Since decades, the Silicon Valley is globally famous for its innovative startups and innovative work environment. This is why the group of students from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts spent six weeks in San Jose, exploring the peculiarities, which make this place the most important tech-hub worldwide.

During the stay, the students got a lot of firsthand experiences from different speakers who have worked and lived in this environment for years. The many excursions to different companies gave them a deep insight into the Valley.

Next to these practical experiences, Dr. Anu Basu, the director of the Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneurship at San Jose State University, provided them with a more scientific, more theoretical point of view on entrepreneurship. Within four two hours lectures, she covered the various aspects of starting a new business.

The documentation on the download page summarizes the lessons taught by Dr. Basu. The downloads are exclusive for the participants of the program. Non the less, here is a summary of the covered topics:

• Introduction to Entrepreneurship
  • definition
  • history
  • impact on the society
  • characteristics of successful entrepreneurs
• Opportunity Recognition and Idea Generation
  • differences between opportunities and ideas
  • how to find opportunities
  • techniques and methods to improve creative processes
• Feasibility Analysis
  • it’s importance
  • what aspects to cover
  • pitfalls
• Why Startups Fail
  • reasons for failure
  • risk mitigation