Stanford University
ENGR 245
The Lean Launch Pad
(officially: Technology Entrepreneurship and the Lean Startup)
Mentor Handbook
Professors:
Steve Blank
Ann Miura-Ko
Jon Feiber
sblank@kandsranch.com
ann@floodgate.com
jdf@mdv.com
Teaching assistants:
Thomas Haymore
Felix Huber
thaymore@stanford.edu
fhuber@stanford.edu
Engr 245 Mentor Handbook
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Welcome as a team mentor in the E 245 Lean Launchpad course at the Stanford
School of Engineering.
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 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.
Students
The class is limited to 40 graduate students selected out of a pool of applicants. The
students are typically working on their Masters or PhD’s in engineering or science;
however the class is also open to MBA students.
E 245 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)
Test Hypotheses:
Agile
Development
Test Hypotheses:
• Channel
• (Customer)
• (Problem)
• Demand
Creation
Test Hypotheses:
Problem
Customer
User
Payer
Test Hypotheses:
• Channel
Test Hypotheses:
Test Hypotheses:
• Size of Opportunity/Market
• Validate Business Model
Engr 245 Mentor Handbook
•
•
•
•
• Product
• Market Type
• Competitive
Customer
Development
Team
Test
Hypotheses:
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• Pricing Model / Pricing
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Each week’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: Jan 4th - Course Introduction, Business Models, Customer Development
Session 2: Jan 11th – Value Proposition
Session 3: Jan 18th – Customer Segment
Session 4: Jan 25th - Channels
Session 5: Feb 1st – Demand Creation
Session 6: Feb 8th – Revenue Model
Session 7: Feb 15th - Partners
Session 8: Feb 22nd – Resources and Costs
Session 9 & 10: Mar 1st / 8th – Lessons Learned Presentations
All mentors are welcome to attend any of the classes.
Schedule
Classes meet at Herrin T175 Tuesday, 4 -7pm. January 4th through March 8th
Office hours are held Tuesdays from 3-4 pm in TBD.
Class details can be found on the class website. http://www.stanford.edu/class/xxxx
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
 Jessica Livingston, Founders at Work http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1590597141
Grading
Weekly Lessons Learned
Final Lessons Learned Presentation
Engr 245 Mentor Handbook
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65% of their grade
35% of their grade
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The Role of Mentors
As a mentor, you are the advisor for one team (each team has four students.) 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 Opportunity Selection
Our experience has shown the first issue for most teams is finding, selecting and
sizing the right opportunity. As in the real world, if they don’t get this part right, the
rest of their business model is at risk.
We’ve found that the best plans came from students who (from best to worst):






Already were working on a technology driven research project
Was a domain expert and was solving a problem for the “next bench”
Had a passion for a specific idea
Had an interest in an idea
Worked on someone else’s idea
Picked the latest fad getting funded in the valley
Therefore one of your greatest contributions can be to help extract ideas from
reluctant engineers. We’ve found that challenging a team with “you mean that with
a team of four engineering PhD candidates the best idea your team can come with is
another social networking shopping site?” can be extremely helpful.
Make your team think hard about how to commercialize technologies they’ve been
working on or are familiar with, before they default to a pedestrian idea that every
other startup in the valley is doing. Remind them that their technical work at
Stanford, while familiar to them, will be unique to an investor audience. Having said
that, we believe that struggling to find a viable business opportunity is an integral
part of the learning process. Although many of our mentors are eager to share some
of their business ideas with their teams, we ask that you hold off to give them a
chance to come up with something on their own.
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 Stanford.
The class is about what they learned on the journey.
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.
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For engineers 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 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:
- Physically meeting with your assigned team a least every two weeks
- 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/Team Selection
The teams form after the first class meeting. By the second class they have
submitted their initial description of their business concept to the teaching team.
At the start of the class we will assign you to specific teams, so you can participate in
the teams opportunity selection process. If after seeing a team’s initial idea you
think your expertise is a not a match, feel free to let us know your preference for a
specific team.
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. We will hold a one hour Mentor orientation session on Tuesday January 4th at
3pm, right before the class. Even if you’ve done this before we ask you to
attend. We update the process yearly as you give us additional feedback.
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.
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Thanks once again for your support and participation,
Steve, Ann & Jon
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