Generation Startup

Instructions:

For all of the following questions, supplement your answers with data and other evidence from the film.

Keep your assignments under 4 full pages (filling out 3 pages is probably a good target), single-spaced, 12 point font, and 1" margins.

All answers should be based on the situation the company was facing at the time of the case content.

Active participation in class discussion can help to supplement your grade on this assignment.

Questions:

1. Describe in detail the issue(s) at the heart of the documentary, Generation Startup, facing startups in Detroit. Be very detailed here; I need to be convinced that you watched and paid close attention to the entire film.

Describe a few of the challenges that face the companies displayed and the individuals choosing to be entrepreneurs and working for entrepreneurial companies. Use this section to describe challenges of entrepreneurship that comes across. Conclude with at least one to two clear questions facing specific companies at the end of the video.

2. Pick one entrepreneur/founder/early employee displayed in the video and his or her company.

a. Describe how the main founder discovered the opportunity at the foundation of the company. What resources does the entrepreneur bring to this opportunity?

b. Chapter 12 focuses on corporate entrepreneurship but the challenges still apply to these new firms. Which challenge (Seeds versus weeds, Experience versus initiative, Internal versus external staffing, Building capabilities versus collaborating, Incremental versus preemptive launch) of managing innovation from Chapter 12 is the most significant barrier for your company in the video?

c. Which entry strategy (pioneering new entry, imitative new entry, adaptive new entry) is your entrepreneur/company employing for their main product or service?

3. Provide recommendations (at least two) for your company moving forward in how to compete, grow, or launch new products given their industries and potential competition.

Note - some of the individuals being followed are no longer with their original company by the end. Make this clear if you are still talking about a company they have since left or the new one. Your recommendations MUST address the question you stated at the beginning of the case at the very least and could also address startup issues in Detroit more generally.