December 2004

New Offering in Entrepreneurship Program Looks at Turnaround Opportunities

The Spring 2005 semester at Haas will feature a new entrepreneurship class: The Entrepreneurship of Broken, Stuck and Unloved Companies

The class will provide students with an education into the complexities and unique problems of entrepreneurship in companies with great growth potential, but that are facing significant challenges to achieving that potential. It is designed to provide students with the tools and skills most critical to successfully screening, investing in, and/or leading companies that have both a great set of future growth opportunities and a great set of current problems. It will provide an introduction into the reasons why good companies can go bad, then focus on building screens and models to help choose among opportunities for those that have true potential to be rewarding.

The class will end with several “living case studies” – entrepreneurs who will come to the class and walk through their experiences with the kinds of activities covered in class.

The course will be taught by Robert J. Majteles and Steve Blank. Rob is the founder and managing partner of Treehouse Capital LLC, an investment firm focused on making growth investments in mid- and late-stage micro-cap public technology companies. Prior to launching Treehouse, Rob was a successful CEO of three different high tech companies.

Steve Blank is a “retired” serial entrepreneur and private investor. Steve has been a founder or participant in eight Silicon Valley startups since 1978. Steve’s last company E.piphany (NASDQ: EPNY) started in his living room in 1996.

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