Starting a deep-tech company has two faces: one public, made of successes and sales, and one often neglected, made of passion and sweat and "sticking up until tomorrow, come what may".
In 11 weeks, our MSc students learn how to get from a basic idea to a business plan that summarises their proposed strategy. Assignments include a business canvas and a 6-minute group pitch on an online platform. Each week, students get a frontal lecture from an academic turned entrepreneur (Gianluca Memoli) and conduct group work on an aspect of their business plan (e.g. sales, promotion, marketing, IP, pricing, delivery and operations).
Uniquely, each week our students also get first-hand tips from multiple guests, from finance directors to investors, from serial entrepreneurs to marketing and sales experts. All coming from spin-out companies in the University of Sussex ecosystem.
Under specific request by the convenor, these guests share both their motivations (e.g. "Do you really want to be an Entrepreneur?" - by Phil Tee) and their darker moments (e.g. "When things go wrong..." - by Phil Tee and Gianluca Memoli).
