Background.  Governments around the world have committed over $512bn of the global economic stimulus outlined so far to green projects, with 22% to be spent in 2009.  The US ‘green economic stimulus plan’ ($117.2 bn or 12% of total) is focused on catalyzing private efforts to build a clean energy future through development of plug-in hybrid cars, renewable energy technology, investment in energy efficiency, and a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. China, with its commitment to the circular economy ($218 bn. or 33.4%), is rapidly becoming the largest marketplace in green technologies, has made a commitment to leapfrog a generation of automotive technology to lead the green car revolution, and has an official target of installed solar capacity of 20 GW by 2020. This has accelerated interest of investors in entrepreneurial startups in the CleanTech space,

Need.  When is a technology the basis of a potential business?  The entrepreneurs’ challenge is to respond to market distortions, identify early whether the venture is positioned such that it has the potential for maximum value creation, and present an attractive value proposition for investors.  The majority of companies grow by way of mergers and acquisitions driven by valuations based on product innovation and differentiation. 

Course Model.  In CleanTech Entrepreneurship, we teach strategic and financial tools that allow the student to assess technology-based business ventures during the first half of the term.  After Fall break, engineering students will work with MBA students enrolled in the CleanTech Venture Assessment course (ES 520) to apply these tools to startup companies in the CleanTech space.  The teams will work with real companies, take apart their business model and product positioning, rigorously assess the company’s strategy, and reposition their products for competitive differentiation.

Class format.  This is unlike a typical engineering problem solving class, is highly interactive and multi-disciplinary, and is centered around a real life project/company.  You should expect to encounter:  Content-specific presentations; Full-class application discussions based on case studies:  both written cases and guest-speaker provided presentations/experiences; A team-based project focused on applying and integrating strategic, finance, and marketing tools to assess and reposition startup companies.

The perspective provided in this course will be valuable for students that are both looking to form or join startup companies as well as for those that are looking to create corporate value via industrial research.  Students will learn to develop business strategies along the value chain of this nascent growth opportunity.  They will be provided strategy, financial and marketing tools to screen cleantech ideas/ventures and formulate a testable business hypothesis (revenue capturing model).

Please check the CleanTech intro 08.pdf to learn of the course focus, as well as current and past companies involved.  For an example syllabus, please see ENGR 521 CleanTech Entrepreneurship syllabus (final).doc.