Ken Singer Managing Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology IEOR Department, UC Berkeley Materials co-created by Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu & Ken Singer

1. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Opportunity Identification
Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship
Ken Singer
Managing Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology
IEOR Department, UC Berkeley
Materials co-created by Dr. Ikhlaq Sidhu & Ken Singer

2. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
1. Ideation: Finding an Opportunity
2. Execution: Developing the Venture
Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

3. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
• If you were going to write a new movie,
where would you start?
1. Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and others:
“Remakes” and “Transforms”
See http://venturehacks.com/Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

4. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
• If you were going to write a new movie,
where would you start?
1. Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and others:
“Remakes” and “Transforms”
See http://venturehacks.com/
Western
Genre
Space
Movie
Jaws In Space
Star Wars Alien
Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

5. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
This is called a “high concept pitch”. It works for companies also.
Internet
Trend
News
and
Media
Flickr Video
Yahoo
Youtube
Big Data China?
Privacy,
Traceless
Image
?
SMS
• Trick: No one else is doing it already
• Fits on business card. Gets a conversation started.
Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

6. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Market Shift (Tech, Legal, Social shifts)
2. Catching the Next Wave by observing shifts

7. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Technology Shift

8. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Legal Shift

9. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Social Shift

10. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
4. Pick a Target or Problem…Someone to Disrupt
Marc Benioff,
Founder Salesforce
CRM SaaSX
Target: Siebel Systems
“Global Warming
is a thing”
Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

11. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
5. Your own frustration – i.e. your own story.
You are the typical customer.
It’s something you really care about
“There must be a better way…”
Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

12. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
6. Spend time where the action is likely to be.
Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

13. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
7. Observe people at the leading edge.
Material: Ikhlaq Sidhu

14. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Things to think about:
• “Need” driven or discovery-based
• Evolutionary vs Revolutionary
• Automatic door locks vs Internet
• Bad ideas become good
• Testing—the power of empirical evidence
• Look for local ideas
Opportunity Recognition: Deep Dive

15. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Gestalt
How do YOU see the world?
Opportunities in Plain Sight

16. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
The Power of Perspective

17. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
The Power of Perspective

18. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
Outsiders See the World differently

19. OPPORTUNITY RECOGNITION
January 2015Confidential Material: Property of Ken Singer
The best ideas speak softly or not at all