Summer School
Venture Creation: making purposeful ideas reality
An intensive 5-Day program for PhD and Postdoctoral Innovators
This 5-Day Venture Creation course is an intensive, hands-on program designed to guide you through the complete entrepreneurial journey—from generating an innovative idea to delivering a compelling investor pitch. Blending academic rigor with real-world practice, the course is built on the principle of learning by doing. You will form teams, validate customer problems, design business models, and master storytelling and fundraising techniques.
The program is led by Dr. Yossi Maaravi, Dean and Co-Founder of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at Reichman University. Dr. Maaravi brings over 20 years of teaching and executive training experience from leading universities worldwide, integrating research-based insights with practical tools in creativity, innovation, lean startup, and decision-making.
The course is for PhD candidates, postdocs, and technicians working at the University of Vienna or at any Circle U university.
Why This Course?
- Highly Ranked: Consistently ranked among the best modules at partner institutions.
- Transformative Outcomes: Graduates report launching new ventures and significantly strengthening their innovation mindset.
- Focus on Soft Skills: Emphasis on teamwork, leadership under pressure, and personal growth.
- Opportunity Evaluation: Identify and evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities by applying creativity techniques, customer discovery methods, and lean startup principles.
- Business Model Development: Develop and test business models that address validated market needs, including designing MVPs (Minimum Viable Products) and analyzing potential for growth.
- Teamwork & Leadership: Demonstrate effective teamwork and leadership in high-pressure, time-constrained environments typical of venture creation.
- Impactful Communication: Communicate entrepreneurial ideas with impact, crafting persuasive investor pitches that integrate storytelling and financial insights.
Important Details
Schedule
- Morning: welcome, overview, and team building
- Afternoon: ideation 101 & guided teamwork
- Morning: do's and don'ts of startups and presentations
- Afternoon: business models
- Morning: the lean canvas & the minimum viable product
- Afternoon: validation with real customers
- Morning: MVP presentations
- Afternoon: Raising Money 101 & startup pitching
- Morning: how to give and receive feedback
- Afternoon: pitch your startup
ETCS / Contact
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ETCS
Participants will receive a certificate reporting that the workload of the course is of 2 ECTS. If PhD candidates seek recognition of the ECTS, they should contact the director of their doctoral programme. The course organiser has no control on this process. We suggest participants contact their doctoral school in advance and submit the certificate of attendance to their respective administrative unit.
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How to reach us
If you have any questions or require further information, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Contact us at entrepreneurship(at)univie.ac.at, and we’ll be happy to assist you.