The document provides details about the Berkeley-Columbia XMBA 296T Lean Launchpad course for mentors, including: 1) The course goal is for MBA students to learn how to transform a technology idea into a venture by testing business model hypotheses outside the classroom over 10 weeks. 2) Mentors are asked to advise one student team and help them network, test assumptions, and if applicable, build a basic functioning website. 3) The course uses Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas framework and focuses on customer development, with grades based on team progress, presentations, and a final report.

1. Berkeley-Columbia Daily Schedule for '12 Class
Term 5
XMBA 296T
Block 1
The Lean Launch Pad
mber 1
Breakfast Mentor Handbook Koret
Executive Leadership Koret
Lunch Koret
Advanced https://sites.google.com/site/xmba296t/
Entrepreneurship Koret
Break Koret
Mergers & Acquisitions
Professors:
Koret
Steve Blank sblank@kandsranch.com
Jon Feiber jdf@mdv.com
Jim Hornthal jim@hornthal.com
Owen Jacob oren@augustcap.com
er 2
Breakfast Koret
Teaching assistants:
MergersJoshi Acquisitions
Bhavik & joshibhavik@gmail.com Koret
Lunch & Speaker Series: Jason Hsu, CIO (Chief Investment Wells F
Officer),296T Mentor Handbook
XMBA
Research Affiliates Revision 3 page 1 of 7
Advanced Entrepreneurship Koret

2. Welcome as a team mentor in the XMBA296T Lean Launchpad course at the
Berkeley/Columbia joint MBA program.
BTW, this is the class that the National Science Foundation has standardized on to
teach 100 of their best scientists and engineers. See:
http://steveblank.com/2011/07/28/eureka-a-new-era-for-scientists-and-engineers/
This handbook is designed to help mentors understand their roles in the course, and
on course policies and process.
Course Goal: Lean Startups
Provide an experiential learning opportunity for MBA’s and engineers to see how
entrepreneurs really build companies. In ten weeks, teach a four-person team how
to transform a technology idea into a venture-scale business opportunity. Do it by
having them get outside the classroom and test each element of their business
model.
The goal is not a business plan, revenue plan, 5 year forecast, etc.
Students
The Berkeley/Columbia joint MBA students are typically experienced business
executives in their 30’s. (Their bio’s are in a separate facebook document.) They get
their MBA in 19 months while they continue to keep their full time jobs. Their 19-
month coursework is organized in five terms each three to four month long. Their
required courses are completed in the first three terms. (They take electives in the
last two terms. We are one of the electives.) Within each term class meets in five
blocks of times, typically Thursday through Saturday, 10 to 11-hours a day. (See the
sample of a block.)
Class
The class is limited to 40 MBA students selected out of a pool of applicants. We
suggested teams of 4 and by exception allowed teams of 3 or 5. Students needed to
apply with a team and an initial idea.
The teams will self-organize and establish individual roles on their own. There are no
formal CEO/VP’s. Just the constant parsing and allocating of the tasks that need to
be done.
Suggested Projects:
Hopefully the teams chose something for which they have passion, enthusiasm, and
some expertise and have customers using it.
Deliverables:
Teams that select a web-based product will have to build the website for the class.
Teams that select a physical product must have a bill of material and a prototype.
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3. The teams will be blogging their progress in between classes. It is an integral part of
their deliverables. It’s how we measure their progress (along with your in-class
Powerpoint presentations.) Each time they post they must notify you. Please look at
their posts in-between class and give them feedback.
Getting Prep’d
The best way for you to get a feel of the course is to:
1. read the blogs about the previous class.
See: http://steveblank.com/category/lean-launchpad/
If you can’t read all of the posts at least read this one:
http://steveblank.com/2010/12/07/the-lean-launchpad-–-teaching-entrepreneurship-
as-a-management-science/
and this one:
http://steveblank.com/2011/05/10/the-lean-launchpad-at-stanford-–-the-final-
presentations/
2. Download and breeze through the explanation of Osterwalders Business Model
Canvas
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/businessmodelgeneration_pre
view.pdf
3. Look at the students weekly and final presentations:
http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/tag/stanford
4. Read the class syllabus
http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/lean-launchpad-berkeley-columbia-syllabus-rev-5
and class website: https://sites.google.com/site/xmba296t/
Lean Launchpad Course Organization
The course is organized around Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas and
Steve Blank’s Customer Development process. (See the syllabus for details)
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4. Test
Hypotheses:
Test
Agile • Hypotheses:
Test
Development
Hypotheses:
Demand • Problem
Test
• Product Creation •
Hypotheses:
• Channel • Market Custome
• Type r
(Custome • • User
r) Customer Competitiv • Payer
• Development e Test Hypotheses:
Team
(Problem) • Channel
Test Hypotheses: Test Hypotheses:
• Size of • Pricing Model /
Opportunity/Market Pricing
• Validate Business Model
Each block’s class is organized around:
• a lecture on one of the 9 building blocks of a business model.
• Students teams present their “lessons learned” from getting out of the
building and iterating or pivoting their business model.
• The Eight (3 hour) Class Sessions:
Session 1: Sept 1st - Introduction, Business Models, Customer Development
Session 2: Sept 2nd – Value Proposition/Customer Segment
Session 3: Sept 22nd – Channels
Session 4: Sept 23rd - Demand Creation (Customer Relationships)
Session 5: Oct 13th – Revenue Model
Session 6: Oct 14th – Key Resources and Activities
Session 7: Nov 11th - Cost Structure
Session 8: Nov 12th – Fund Raising
Session 9 & 10: Dec 1st / 2nd – Lessons Learned Presentations
All mentors are welcome to attend any of the classes.
Schedule
Classes meet at U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School, Room F320, Koret classroom
See the syllabus for times.
Nov 11th and 12 classes are held at Columbia University in New York
Office hours are held before or after class
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5. Textbooks
• Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation
http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/order.php
• Steven Blank, Four Steps to the Epiphany
http://www.stevenblank.com/books.html
Grading Criteria: this course is team-based and 85% of their grade will come from
your team progress and final project. Grading criteria:
▪ 15% Individual participation in class.
▪ 40% out-of-the-building progress as measured by blog write-ups each week.
Team members must:
1) update business model canvas each block
2) identify which team member did which portion of the work.
3) detailed report on what the team did each week
4) weekly email of team member participation
▪ 20% team “lesson learned” summaries (see appendix for format)
▪ 25% team final report (see Dec 1st class for format)
Website
https://sites.google.com/site/xmba296t/
XMBA 296T Mentor Handbook Revision 3 page 5 of 7

6. The Role of Mentors
As a mentor, you are the advisor for one team with four students. (Exceptions are
made for teams of 3 to 5.) In ten very short weeks your team has to 1) come up
with a business idea, 2) get outside the classroom and test all their business model
hypotheses and 3) if a web-based business get it up and running.
Mentors and Getting Out of the Building
The class is about teaching the students that the 9 building blocks of a business
model are simply hypothesis until they actually validate them with customers and
partners; and since there are “no facts inside the building, they need to get outside.”
This means as part of this class they need to talk to customers, channel partners,
and domain experts and gather real-world data – for each part of their plan.
This can be a daunting and formidable task. To the best of your ability, help them
network, teach them how to send email and make phone calls and run customer
surveys. Open your rolodex to whatever level you feel comfortable with.
Mentors and Opportunity Selection
Our experience has shown the first issue for most teams is finding, selecting and
sizing the right opportunity. But as in the real world, a great team will eventually
converge on a great idea.
Your role is not to make the teams idea better. Rather it’s to help the teams figure
out for themselves how to test their hypotheses about their business model.
Questions that are helpful are, “have you considered x?” “why don’t you look at
company z and see what their business model is and compare it to yours,” or “here
are some names of domain experts in the field, you should talk to them.” Try to
avoid specifically telling them what to do.
Remember: The class is not trying to be Y Combinator. We are trying to teach give
students models, heuristics and experience they can apply when they leave
Berkeley/Columbia. The class is about what they learned on the journey.
Mentors and Web-based Startups
If your team is building a web-based business they need to get the site up and
running during the semester. The goal is not a finished or polished site but a vehicle
so they can test their assumptions about minimum feature set, demand creation,
virality, stickyness, etc.
Mentor Time Commitment
The wisdom and advice you give these students are invaluable. We’ve found that
successful mentor/team interactions look like this:
- Checking their blogs when they post and commenting on them
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7. - Physically meeting with your assigned team a least twice during the semester (it’s
OK to tell them they have to come to you.)
- Additional communication as needed by phone or email.
- You are welcome to attend any of the classes as well as your teams’ final
presentation to the Venture Capital panel at the end of the quarter.
Mentor Communications
We’ve found that keeping the mentors, teaching team and teaching assistants in
sync is the best way to ensure both a great outcome for the students and a
satisfying experience for you.
1. You are invited to join the first class on Thursday Sept 1st at 1pm. We’ll
introduce you to the teams.
2. We ask you to send the entire teaching team an email summarizing the teams
progress and dynamics each time you meet with them letting us know if we
need to specifically help and intervene.
3. In addition, we will share all these emails with the entire mentor team and see
if there are any common problems that need to be addressed class-wide.
Thanks once again for your support and participation,
Steve, Jon, Jim and Oren
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