Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Entrepreneurship is disciplined experimentation under uncertainty. Master opportunity evaluation: problem severity, willingness to pay, market size (TAM, SAM and SOM - bottom-up beats top-down), competition and timing. Know the lean startup loop of build, measure, learn; the minimum viable product as the smallest test of a genuinely risky assumption; and product-market fit signals such as retention, organic growth and shortening sales cycles. The Business Model Canvas covers customer segments, value proposition, channels, relationships, revenue streams, key resources, activities, partners and cost structure. On financing, understand bootstrapping, angel and venture capital stages, pre-money and post-money valuation, dilution, cap tables, liquidation preference, and unit economics (CAC, LTV, payback). Innovation types include incremental, radical and disruptive - disruption typically starts in low-end or new markets and moves up - plus open innovation and stage-gate governance.
Traps: an inflated top-down TAM; calling a prototype an MVP when it tests nothing; equating disruptive with merely high-tech; celebrating a valuation while ignoring dilution and preference stacks; assuming a good product is a business without a viable channel.
Worked example: an investor commits 2m at an 8m pre-money valuation. Post-money is 10m, so the investor owns 20% and founders are diluted to 80%; later rounds dilute everyone again.
Rule of thumb: an LTV to CAC ratio above roughly 3 to 1 with payback under 12 to 18 months is a healthy subscription signal.