Technology Entrepreneurship
Teaching
Credits
- 6 ECTS module
- 2 courses: Entrepreneurship & Creation of Business Opportunities
Instructors
Overview
SHOWHIDE
Startups are temporary, team-based organizations that pursue one central objective: taking a business idea to market by finding and designing a repeatable and scalable business model. The entrepreneurial process involves gathering resources not yet controlled and managing deep uncertainty about which combinations will generate value.
This course takes a scientific approach to venture building — both in what we teach and how we teach it. We draw on the most recent research in entrepreneurship, strategy, economics, and management to equip students with frameworks that go far beyond conventional startup wisdom. Rather than following a single linear business plan, students learn to think like entrepreneurial scientists: formulating alternative theories of value, designing experiments to test key assumptions, and updating beliefs as evidence accumulates.
Three fundamental pillars distinguish this course:
- Theory-driven entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are not just experimenters — they are theorists who develop novel explanations for why certain resource combinations should create value. We draw on the Theory-Based View (TBV) to show how explicit theorizing about value creation and capture leads to better venture decisions.
- Strategic choice under uncertainty. Every venture involves a coherent set of choices about customers, technology, identity, and competition. We teach students to recognize that these choices are interdependent and that the quality of a venture depends not on any single decision but on the coherence of the overall strategy.
- Bayesian reasoning. Entrepreneurs hold heterogeneous prior beliefs and face deep uncertainty. We use the Bayesian Entrepreneurship framework to teach students how to formulate competing hypotheses, design informative tests, and systematically update beliefs — rather than falling in love with a single idea.
The module combines conceptual rigor with hands-on application. Each week, students apply the session’s frameworks to their own team venture through structured deliverables, case discussions, and iterative refinement — building a complete venture from ideation to final pitch over the course of the semester.
Objectives
SHOWHIDE
Upon completion, students will be able to:
- Formulate and test theories of value. Develop alternative explanations for how a venture creates and captures value, identify key assumptions, and design experiments to discriminate between competing theories.
- Apply research-based entrepreneurship frameworks. Use frameworks from recent leading scholarship — including the Theory-Based View, Bayesian Entrepreneurship, and the Scientific Approach to entrepreneurship — to make structured venture decisions.
- Analyze business opportunities systematically. Decompose a venture opportunity into its constituent elements (customer, technology, competition, business model, go-to-market) and evaluate coherence across strategic choices.
- Design and iterate on business models. Construct business model canvases, revenue models, and financial projections grounded in explicit assumptions and evidence, using discovery-driven planning and unit economics.
- Communicate venture strategy persuasively. Synthesize complex strategic reasoning into a coherent pitch that integrates theory of value, market evidence, competitive positioning, and financial projections.
- Use AI tools transparently and effectively. Leverage AI as an analytical tool throughout the venture development process, with documented inputs and outputs at each step.
This course prepares students for careers as startup founders, early-stage startup employees, innovation managers in established corporations, and venture capital professionals.
Grading
- 40% (individual): Concept Reflections — Ten short reflections (max 600 words each) in which you apply each session’s frameworks to your team venture. Each consists of a theory update, alternatives considered, and a concrete proposal for your team. Grading criteria: conceptual accuracy, consideration of alternatives, venture specificity, and visible progression.
- 35% (team): Venture Portfolio — A cumulative document (25–30 pages) integrating all weekly deliverables into a coherent venture narrative, revised in light of later learning. Covers the full arc from theory of value through customer discovery, strategy, business model, experimentation, growth, scaling, and finance. Grading criteria: framework application, internal coherence, evidence of iteration, analytical rigor, and AI-augmented quality.
- 25% (team): Final Pitch — A 12-minute live pitch plus 8-minute Q&A synthesizing the entire venture. The pitch deck (10–12 slides) covers problem, theory of value, customer evidence, solution, strategy, business model, validation, go-to-market, team, financials, and key risks. Grading criteria: strategic clarity, evidence and rigor, narrative and persuasion, feasibility and realism, and presentation quality.
Target Audience
- Master Students in IWI, LIM & GTIME
- Master Students in Engineering
- Master Students in Erasmus Programs
Due to capacity constraints, the course Creation of Business Opportunities is duplicated in three parallel sessions.
Registration
Please register for the entire module Technology Entrepreneurship here: e-learning.tuhh.de/studip
Time & Location
- Entrepreneurship (Lecture): Monday, 13:15–14:45, Building H, Room 016 (Ditze Hörsaal)
- Creation of Business Opportunities (PBL I): Monday, 15:00–17:15, Building N, Room 0008
- Creation of Business Opportunities (PBL II): Monday, 15:00–17:15, Harburger Schloßstraße 28, Room HS28-0.01
- Creation of Business Opportunities (PBL III): Monday, 15:00–17:15, Harburger Schloßstraße 28, Room HS28-0.08
Course Notes & Materials
Access to course notes & materials here.
Preliminary Schedule
| Session | Date | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | April 13 | Introduction |
| 2 | April 20 | Ideation & Team Formation |
| 3 | April 27 | Entrepreneurial Thinking & Theory of Value |
| 4 | May 4 | Customer Discovery & Market Validation |
| — | May 11 | Holiday |
| 5 | May 18 | Technology Strategy & Innovation |
| — | May 25 | Holiday |
| 6 | June 1 | Entrepreneurial Strategy & Competitive Positioning |
| 7 | June 8 | Business Models, Revenue & Value Architecture |
| 8 | June 15 | Experimentation, Validation & Pivoting |
| 9 | June 22 | Growth, Marketing & Go-to-Market |
| 10 | June 29 | Scaling, Organization & Teams |
| 11 | July 6 | Venture Finance & Funding |
| 12 | July 13 | Final Pitch & Strategic Integration |