The document provides an overview of the Disciplined Entrepreneurship Framework from MIT. It discusses how MIT believes entrepreneurship is a craft that can be taught using both the spirit of creativity and flexibility of a pirate combined with the skills and discipline of a Navy Seal. It outlines the key skills needed, including problem-solution fit and the ability to build a business model that generates revenue. The document also discusses the importance of team formation, noting that a group working together is not automatically a team. It identifies six key ingredients for an effective team: clear roles and responsibilities; a clear working approach; an effective decision-making process; equitable participation; managing influence; and working through conflict constructively.
13. One More Thing: The No Winklevi Rule about
Intellectual Property at MEMSI (From 15.390)
1. Submissions constitute “public disclosure”: if you’ve got an amazing
secret, disguise it.
2. Do not write “confidential” or “proprietary” on your assignments or
submitted plans. This applies to the entire semester.
3. We will freely distribute submitted plans to your classmates, & will
use non-secure email/websites.
4. This is an academic environment – information is free. You have no
stake to a claim in a company because of your work in this class.
Any companies that start, start after this class with a clean slate.
5. No Winklevosses/Winklevi here
6. You are implicitly granting us permission to use your material in
future classes/handbook unless you tell us otherwise
13
30. “A group of people working
together does not automatically
equal a team.”
– Linda Hill, Harvard Business School
30
31. 6 Ingredients that makes an effective team
1. Clear roles and responsibilities
2. Clear working approach
3. Effective decision making process
4. Equitable participation from all members
5. Managing influence
6. Working through conflict
31
32. The RACI model (a.k.a. what does everyone do?)
• R: Responsible
• A: Accountable (i.e. the project lead)
• C: Consulted
• I: Informed
32
1. Clear roles and responsibilities
33. 2. Clear working approach
33
Things to decide up front:
• Logistics
• Project plan
• Division of labor
• Project management
34. 3. Effective decision making process
34
• Is this a solo or group decision?
• If the latter: Who will facilitate the discussion?
• Points to ponder:
• Dictatorial approach versus groupthink
• Knee jerk decision making versus analysis paralysis
• The need for speed – and agreeing to disagree
Learn to agree to disagree
35. 4. Equitable participation
35
• Who participates a lot? Why? To
what effect?
• Who doesn’t participate? Why not?
To what effect?
• Did anyone suddenly withdraw from
participation? Why?
• How do you treat the silent people?
• Are the interactions excluding
people?
36. 5. Managing Influence
36
Questions to pose
• Who has influence? Why?
• Who is ignored? Why?
• Is the influence shifting? Why?
• Is there a division within the
team? Why?
• Who interrupts whom and is this
tolerated? Why?
• How does your team treat
minority views?
37. 6. Working through conflict
37
Working through task conflict is good!
• People who agree all the time are
probably stuck in groupthink
• OR they may be cowed into becoming
yes-people
• OR they may be just lazy
Unhandled interpersonal conflict is bad!
• Why is it unhandled? Are you being
lazy? Are you hiding?
• Are you being passive aggressive?
• Are you being outright aggressive?
None of these states are
conducive to success
38. Some ideas to help manage conflict
• Define the rules of engagement. What behaviors are OK
and what’s not OK?
• Agree to disagree – then move on
• Have a mechanism to discuss issues privately
• Ground discussions on data, not opinions
• Consider multiple alternatives
• Be fair – empower members to contribute equally
38
39. If things get funky, who will fix it?
• We are here to help – come see us any time privately or
in a group if you need to talk through things.
• BUT: Ultimately it is the responsibility of each and every
one of you to speak up (nicely!) when there is an issue,
and help the team work towards a solution.
39
40. Resources
• Note on team process by Linda Hill and Maria Farkas - Harvard
Business Review https://hbr.org/product/note-on-team-
process/402032-PDF-ENG
• Effective Meetings: A Checklist for Success
https://hbr.org/product/effective-meeting-a-checklist-for-
success/C0103A-PDF-ENG
Do we have a position on this? Hell yeah.
A lot of times, in many startups, the most overrated thing in a startup is the idea. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Anyone can have ideas. BUT the team is what will make it work. Tech based startups like Lightmatter are a little different – but it still comes down to the team making things work. Lightmatter has raised $11m and are on an arms race to get a first working chip prototyped. The only way they can get it done is if the team is cohesive, has complementary skills and works well together like a well oiled machine.
The #1 reason startups fail is a bad team. So we want to take a few minutes to talk about what makes a great team.
You’ve filled out the applications and we have asked you to pick one of these three roles that you like to play. Show of hands. How many people feel they are a hustler? Hipster? Hacker? How many people feel they fit in more than 1 box? That is perfectly normal, I myself have played all 3 roles. What I find though is that I like 1 over another, and I therefore choose to play that role if the team allows me to. That’s something for you to think about as well. What role do you like to play? Hold that thought. Let’s meet some real winning teams and see who they are and what they are about.
Hubspot - $4.4b – unicorn
Waypoint – delta v team 2018 – sold to PTC less than 1 year after company formation
Biobot Analytics – delta v alum, YC alum, raised $2.5m and Mariana here has not even graduated.
Let’s look at what roles they are playing in their companies.
Now lets look at their majors. Wow! What’s with the discrepancies!
Now lets look at their majors. Wow! What’s with the discrepancies!
The moral of this story? You need to know that people’s majors don’t necessarily equal the role they play. Likewise their majors also don’t represent all the skills they bring to the table.
Let’s do an exercise. We want you to take 2 minutes, take a piece of paper, and put down your name, you preferred role (use a sticker we provide), and write down some of the skills you can bring to the table.
All done? Now share it with your table.
That was a super quick exercise to get you thinking about what you want to do and what you bring to the table.
There is are two more dimensions. The third dimension is this: Which is your area of interest. Healthcare? Gaming? Wearable devices? Sustainability? That’s the last thing you should consider when forming a team and the first guiding principle for the team. Because ultimately your team will work on 1 project, and we want you to find folks who are interested in the same few things you are interested in – and help you form teams that are reasonably diverse in preferred role and skill sets as well.
The fourth dimension is of course, team chemistry. Do you get along with your team? Can you figure out how to work with them? Do the personalities mesh with good chemistry? This, of course, you won’t know until you get a bit deeper into the project. This is why we will have two time slots where you will be taking 1x1 meetings with TAs to discuss how things go.
The rest of the day will include many more team building and networking activities to help you get to know each other a little more. At this point let’s take a break and answer any q’s – then we will move on to the next activity.