Internet startup ventures:
E-commerce, e-business, and your own "dot-com"
Professor Haim Levkowitz
Associate Professor of Computer Science
University of Massachusetss Lowell, Lowell, MA
Managing Partner, HyperGROWTH Ventures, LLC, Andover, MA

Topics schedule

Part I: The "New Economy"
  1. A brief introduction to the Internet [Sys, Slides, Other]
    1. History of the Internet
    2. History of the World-Wide Web
    3. Technology
      1. Introduction to the Internet
        1. Packet switching
        2. Communication protocols
          1. The OIP model
          2. TCP/IP
          3. FTP
          4. HTTP
      2. Introduction to the World-Wide Web
        1. Basic architecture
        2. Clients and servers
          1. Client-side processing
          2. Server-side processing
      3. Client-side technologies
        1. HTML
        2. Applets
        3. Other alternatives
      4. Protocols
        1. HTTP
        2. SHTTP
        3. SSL
        4. Other
      5. Server-side technologies
        1. CGI
        2. Servlets
        3. Server-side includes
        4. Other server-side technologies
  2. Security and privacy issues
  3. Economy & business
    1. Who "owns" the Internet?
    2. Who "runs" the Internet?
    3. IP addresses and Domain Names
      1. Who gets to assign them?
  • Technology and business [Sys, e-B, netF, Slides, Other]
    1. E-commerce and e-business
    2. The "new economy": the effect of the Internet on the economy and business
      1. New businesses
        1. "New-new" vs. "new-old"
        2. Primary sectors/markets
          1. Content
          2. Community
          3. Commerce
            1. B2C
            2. B2B
            3. "A2Z"
          4. Infrastructure and enabling technologies
      2. Old businesses
        1. "Which dot-com is chasing our customers?"
        2. "Which dot-com is chasing our executives?"
        3. "What are we going to do about it?"
    3. The effect of the economy & business on Internet technology
      1. Bandwidth: demand vs. availability
      2. Higher speed ("broadband") Internet access
        1. Cable modem
        2. DSL
        3. Fiber optic
      3. Internet 2

    Part II: Your own "dot-com"
    1. Solving a real problem for a real market [e-B, HVT, MBA, netF, Slides, Other]
      1. Products and/or services
        1. "Pain" (the problem)
          1. Which primary sector(s)/market(s)?
        2. "Patients" (the market)
        3. "Other medicine" (the competition)
          1. What’s wrong with them?
        4. "Your medicine" (your approach)
          1. Why is it better?
          2. Why is it worth doing?
          3. Will it make money, or is it a
            1. "solution seeking a problem"?
            2. "lifestyle" company?
            3. How?
            4. How much? How quickly?
    2. Business models and revenue streams [Sys, e-B, netF, Slides, Other]
      1. Business models
        1. What are you offering?
          1. A product?
          2. A service?
          3. Both?
      2. Revenue streams on the Internet
        1. Transactional fees
        2. Advertising / sponsorship
        3. "Give it away -- wait and see"
        4. Licensing technologies
    3. Setting up your venture [HVT, VC, MBA, Slides, Other]
      1. Building a team
        1. Technology
          1. Intellectual property (IP)
          2. "Build or buy?"
        2. Management
        3. Marketing
      2. Financing
        1. Considerations for raising capital
          1. When
            1. Wait as long as possible
            2. Don’t wait too long
            3. "Always?"
        2. Planning to raise capital
          1. Build an outstanding team
          2. Develop a business plan
          3. Understand the thinking of your capital sources
          4. Build/strengthen your management and board of directors
        3. Capital choices
          1. Forms of financing
            1. Notes or other debt instruments
            2. Preferred stock
            3. Common stock
            4. Warrants or other options to purchase equity
          2. "Visible": Professionally managed Venture Capital
            1. Overview
            2. Summary and analysis of a Venture Capital agreement
          3. "Invisible": Angel investors
            1. Pre-seed, seed
            2. Finding and understanding angels and their terms
            3. How to conduct an angel offering
        4. Valuing your business
          1. Valuation methods
          2. Factors that affect valuation
        5. Exit strategies for investors
          1. Publicly traded vs. private companies
          2. Initial Public Offering (IPO)
          3. Roll-ups and acquisitions
    4. Developing a business plan [HVT, MBA, VC, Slides, Other]
      1. Executive summary
      2. Management team
      3. Market analysis
      4. Competitive analysis
      5. Marketing plan
      6. Financial projections
        1. Cash flow:
          1. "Burn rate"
          2. Funds required
          3. Revenue streams
          4. Revenues/earnings expected
      7. Deal terms ($$$ required, equity offered, other terms)
      8. Exit strategies
    5. Case studies and examples [HVT, Sys, MBA, VC, Slides, Other]
      1. Real life and fictitious
      2. Successes and failures
    Back to syllabus
    © 2000 Dr. Haim Levkowitz (haim@cs.uml.edu; haim@cs.bgu.ac.il)
    Last updated: June 30, 2000