Entrepreneurship: Launch Your Startup
Idea validation, MVP, business model, first customers and funding options.
Taught by Saroj · Founder, My Skill Lab
What you'll learn
- Write a clear problem statement and test it through structured customer interviews
- Complete a Lean Canvas and rank the riskiest assumptions in your business model
- Scope and ship a minimum viable product that tests one core assumption
- Set a launch price using value-based reasoning and basic unit economics
- Build a repeatable outreach plan to find and convert your first 100 customers
- Compare bootstrapping, grants, angels, accelerators and venture capital, and calculate runway and dilution
About this course
This beginner course walks you through launching a startup the way experienced founders actually do it: problem first, product second. You will learn how to validate a startup idea with customer interviews that avoid polite compliments, map your business model on a Lean Canvas, build a minimum viable product (MVP) with no-code tools or a simple prototype, price it with confidence, and win your first 100 customers through direct outreach and channels you can test cheaply. The final lesson compares bootstrapping with raising money from angels, accelerators and venture capital, including how SAFEs, dilution and runway work. It suits first-time founders, students with a side project and professionals planning to leave a job to build something of their own. No business degree or coding skills are needed. Bring an idea, or a problem you care about, and you will finish with a tested plan and real customer evidence.
Course content
7 lessons- 1From Idea to a Problem Worth SolvingWhy startups need a real problem, where strong ideas come from and how to write a sharp problem statement.Preview
- 2Validating the Problem with Customer InterviewsRun interviews that uncover real behaviour instead of polite compliments, and decide when you have enough evidence.
- 3Mapping Your Business Model with the Lean CanvasCapture your whole business on one page and find the assumptions most likely to sink it.
- 4Building a Minimum Viable ProductChoose the right kind of MVP, cut scope ruthlessly and run a build-measure-learn loop.
- 5Pricing Your Product and Basic Unit EconomicsSet a launch price from customer value, design simple tiers and check that each customer is profitable.
- 6Getting Your First 100 CustomersUse direct outreach, communities and small channel experiments to win and learn from early customers.
- 7Funding Options: Bootstrapping or Raising MoneyCompare bootstrapping, grants, angels, accelerators and venture capital, and understand runway, SAFEs and dilution.