Start-ups Building & Management

Full Curriculum

First Year

START FROM ZERO TO HERO

The course represents a deep dive into concepts and frameworks introduced during orientation. It is designed to teach students the process of creating a new venture. It introduces its participants to the concepts, challenges, and tools needed to create a successful new venture. During orientation course student will understand the philosophy of entrepreneurship, the importance to make mistakes and learn from them, and how to grow as a better person during their studies.

START-UP BUILDING AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

Most startups fail. Launching a new venture has always been a very risky proposition. Many startups fail by not validating their ideas early on with real-life customers as they use traditional approaches to building and launching their products. This course will help students make the process of starting a company less risky with no or little cost and will give all tools and tactics how to make successful  and profitable business fast. 

TECH PROJECT MANAGEMENT: STARTUP STACK

This course is designed to teach what technology makes sense for early stage, late stage and scaling in terms of infrastructure, stack, UX/UI, mobile and backend. During product development it is fundamentally important to have the ability to understand the difference between iOS and Android, Java and Objective-c, UX from UI and JAVA and Python. You do not need to be a technical guy in your team who knows how to set it all up, maintain it and keep an eye on it. Once you become an entrepreneur you will need to manage tech teams and communicate with them in one language so this course will make you a master. 

START-UP ECONOMICS THEORY AND PRACTICE

Modern company building requires a new understanding how organization operates in rapidly changing economic environment. This course will deepen students' understanding about modern micro and macro economic environment and discuss the main economic factors like inflation, competition, demand - supply, market structure and others.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

What’s so "hot" around Artificial Intelligence? Who are the data scientists everyone is talking about? What kind of problem solving skills and knowledge should Blockchain specialist have? What kind of problems can be solved by Fintech? What is so sexy about Cloud Computing or Virtual Reality? This course will offer answers to all these questions, and start students on their way to becoming proficient with the key technological terms and really comprehensive way how it works to prepare them to apply these technologies in their own venture building. 

TEAM BUILDING AND LEADERSHIP

Do you know what it takes to inspire folks to practice innovation – rather than just talk about it? Do you know the right way to manage the team you are working with? In this course students will learn how to: (1) manage creativity and innovation of a team on a systems level, (2) gain the skills of a spot-on leader, (3) build and maintain a talented and motivated team, (4) close the knowing-doing gap, and (5) accept "failure" and see it as an opportunity to adapt and learn from mistakes. Ultra-high growth requires getting the whole team to do more, and do it better, and more efficiently.

START-UP LEGAL ENVIRONMENT

It is important to learn how to think strategically regarding how to effectively leverage the knowledge, trade secrets, patents, technologies, trademarks, structures, and processes in start-up organizations. This course will focus on the elements of a successful IP strategy, and how that strategy is shaped by economic, strategic, legal, regulatory, and market factors. You will know how to setup a company and all what it takes.

PHILOSOPHY

The study of philosophy benefits students personally and professionally. The questions asked by philosophers are questions that come up in every age and in every human life. They are in that sense inevitable questions, though people often hurry past them: What is the best way to live? What does a just life order look like? How is knowledge to be distinguished from true opinion? What is the relation between knowing and doing? Is beauty merely in the eye of the beholder, or does it somehow inhere in things we call beautiful? Did the order manifest in nature come about purely by chance, or does it point beyond itself to some source of order? Such questions are true fruits to develop creativity, open-mindedness, tolerance, trust, expand worldviews horizons for future innovators and creators.

START-UP MARKETING AND RAPID GROWTH

This course teaches students how to (1) use core demand generation principles and guidelines, (2) leverage outbound demand generation, (3) tap inbound demand, (4) combine traditional, social, and mobile media to drive viral demand, and (5) create and use a messaging platform for optimal public relations and buzz marketing. Successful ventures provide products and services that take customer needs into account at every stage of development. The company that has the most paying customers wins. But how do you get the word out, drive demand for your products and services, and generate sales? Today good marketing involves a clear strategy to reach the target audience, execute appropriate tactics, and measure results.

START-UPS IN PUBLIC SECTORS GOVTECH

GovTech is a rapidly growing worldwide phenomenon in government sector. This course will teach students how to use Open data, how to creative innovations in public sectors and government like EduTech, LegalTech, RegTech and others. Students will be taught by industry experts that will share their insights and experience working directly with GovTech sector. This course will help you to build your prototype and validate your start-up idea in the GovTech community.

DIGITAL PRODUCT DESIGN

Digital product design is an iterative design process used to solve a functional problem with a formal solution. A digital product designer identifies an existing problem, offers the best possible solution, and launches it to a market that demonstrates demand for the particular solution. Using latest designing technologies students will be able to create digital product design fast and test it with real customers.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY

Emotional intelligence or EI is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, and those of the people around you. People with a high degree of emotional intelligence know what they're feeling, what their emotions mean, and how these emotions can affect other people. In the modern world, understanding yourself and people around you (including customers, investors, partners, team mates) is a critical for business success. After the course students will become better persons.

Second Year

FUNDAMENTALS OF PROGRAMMING

This course will expose students to the foundations of programming as well as teach basic skills in this area. This includes an introduction to the concept of the algorithm and provides the basis for algorithmic thinking. No programming experience is required for the course. Students will learn terminology and how professionally communicate and manage tech teams.

FUNDAMENTALS OF BUSINESS DATABASES AND BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

The topics covered include (1)database concepts such as database models, modeling techniques and normalization; design, development and maintenance of a relational database; formulation of commands to insert and update data, retrieve information, generate reports from a database; and (2)business intelligence concepts, such as business intelligence architecture; schema of a data warehouse; online analytical processing; bigdata; and NoSQL databases. Includes numerous hands-on assignments.

MARKET RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

The course is about understanding the market as customers, competitors, products etc. It is very important as part of basic sales and idea validation. Many marketers used to trust focus groups and surveys in order to test the concepts of new products and services. In the new reality, digital space allows for communication and interaction with target audiences much more easily, cheaply and faster. This course will teach how to conduct market research  in the digital world, using Survey Monkey, Google products, social media, and other new tools. To understand markets, organizations need to do a lot of experiments. Modern business is a learning business that does experiments. 

THE ART OF SALES AND NEGOTIATION

Founders need strong analytic skills to develop smart solutions to problems, but they also need negotiation expertise to implement these solutions and bring them to market. Negotiating effectively will help you reach agreements, achieve objectives, establish interpersonal relationships, and ultimately be more productive. This course is designed to teach you the art and science of sales and negotiation.

ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE MANAGEMENT FOR START-UPS

This course is designed for students to understand essentials of accounting and finance management. As soon as you validate your idea and start real transactions with your clients, you will need to be aware of accounting terminology and how to run finance in the company. After the course students will be able to make estimated financial decisions and reduce financial risks. Financial literacy is a key skill needed to raise investment and to show to investors that you know how to manage their money.

DIGITAL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

This course is designed to provide an overview of e- commerce models, applications, decisions, and issues. It introduces the concepts, vocabulary, and procedures associated with e-commerce and the internet. Students gain an overview of all aspects of e-commerce and digital business. Topics include the history of the internet and online retail and other forms of digital commerce. We discuss the possibilities of online business as well as e-commerce tools, marketing challenges, payment options, security issues and customer service, e- commerce strategies and marketing concepts. 

FUNDAMENTALS OF WEB BUILDING

Pioneering doesn’t mean to know how to code or how to write an operating system, but mastering the basics of coding (which is probably 1 year of fundamentals, plus a big project class or two) goes a long way towards achieving your goals. This course teaches students some basic relational database stuff, SQL or NOSQL, basic Java or Python, or RoR for prototyping, etc. It is very helpful so people do not say stupid things. At the end of the day, you will be able to build your own digital prototype.

FINTECH

Over the last 5 years, private investment in Fintech companies globally has increased ten-fold to over $40bn in 2021, fueling start-ups which are targeting the most profitable areas of traditional banking activities, while banks have been busy adjusting to the cost of an ever-increasing burden of regulations following the financial crisis. Through technology and nimble structures, digital disruption is driving the Banking industry to a tipping point that will forever transform it. Two centuries after the Industrial Revolution and only 30 years after Big Bang (deregulation of financial markets), join us to embrace the Digital Revolution coming to the world of finance!

CYBER-SECURITY RISKS MANAGEMENT

The course prepares students to handle the full variety of threats and challenges faced by the modern enterprise. Students start with foundations in cyber security and how cyber attacks are made. They will analyze the best cyber security start-ups and companies around the world and how to use cyber security tools to increase cyber safety of an enterprise.

MULTIMEDIA DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

The course provides students with the skills needed for web design, mobile interface design, experience design, motion graphics, 2D animation, web coding, streaming, user testing, video and sound editing, user interface prototyping, digital storytelling, and interactive design. Through a hands-on learning process, they develop the fundamental creative and technical capabilities needed to pursue employment in videography, motion graphics, web design and interactive content development.

Third Year

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS FOR START-UPS AND COMPANIES

This course covers all the stages of funding for early stage high-growth companies, from seed funding to venture capital rounds to a successful exit. We will concentrate on how entrepreneurs and investors make and should make important decisions. Examples of issues that we will cover are: (1) How can entrepreneurs raise funding successfully? (2) What are typical mistakes entrepreneurs make in raising capital and negotiating with investors? (3) How to choose your investor? (4) How to pitch to an investor? (5) How do angels and VCs generate and process their deal flow and select companies? (6) How to sell you start-up or company? (7) What are the valuation methods and how to valuate your start-up or company? (8) What are the procedures?

DIGITAL MARKETING

This course is designed to grow a new generation of leading marketing specialists – digital savvy professionals that can benefit from an explosive growth of online technologies by using the most cutting-edge, innovative tools in their daily job. Our teaching methodology is unique in combining a strong academic background in business studies, finance, accounting, marketing, and strategy with an in-depth specific digital knowledge in online video, mobile, viral, social media, and data driven marketing. You will also be a daily witness of the latest innovations from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and other greatest technological companies.

STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS MODEL INNOVATIONS

Business model innovation is the art of enhancing advantage and value creation by making simultaneous—and mutually supportive—changes both to an organization’s value proposition to customers and to its underlying operating model. At the value proposition level, these changes can address the choice of target segment, product or service offering, and revenue model. At the operating model level, the focus is on how to drive profitability, competitive advantage, and value creation for shareholders, customers, employees and society. Students will learn how to innovate fast without applying neither new technologies, nor new markets, nor necessarily building a new products.

BASICS OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS

The founders of future startups must possess the strategic and practical writing and oral skills to convince everyone that they know the way to go. This course is designed to immerse students into the essentials of communication strategy and persuasion: audience analysis, communicator credibility, message construction, and delivery. Students will get familiar with a huge palette of the current communication tools and how to use them cleverly. This is a highly practical course that introduces students to the art and science of effective communication strategies, stimulates their strategic thinking, and trains to develop confidence in their speaking and writing abilities.

ELECTIVE SUBJECT

The students will be able to choose one elective course from the list of subjects taught at the University. You will be able to deepen your knowledge and skills in the branding or communication realm or you would love to dive deeper in the oceans of tech. You are becoming a master, it's going to be your choice. Use it wisely ;)

(I) STARTUP BUILDING EXPERIMENTIAL PROJECT
(II) IMPLEMENTATION OF INNOVATION IN THE ORGANIZATION

At the end of studies, students will be able to chose either create their own startup or implement an innovation in the existing tech company. This will demand the best version of you so all you have learnt during studies will give fruitful results.

DEMO DAY

In the third year, students will present their startups during a Demo Day to a panel of venture capitalists, business angels, company builders, accelerators and university professors. Demo Day is a celebration day of students becoming real and qualified entrepreneurs, founders and innovators!