded separately but must be submitted on time to demonstrate
progress, and is essential to completion of the overall project (see description next).

BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship (c) Tom Duxbury and Rowland Few

Descriptions

Stage 1. 50 Ideas Brainstorming Report

The generation of 50 new venture project ideas is a critical exercise in creativity, personal
and market awareness, research, brainstorming, and group productivity skills. Industry
and pain point analysis are used to stimulate many new business ideas. To get the most
out of it, your team should follow the process steps described below.

Note: This is not an exercise in work delegation, don't be tempted to simply divide up
the task and paste ideas together without a group discussion. If you generate the
ideas without conducting the group brainstorming activity, you will not only bypass a major
learning opportunity, but will wind up with poorer ideas to work with at the end. The quality
of your final feasibility report and presentation relies greatly on having the best possible
ideas generated from this exercise.

1. Get to know yourself and your group – how you spend your spare time is an excellent
indicator of your motivations, values, passions, and competencies. For example, if you
enjoy snowboarding, mountain biking or just going for coffee these would be a good
starting domains for generating ideas.

2. From your list of idea domains to explore, consider where opportunities might come
from. Your group can use mind mapping and combine this with the next step if you wish.
For example:
a. What needs, wants or pain points do current customers have?
b. What opportunities for improvement are there?
c. What trends or influences are creating change in the industry?
d. What combinations from other industries might be made?
e. If you changed one thing, can new customer categories arise?
f. Is something working elsewhere that can be moved here?
g. Can changing the way something is delivered add new value?

BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship (c) Tom Duxbury and Rowland Few

3. In a suitable setting with lots of time, start brainstorming as a group:
a. Avoid and withhold criticism- there are no bad ideas!
b. Place the focus on quantity of ideas
c. Welcome unusual ideas in a freewheeling environment
d. Hitchhike on other ideas by combining and improving ideas
e. Take notes but don't cross things out
f. Ensure everyone has a chance to contribute
g. Have fun

Do not pay attention to the number of ideas for now and resist the urge to get bogged
down in implementation details. If you get stuck, revisit step (2) above, or raise new what
if? questions of your own. Once you feel you have exhausted your ability to generate new
ideas, stop brainstorming.

4. Look at your list of ideas. Select the most plausible 50 ideas using the following
criteria:
a. The idea addresses a customer need/want/problem pain point
b. The idea is real and viable (e.g. avoid time travel machines and teleporters)
c. The idea has some novelty and is not immediately obvious (no chip wagons)
d. The idea is ethical and legal

An example would look like this (consider using a table, but any format is permissible):
Idea Industry Pain Point Want / Need
1 a mobile smartphone Transportation OC Transport Wants vs Need
application that shows the buses arrive
GPS location of buses to randomly, and
bus riders; it could also riders can't
estimate arrival time determine how
much longer the
wait for a specific
bus will be, or if
it's broken down

BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship (c) Tom Duxbury and Rowland Few

 2

Conclude with a brief write up (pdf) of how your brainstorming sessions went, what
worked and what could be improved. It is very difficult to evaluate the merit of an idea, so
the ideas will not be assigned a separate grade. We ask for it to be submitted as a
demonstration that your group is functioning well and capable of meeting deadlines. Late
submission of this report however, will cause an automatic 3% deduction for the next
report (which is graded) described below.

Stage 2. Five Ideas Feasibility Report

The next stage - opportunity selection - is to distil the 50 ideas down to a manageable
number of final candidate ideas for further analysis. Using your list of 50 ideas from the
previous task, narrow the list down to the five best candidate ideas for your group to move
forward with. Taking into consideration your group's discussion in section 1.1, these five
ideas should be the most feasible, promising, interesting, and compatible new venture
candidates for your group members.

You should use the domains and questions raised in the textbook "The New Business
Road Test" as a framework for analysis (preferred), or the "Opportunity Checklist"
attached in the Appendix, or a combination of them. Your group write up (pdf) will consist
of 1 paragraph of description and 2-3 paragraphs of rationale for each of the five ideas
selected. There is no need to exceed 8 pages plus appendices with 1.5 line spacing, 12-
point font text. Your criteria for selection should be consistent, and based on the values,
resources and competencies of your group - don't forget to include a description of how
these fit. Include a title page identifying the team members who contributed to the report.
A missing name means no contribution, therefore no grade. Be sure that all information
and data assertions (e.g. market size) are properly referenced using conventional
formatting such as APA style. Any "cut and pasted" text without proper referencing will be
treated as plagiarism (an academic violation).

BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship (c) Tom Duxbury and Rowland Few

Stage 3. Final Idea Feasibility Report
Opportunity selection is carried to the final stage, as four promising ideas from the last
stage are discarded. The final, single idea selected by the group would be considered the
most feasible for your team to implement, and is the one that will form the basis of the
final project presentation.

Using the five ideas generated from the last stage, select a final one using a detailed
feasibility analysis based on all course material presented to date. Your report should
clearly articulate the final idea selected, customer pain point, and what is unique/novel
about your solution. Your report should include in particular:

a) Your proposed business model following the nine-point business model canvas
presented in class.
b) Completed “Value Proposition Canvas” for your idea as presented in class.
c) The Seven Domains feasibility analysis. Your report should cover all Seven Domains
and include an analysis using the questions raised in the seven domains of the textbook
as a framework. Pick the most relevant to your idea - you do not need to answer all of
them. Be sure you address specifically the question of: How is the pain point solved today,
and why is your solution of more customer value?
d) Market size estimates – TAM and SAM (covered in class)
e) A “Competitive test matrix” which shows how the benefits of your idea compare with
the rest of the industry (covered in class)
f) Minimum Viable Product. Describe what MVP you decided to use for customer value
testing, and how you arrived at that decision. Include a picture, screenshot, etc.
g) Customer Validation report detailing real world feedback from 25 to 30 potential
customers. Describe, and explain:
i) Which customer segment you targeted,
ii) Your means for gaining validation using the MVP,
iii) What their responses were,
iv) What you learned from the customer validation exercise, and

BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship (c) Tom Duxbury and Rowland Few

 v) Your next step decision: move forward or pivot, in what way?
Tip: don't skimp on the business model, MVP, and customer validation. These are key!

Your group write up (pdf) of the final idea selected should be 20 pages (Max) for the main
section of the report plus detailed appendices, 12 point font, 1.5 line spaced. You should
include a cover page listing team members who contributed to the deliverable. Follow this
with a one paragraph executive summary and an introduction. Be sure to finish the report
with a conclusion and references. Be sure that all information and data assertions (e.g.
market size) are properly referenced using conventional formatting such as APA style.
Please do not exceed the page limit, it is unnecessary and will result in a grading penalty.
Note 1: You do not need to perform financial projections for this report.

Stage 4. Final Idea Class Presentation

The ability to present and rationalize opportunities in a concise and compelling manner is
an essential capability of successful entrepreneurs. During the final class you will “sell”
your fellow classmates on your idea using presentation means of your own choosing.

The presentation should be 6 minutes in duration and can be delivered by one or more
members of the team. The presentation should cover the Value Proposition Canvas,
Minimal Viable Product and real world customer validation. Slides should be PDF format
and submitted to CuLearn before the presentation. No late submissions.

A single page word document detailing team member contributions should also be
submitted.

Your grade will be based on clarity of message, slides and customer validation.

BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship (c) Tom Duxbury and Rowland Few

Appendix: Opportunity Checklists

The Seven Domains feasibility analysis

Mullins, J. (2013). The New Business Road Test: What entrepreneurs and executives
should do before launching a lean startup. 4th Edition. London: FT Press (ISBN-10:
129200374X)

Business Model Canvas

Osterwalder, A. and Y. Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation. John Wiley &
Sons Inc. (ISBN: 978-0470-87641-1)

The Value Propositions Canvas

Osterwalder et al., (2014). Value Proposition Design. John Wiley & Sons Inc. (ISBN 978-
1-118-96805-5)

BUSI2800 Entrepreneurship (c) Tom Duxbury and Rowland Few