NEW HALF-SEMESTER SEMINAR OFFERING FOR FALL 2011

Title: NextLab Seminar: Entrepreneurial Strategies for Hi-Tech Startups in Emerging Markets  

Instructor: Jhonatan Rotberg, Lecturer, MIT Engineering Systems Division

Teaching Assistant: Arturo Ochoa, MSc student, MIT Sloan and Engineering Schools  

Meeting Time and Room: currently listed for Mondays 6:00-8:00pm at E51-372

Because this is a half-semester course, students and instructor will agree on the time slot based on their existing schedules.  Meeting time will be scheduled based on the availability of students wanting to enroll.

First Meeting: Monday, October 24, 2011

Instructor will also be available to see interested students on Wednesday, October 26, and Thursday, October 27, from 5:30-6:30pm at E51-372 on both days.

Subject Description:

Students will collaborate with founders and technical teams of currently incubated startups in emerging markets to design their 6-12 month road maps, and determine their strategic alternatives. Through a joint program with Wayra, Latin America’s premier hi-tech incubator (funded by Telefónica), MIT teams will select one of its ten Mexico-based portfolio companies, work to structure a key deal (strategic, financial, commercial, or technological), entice potential partners from anywhere in the globe, and make it happen. Merit-based funds for IAP internships will be awarded.

Goal & Impact:

This course offers students the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned at MIT to real-world situations where the stakes are high, time is short, and there is intense pressure to deliver.  Students will immerse themselves into the founding team of a fledgling venture in a developing country, in order to determine the company’s mid-term roadmap, thereby learning the challenges of hi-tech innovation in a resource-constrained environment.  They will also find themselves acting as the bridge between those challenges and MIT’s highly developed entrepreneurial ecosystem, while trying to structure a deal that brings emerging market hi-tech startups to global markets.  Class content will alternate between lectures, class discussions, and student presentations in which each MIT team will share with the rest of the class the problems faced by its selected startup, and the deal they’re working on.  We will have a semester-end event to present results and, based on that, students may obtain the opportunity and resources for travel to personally work on their deal, hands on, during IAP.

NextLab’s Tricentenario Project

This is the pilot for a Latin America-wide relationship that the MIT NextLab Program (http://nextlab.mit.edu) is developing with Wayra, Telefónica’s hi-tech startup incubator (www.wayra.org) and the federal governments of the region.  We’re beginning with Mexico, and are actively working with Wayra Mexico, the Mexican Ministry of the Economy (www.se.gob.mx), and the National Science and Technology Council (www.conacyt.gob.mx) to develop a national strategy that includes industry-government and local academia for creating “ecosystems of innovation and entrepreneurship” hosted at technical universities across the country (http://tricentenario.mit.edu).  Within the next 12 months, we plan to engage the other 7 Latin American countries in which Wayra has presence, and expect to replicate this model across the region.

Listing and Units: ESD.S22 - 3 units (2-0-4 for half semester)

Open to both graduate and upper class undergraduates; no prerequisites.

Office Hours: available upon request 

Deadline to Enroll: November 23, 2011 (last day to add half-term subjects offered in second half of term)

E-mail Lists and Website

There is an e-mail list for the students of the course, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , which can be used to ask questions or send information of interest to the entire class.  Representatives of all Wayra Mexico startups can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and course instructors can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .   Individual mailing lists for each team will be made once the projects are chosen.  The class website and blogs can be found at: http://nextlab.mit.edu/.

Student Deliverables and Grading

Students will be graded, on equal parts, based on the following deliverables:

-        Class participation

-        Slide deck of deal proposed to and agreed by the Wayra startup

-        Array of potential partners and traction achieved with each

-        Panelists in final event as a consequence of direct invitation

-        Performance during semester-end event presentation

IAP Funds

Based on the performnce during the semester, NextLab and Wayra may designate resources for travel to certain students or teams in order to further course-related work during IAP.

Class Schedule