BusinessInsider has recently posted a heads-up about a free 10-week college-level course being offered for people interested in creating or joinig a tech start-up.
Why re-invent the wheel when somebody (who has actually done it) will will share their plans with you?
From BusinessInsider (full article
here)
You Can Take Stanford's Course On Startup Engineering Online
Kyle Russell Jun. 17, 2013, 4:40 PM 4,633 2
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Interested in joining or founding a startup but have no idea where to begin? Or perhaps you're interested in walking a mile in the shoes of a developer at a startup to see what it's like?
There's a (free) class for that, and it's taught by two of the best computer science professors in the Silicon Valley.
Available on Coursera, one of the companies we recently wrote about that's trying to disrupt education in this country, Startup Engineering aims to teach you everything there is to know about creating a modern tech startup.
Going beyond merely teaching students how to code, the course goes in-depth on topics like turning your app into a product that generates revenue, creating a project that can scale to audiences in the millions, and creating an API that can let your final project turn into a platform for others to build from.
Whether you're an experienced programmer or you've merely dabbled in coding (you do need some experience), you should see if the course is for you. It could be very lucrative, according to an email from the professors teaching the class:
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Looks like an excellent opportunity for any with the requisite personal ambition and the technical background to see it through. Course info and sign-up page is
here.
Course Format
The first part of the course will cover modern software engineering principles with a focus on mobile HTML5 development, taught via 5-10 minute video lectures with in-video quizzes, programming assignments, and multiple choice questions. Guest lecturers from top Silicon Valley startups will bring these concepts to life with real engineering problems from their work.
In the second part, you will apply these concepts to develop a simple command line application, expose it as a webservice, and then integrate other students' command line apps and webservices together with yours to create an open-source mobile HTML5 app as a final project. Lectures will continue in the second part, but will be focused on the design, marketing, and logistical aspects of creating and scaling a startup. No other homework will be given in the second part to permit full focus on the final project.
Grading will be based on multiple choice questions and programming assignments, and there will be a substantial final project. The best final projects in each category (e.g. genomics, transportation, law, etc.) will qualify for prizes sponsored by startups.
If you're at all serious about doing a tech start-up, this may be the ticket for you.
