Intro to Startups

How do Silicon Valley startups work? Two or three people get together, work for a year or so, and build new products or services that change the world, shake established industries, and leave old companies in the dust. How does this happen? Can you build a startup? What have Silicon Valley people learned about startups? What could you learn if you could talk with top Silicon Valley advisors, lawyers, and investors? Here’s your chance.

Andreas Ramos interviewed 26 founders, plus many advisors, lawyers, and investors and got the inside story of how startups are built, what works, and most important: what doesn’t work and the mistakes that kill startups. All of this is in this online course.

This course is based on his book Startup, which is a #1 Amazon Best Seller that has been translated to French, Spanish, Korean, and Chinese.

If you have ever wondered if you can do a startup, what it takes, and how to raise money, this course is for you. It is presented in clear English.

The Startup Core 101 is a brief, yet comprehensive, introduction to startups, both in Silicon Valley and anywhere in the world. It covers:

• The Silicon Valley Iceberg: Ecosystem or Assembly line? How Silicon Valley really works. How to break in. How you can make it through the system
• Your Founder team: The Founder’s role (and limits), co-founders (and problems), and advisors.
• The Three Stages of a Startup: What you should do and what you should NOT do at each stage.
• Incorporation and Stock: When to incorporate (and when not to incorporate). How much stock to give to cofounders, advisors, investors (and the mistakes). Different kinds of stock and the implications. Why you use vesting and how it works.
• Lawyers for Your Startup: You’ll see why your lawyer work for the startup, not for you, and what that means. We also cover how your lawyer works with other lawyers. What you can expect from lawyers.
• Funding: The good and bad about money. The types of investors, what they want, how they score you, why they say yes, and why they say no.

At the end of this course, students will have a good overview of the reality of seed startups. They will know what is important and where to focus their attention.

• The course includes dozens of comments and tips from founders, lawyers, investors, and venture capitalists.
• Each course is a short (10-15 minutes) video.
• You’re welcome to contact the instructor with your follow-up questions.

This is an ideal course for anyone who is thinking of doing a startup. This is also a good course for anyone who is advising startups or teaching how to build startups because it’s based on interviews and experience instead of impractical theories. Investors will also benefit because they’ll see what really matters in a startup.