Opportunity Assessment for Entrepreneurs and Innovators
Learn How to Assess Your
Business or Technology Idea...
...And figure out whether to
Build It, Sell It,
Share It or Shelve It.
Why Should I Assess My Business or Technology Idea?
Watch this short video to find out (3:05).
About this Course
Are you an entrepreneur or innovator with a great business or technology idea, but you just don't know where to start?
Are you considering quitting your job or investing your life savings into the idea, but you would just like a bit more certainty and direction?
This course will teach you how to assess your idea against the 6 key factors for innovation and startup success:
Market, Competition, Technical Feasibility, Financial Viability, Intellectual Property and Team.
What will I gain? What will I be able to do?
- Develop and assess business models and strategies for technologies and startups
- Assess the viability or potential of your and others' business or technology ideas
- Use the Moolman Institute Opportunity Assessment Tool to do the assessments
Your Instructor
Dr. Sean Moolman has a broad range of experience stretching across chemical plant design and cost engineering, R&D (research and development), management of innovation, technology transfer, intellectual property management and entrepreneurship. He is an inventor on several international patent families.
Sean is a co-founder of PowerOptimal (Pty) Ltd, a renewable energy technology company, and has served on the boards of several other early-stage companies. Before his first startup, Sean was the head of technology transfer (licensing & ventures) at the largest R&D institute in Africa, the CSIR in South Africa.
He has a PhD in Chemical Engineering, is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) with the ATTP, is a member of the Licensing Executives Society of South Africa (LES) and has completed the Management Advancement Programme at Wits Business School.
Sean regularly presents courses in financial modeling and technology & startup valuation, including for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Licensing Executives Society of South Africa (LES) and the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA).
Sean is passionate about innovation, entrepreneurship, reason and science, life-long learning and inspiring people!
Included with the Course you get the Moolman Institute Opportunity Assessment Tool
This Microsoft Excel spreadsheet template incorporates the 6 Key Factors for Innovation and Startup Success into a simple to use tool for assessing your business or technology idea.
Guidance is provided for how to assess your idea against each factor and sub-factor. Rate your idea against each factor by simply clicking radio buttons.
This tool is yours to keep forever and to use repeatedly for different business and technology ideas. Use it to help you rank different ideas or to assess investment opportunities.
Course Curriculum
- 3a. The Key Innovation & Startup Success & Failure Factors (8:03)
- Reference Guide: Key Success & Failure Factors for Innovations and Startups
- 3b. Strategy and Business Model Fundamentals - The Background (8:22)
- 3c. Strategy and Business Model Fundamentals - The Tools Part I (13:12)
- 3d. Strategy and Business Model Fundamentals - The Tools Part II (7:18)
- 3e. Strategy and Business Model Fundamentals - The Tools Part III (9:43)
- Cheat Sheet: Business Model and Strategy Tools & Models
- Quiz on What Makes Startups & Innovations Succeed or Fail
- Answers to Quiz on What Makes Startups & Innovations Succeed or Fail
- 4a. Introduction: 6 Tests to Know Whether You Should Pilot Your Idea (4:50)
- 4b. Test 1: How to Check Market Potential of Your Business or Technology Idea (12:02)
- 4c. Test 2: How to Check the Competition (7:53)
- 4d. Test 3: How to Check Technical Feasibility of Your Business or Technology Idea (9:50)
- 4e. Test 4: How to Check Financial Viability of Your Business or Technology Idea (10:26)
- 4f. Test 5: How to Check the Strength of Your Intellectual Property (10:06)
- 4g. Test 6: How to Check if You Have the Right Team (7:39)
- 4h. What Next? What to Do After the 6 Tests (2:54)
- 4i. Risks & Risk Management (8:13)
- Reference Guide: Risks
- Quick Reference Guide: 6 Tests to Know Whether You Should Pilot Your Idea
- Ebook: 6 Tests to Know Whether You Should Pilot Your Idea
- Quiz on How to Assess Your Business or Technology Idea
- Answers to Quiz on How to Assess Your Business or Technology Idea
Free Ebook on the 6 Tests to Know Whether You Should Pilot Your Idea
Click here to download your copy of the free Moolman Institute ebook, 6 Tests to Know Whether You Should Pilot Your Idea. This book is an introduction to the concepts covered in this course.
Blog Post Series on the 6 Tests to Know Whether You Should Pilot Your Idea
Read more about the 6 Tests in this blog post series.
Video on the 6 Key Factors for Innovation and Startup Success
Watch this Youtube video on the 6 Key Factors for Innovation and Startup Success, which is covered in this course.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
The course was developed specifically for Entrepreneurs and Innovators – the people that translate business and technology ideas into products and services used by society.
It’s also aimed at Technology Transfer Professionals, who have to decide whether to support, invest in or transfer business and technology ideas.
Investors and Portfolio Managers will also benefit from this course – you can use the methodology taught in this course to do portfolio management and prioritise ideas or opportunities.
It’s for people who need to assess the viability or potential of a business or technology idea.
- Video lectures
- Graded quizzes
- Course completion certificate
- Downloads: guidelines, reference sheets and templates
- Access to student discussions on lectures & lecturer answers to questions
The course starts now and ends when you finish! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
You have unlimited access to the course for two years - across any and all devices you own. All downloadable materials are yours to keep forever.
The course has 2 hours 45 min of video lectures. Together with the quizzes, you should be able to complete the course in 1 week, if you commit just 30 minutes per day. You can do this!
I would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact me in the first 30 days and I will give you a full refund.
- 2-year access to the course materials
- Work at your own pace
- Review or redo any part whenever you want to
- Pause and pick up again at any point
- Downloadable materials and quizzes reinforce the learning and provide practical tools that you can apply in your own business or activities immediately
Don't waste your time wading through avalanches of generic and poor-quality information. I know what you need, because I have been through it myself (from commercializing my own patented inventions to managing R&D technology and patent portfolios, to running the commercialization arm of a large R&D institution, to investor, to serving on company boards, to starting my own technology business).
With the overload of information that we all have to deal with, curation and synthesis of quality and value-added content have become critical in efficient and effective learning.
A paid course means that I have put in the hard work and effort to synthesize
useful knowledge into a quality, structured and usable package that can help you
develop your skills much faster and more effectively.