For Instructors of Silicon Valley Coders Club
(Copyrighted - please do not reuse the contents of this page/ course material without permission)
Thanks again for running the Silicon Valley Coders club at your location, planting seeds of entrepreneurship with the youth of your community.
Please read this info below, has relevant info that will help with the success of your program, and for you to set the right expectations of the program with the students and parents.
SETTING EXPECTATIONS:
At the first class - please spend 10 minutes setting expectations.
**You will need to let your students know that we are NOT going to be coding in class during Module 1.
We run a start-up oriented education and a lot of self-learning is involved, including how to code.
Students and parents show up thinking they will learn coding. But Module 1 is NOT about coding as such.
***By the 2nd class of Module 1, you should start forming teams in your class and encourage them to start building a product which could be with a website (use wix.com or weebly.com) or taking the help of family and friends to start putting together a product. Like startups, the learning is self-learning. Mentors are there to help.
***Your last class of Module 1 should be a Pitch Fest, inviting your friends and contacts to be the judge.
Let the kids and parents know about the pitch-fest at your location - typically the last class of module 1. During Fall, we also conduct a regional pitch fest, typically conducted the Sunday prior to Christmas.
Module 2 is coding - but we don't run 3 months of class room sessions. Please ask them to read the FAQ for Module 2.
COURSE COMPLETION: It is important to let your Spring semester students know that they will complete the program by attending Silicon Valley Tech Day. We expect students from all our locations to converge at the Silicon Valley Tech Day that is typically held in June. Certificate of Completion will be handed out at the end of Tech Day to each of the students. You can certainly provide a certificate to each student that participates in the Business Plan Pitch fest as part of module 1. If you need one, please download the template below
PITCH FEST: There are two pitch fest competitions that will be conducted:
1. The Business plan pitch fest is conducted at each of the locations at the end of module 1. See evaluation criteria below. The last class of module 1 should be this Business Plan pitch fest competition where each of your teams participate and get the experience of pitching in front of a 'team of judges' typically your friends from the tech industry who will evaluate the business plans. Plan to recognize, give out certificates, appreciate these teams, take pictures with the judges etc. It is required that teams use the Business Plan pitch fest template to build their deck (see below). Use the Judges Evaluation sheet below for your Business plan pitch fest competition. Invite up to 5 friends to be the judge.
Typically, we run a grand finale Regional Pitch Fest SHARK TANK during Fall - held the last Sunday prior to Christmas.
2. The Tech Day Pitch Fest competition at Silicon Valley Youth Tech Day (in June) where the winning team gets seed funding for their startup.
Both these pitch fests are mutually exclusive. You will find the details for Tech Day explained here http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/youth-tech-day-2017.html
It is required that teams use the pitch fest template to build their deck
Please read through so that you can explain what is Tech Day all about to your students.
I request every instructor to spend some time with your class explaining Tech Day and the pitch fest. Every team from your location will get to showcase their product and it is good for them to be present at this event and see what other teams from other locations have done. The learning experience goes exponential at Tech Day. The pitch fest is always very fascinating, watching the best teams pitch their products in front a VC panel.
You can get a sense of Tech Day by looking at the agenda from previous years http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/youth-tech-day-2016.html
We would love to have a great turn out from each location for our upcoming Tech Day
WHO GETS TO PITCH THEIR STARTUP AT TECH DAY?
Instructors from each location will pick 2 teams to send to the pitch fest competition and allow their team an opportunity to win seed funding for their startup. Please pick teams that have built a prototype of their product and made progress.
But the teams that do not get picked to the Tech Day Pitch fest, will still get a chance to showcase their product idea via demos/tri-folds/websites/videos they have crafted. They will be seated at a ‘booth’ and demonstrate their idea in an expo hall format
How will the instructor run their specific location BUSINESS PLAN pitch fest and pick winners?
NOTE: This applies to Module 1 Pitch Fest only
To run your local pitch fest, you need the following:
- Most important to explain rules to the students. Email them the template link http://tinyurl.com/SharkTankTemplate. Each team has 5 minutes, so please take the time to explain the rule. The template is there to keep the stories similar, and make it easier for judges to judge. Teams have to build their deck collaboratively on google slide. Each team should send a link of their specific deck to the person who will be running the presentations of his/her laptop. So designate a contact for each team
- A week before you should be lining up a team of judges. We recommend at least 3. The more the number of judges, the drama and pressure builds up to make it more exciting. Some locations invite up to 8 judges. Just invite friends you have worked with. If children are competing, their parents should NOT be on the judges panel.
- Print the business_plan_judge_forms from below (number of teams x number of judges)
- Write team name on the top of the forms before you print. Create a stack for Team A to Team Z for each judge and put it in a clip board
- Invite a young middle school volunteer team to do the tabulating. Send the tabulation spreadsheet to them - you will find it below. Ask them to bring a laptop charged, with charging cable and excel spreadsheet loaded. Make sure you at least have 2 in your tabulating crew for failover, backup etc. The team of 2 are typically cross checking to make sure they are not making errors and totals for each team is consistent across both the spreadsheets
- Run the presentations from a single laptop. If you have internet connection, you can ask teams to send you a google doc link that they can modify till the final minute. We prefer a google slides that way the teams only send the link. They keep updating the google slides all the way till the last minute. Make sure you have internet connection for the laptop that will be hosting these slides.
- Judges are seated in the first row with score clipboards. Judges enter scores. A runner picks the score sheet and hands it off to the the tabulating crew
- Finally at the end of the pitch fest, you invite the top 3 teams on stage without revealing the winners. And you declare the 3rd place first, and the 1st place next. Give out certificates to all 3 teams. The top 2 teams make it to the regional Silicon Valley Shark Tank in Saratoga to compete with others teams from all other locations.
- Hand out Certificate of Participation for each student - see deck below that you can download and edit
- Hand out Winners Certificate to the winners - see deck below. Let the top 2 winners know that they will go to the Regional Silicon Valley Coders Shark Tank. The format of judging and competition will be the same.
- Take a picture of all the students together with the instructor. Email them to shivaum1<at>gmail.com
- Take a picture of all the winners together with the instructors. Email them to shivaum1<at>gmail.com
- Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. And planting seeds of entrepreneurship in young minds. Thank you!
How will the instructor run their specific location MODULE 2 pitch fest and pick winners?
NOTE: This applies to Pitch Fest conducted after Module 2
The emphasis is upon building a product, even if a website or a video to demonstrate their product idea.
We would like every team to go beyond the business plan they develop and make progress. Ability to demo a product is a major factor.
The winners of the business plan pitch fest may not necessarily get picked to join the pitch fest at Tech Day - due to the huge emphasis upon product development and teams making progress with their startup prototype.
Now is the time, every team should start building a product (module 2 of the program, click on the FAQ from the main menu above). Some teams get started building their product week 1 of Module 1 and some teams a bit later - but it takes significant effort beyond the weekly class meetings to build a good prototype. Yes, some locations start late, and do not have time to run through module 2, but that should not limit teams from building *something*.
Please encourage teams to start with their website development (using wix.com or weebly.com) or creating a video or even building their app, designing their product, so that they give you an opportunity to pick them for the pitch fest
Please read this info below, has relevant info that will help with the success of your program, and for you to set the right expectations of the program with the students and parents.
SETTING EXPECTATIONS:
At the first class - please spend 10 minutes setting expectations.
**You will need to let your students know that we are NOT going to be coding in class during Module 1.
We run a start-up oriented education and a lot of self-learning is involved, including how to code.
Students and parents show up thinking they will learn coding. But Module 1 is NOT about coding as such.
***By the 2nd class of Module 1, you should start forming teams in your class and encourage them to start building a product which could be with a website (use wix.com or weebly.com) or taking the help of family and friends to start putting together a product. Like startups, the learning is self-learning. Mentors are there to help.
***Your last class of Module 1 should be a Pitch Fest, inviting your friends and contacts to be the judge.
Let the kids and parents know about the pitch-fest at your location - typically the last class of module 1. During Fall, we also conduct a regional pitch fest, typically conducted the Sunday prior to Christmas.
Module 2 is coding - but we don't run 3 months of class room sessions. Please ask them to read the FAQ for Module 2.
COURSE COMPLETION: It is important to let your Spring semester students know that they will complete the program by attending Silicon Valley Tech Day. We expect students from all our locations to converge at the Silicon Valley Tech Day that is typically held in June. Certificate of Completion will be handed out at the end of Tech Day to each of the students. You can certainly provide a certificate to each student that participates in the Business Plan Pitch fest as part of module 1. If you need one, please download the template below
PITCH FEST: There are two pitch fest competitions that will be conducted:
1. The Business plan pitch fest is conducted at each of the locations at the end of module 1. See evaluation criteria below. The last class of module 1 should be this Business Plan pitch fest competition where each of your teams participate and get the experience of pitching in front of a 'team of judges' typically your friends from the tech industry who will evaluate the business plans. Plan to recognize, give out certificates, appreciate these teams, take pictures with the judges etc. It is required that teams use the Business Plan pitch fest template to build their deck (see below). Use the Judges Evaluation sheet below for your Business plan pitch fest competition. Invite up to 5 friends to be the judge.
Typically, we run a grand finale Regional Pitch Fest SHARK TANK during Fall - held the last Sunday prior to Christmas.
2. The Tech Day Pitch Fest competition at Silicon Valley Youth Tech Day (in June) where the winning team gets seed funding for their startup.
Both these pitch fests are mutually exclusive. You will find the details for Tech Day explained here http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/youth-tech-day-2017.html
It is required that teams use the pitch fest template to build their deck
Please read through so that you can explain what is Tech Day all about to your students.
I request every instructor to spend some time with your class explaining Tech Day and the pitch fest. Every team from your location will get to showcase their product and it is good for them to be present at this event and see what other teams from other locations have done. The learning experience goes exponential at Tech Day. The pitch fest is always very fascinating, watching the best teams pitch their products in front a VC panel.
You can get a sense of Tech Day by looking at the agenda from previous years http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/youth-tech-day-2016.html
We would love to have a great turn out from each location for our upcoming Tech Day
WHO GETS TO PITCH THEIR STARTUP AT TECH DAY?
Instructors from each location will pick 2 teams to send to the pitch fest competition and allow their team an opportunity to win seed funding for their startup. Please pick teams that have built a prototype of their product and made progress.
But the teams that do not get picked to the Tech Day Pitch fest, will still get a chance to showcase their product idea via demos/tri-folds/websites/videos they have crafted. They will be seated at a ‘booth’ and demonstrate their idea in an expo hall format
How will the instructor run their specific location BUSINESS PLAN pitch fest and pick winners?
NOTE: This applies to Module 1 Pitch Fest only
To run your local pitch fest, you need the following:
- Most important to explain rules to the students. Email them the template link http://tinyurl.com/SharkTankTemplate. Each team has 5 minutes, so please take the time to explain the rule. The template is there to keep the stories similar, and make it easier for judges to judge. Teams have to build their deck collaboratively on google slide. Each team should send a link of their specific deck to the person who will be running the presentations of his/her laptop. So designate a contact for each team
- A week before you should be lining up a team of judges. We recommend at least 3. The more the number of judges, the drama and pressure builds up to make it more exciting. Some locations invite up to 8 judges. Just invite friends you have worked with. If children are competing, their parents should NOT be on the judges panel.
- Print the business_plan_judge_forms from below (number of teams x number of judges)
- Write team name on the top of the forms before you print. Create a stack for Team A to Team Z for each judge and put it in a clip board
- Invite a young middle school volunteer team to do the tabulating. Send the tabulation spreadsheet to them - you will find it below. Ask them to bring a laptop charged, with charging cable and excel spreadsheet loaded. Make sure you at least have 2 in your tabulating crew for failover, backup etc. The team of 2 are typically cross checking to make sure they are not making errors and totals for each team is consistent across both the spreadsheets
- Run the presentations from a single laptop. If you have internet connection, you can ask teams to send you a google doc link that they can modify till the final minute. We prefer a google slides that way the teams only send the link. They keep updating the google slides all the way till the last minute. Make sure you have internet connection for the laptop that will be hosting these slides.
- Judges are seated in the first row with score clipboards. Judges enter scores. A runner picks the score sheet and hands it off to the the tabulating crew
- Finally at the end of the pitch fest, you invite the top 3 teams on stage without revealing the winners. And you declare the 3rd place first, and the 1st place next. Give out certificates to all 3 teams. The top 2 teams make it to the regional Silicon Valley Shark Tank in Saratoga to compete with others teams from all other locations.
- Hand out Certificate of Participation for each student - see deck below that you can download and edit
- Hand out Winners Certificate to the winners - see deck below. Let the top 2 winners know that they will go to the Regional Silicon Valley Coders Shark Tank. The format of judging and competition will be the same.
- Take a picture of all the students together with the instructor. Email them to shivaum1<at>gmail.com
- Take a picture of all the winners together with the instructors. Email them to shivaum1<at>gmail.com
- Pat yourself on the back for a job well done. And planting seeds of entrepreneurship in young minds. Thank you!
How will the instructor run their specific location MODULE 2 pitch fest and pick winners?
NOTE: This applies to Pitch Fest conducted after Module 2
The emphasis is upon building a product, even if a website or a video to demonstrate their product idea.
We would like every team to go beyond the business plan they develop and make progress. Ability to demo a product is a major factor.
The winners of the business plan pitch fest may not necessarily get picked to join the pitch fest at Tech Day - due to the huge emphasis upon product development and teams making progress with their startup prototype.
Now is the time, every team should start building a product (module 2 of the program, click on the FAQ from the main menu above). Some teams get started building their product week 1 of Module 1 and some teams a bit later - but it takes significant effort beyond the weekly class meetings to build a good prototype. Yes, some locations start late, and do not have time to run through module 2, but that should not limit teams from building *something*.
Please encourage teams to start with their website development (using wix.com or weebly.com) or creating a video or even building their app, designing their product, so that they give you an opportunity to pick them for the pitch fest
For your tabulating crew - excel spreadsheet
| 2017_silicon_valley_shark_tank.xlsx |
SHARK TANK TEMPLATE
| sharktankpitchfesttemplate_1.pptx |
Business Plan Pitch Fest - Judges Evaluation Sheet (MODULE 1)
| businessplan_judges_forms_2017-1.doc |
Module 1: Certificate of Completion
| coders_module1_completion.pptx |
Module 1 Awards Certificate
| wnners_coders_module1_.pptx |
Sample decks
|
| ||||
DESIGNING YOUR FLYER
| template_coders.pptx |
TECH DAY PITCH FEST TEMPLATE
It is required that each team use the pitch fest template at http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/youth-tech-day-2017.html
SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS FOR EACH MODULE
MODULE 1: Instructor Instructions below
MODULE 2: Please go to http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/faq.html
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MODULE1
Here are the slide decks
Please refer to Amit's Teach the Teachers page, he is available to mentor as needed.
https://sites.google.com/view/entrepreneurshipbcamp/
SET 1 http://www.slideshare.net/aseth/presentations (Set 1)
You will find some video recordings of Amit Seth on Youtube - just search for "Silicon Valley Coders Club". Set 1 is fairly concise and precise. This is a great starting point, and many instructors just use this set for their weekly presentations
SET 2 http://www.slideshare.net/VishalKirti/presentations (Set 2)
SET 3 by Reena Gupta and Milind Gokarn : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6ndJxdPSVdLeVdGY3M3Unk4clE
Actual content and recordings https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6ndJxdPSVdLWWgyYlBvczVGUTQ
The objective of Module 1 is to spark creativity within the kids, get them excited about an idea, get their complete participation and interaction during the class, and guide them through the process of developing a business plan for that creative idea.
A key conclusion element of Module 1 is running the Business Plan Pitch Fest. Please plan to engage a few friends/ hi-tech executive as judges, to evaluate the business plans of the various teams, as part of the very last class of Module 1. You will find the evaluation sheet below
Week 1:
- Accomplish setting objectives for and expectations from students and parents.
o Set rules of operation, especially on attendance and criteria for success.
Remind them that this is NOT a coding program. Set expectations.
o Walk through what to expect in each week of first semester.
o Discuss Module 2, and how teams will be selected for Tech Day.
o Establish the objectives for Tech Day and how top 3 will be chosen.
- Get students involved from day 1 – all learning topics could be originated as questions being answered by students or ideas being introduced by students.
- Setup a regimen of working in teams.
o A mock in-class exercise that gets the rhythm going on team formation, team collaboration, and expectations of class work.
Week 2:
- Summarize first class.
- My favorite class of the entire semester!
- Students get very engaged when asked about their hero(s) – “who inspires you?”
- Get students into a regimen of looking at slideware and introducing the respective topic, with further discussion from students on topic.
o You will get complete coverage on the topic via this method.
- Class exercise to get a rhythm going on students coming up to stage and presenting their homework on stage.
- Build on first weeks ‘setting objectives and expectations’.
Week 3:
- This is the week when the startup starts to emerge.
- Goal is to introduce the business plan and get students going on familiarizing with components of a business plan.
- Building a founding team, and team-think is important.
- Watch out for dysfunctional teams – quickly help with getting teams setup.
o Pay attention to team dynamics of each team. If you identify any issues then try a fix (with parents included). Here are some example issues:
§ Team composition is too small - since there is a lot of work to do, it is best to have a team size of 4 to 6.
§ Team has members whose ages are very different – frustration builds when all are not carrying their load, and with a team with a young person teamed with older students this can be exemplified.
§ Team has only family members (brothers, sisters) – this is a flag as students do not really learn team dynamics in such a setup.
§ Team has ‘one’ overpowering leader – watch out for a member of the team wanting to run everything their way (other students in the team miss out on learning and developing confidence).
Week 4:
- Builds on momentum of Week 3 to reinforce Business Plan learning
- Introduces Venture Capital, Corporate Structure, etc.
- Students get excited on learning about ‘exit’ (IPO or selling the company). Concept of ‘Paper Money’ is an exciting one as well.
- Gets students going on team work and collaboration
- Facilitates converting team to a real startup structure – with CEO, CTO, Head of Technology and such.
Week 5
- This is an important class as pretty much all of the learnings here would be new to students – Financials
- Recommended teaching style is to correlate daily activities of kids to financials to facilitate better understanding.
o One good way is to look at the Apps economy as most would relate to it.
- Costs of doing business is a gotcha with most students as they (naturally) gravitate to revenue. Making sure they understand this and how it is reflected in the Business Plan is important.
Week 6:
- This class is about Marketing, with a focus on how to build presentation skills for the Business Plan competition (Week 8+).
- Introduce the concept of how to tailor your speaking to the intended audience.
- This class could be beefed up to cover a larger topic (of Marketing, in general).
Week 7:
- Intellectual Property – this is an intense class due to the numerous new concepts students learn.
- Students learn about Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights.
Week 8 (or 9):
- Students may need a week in between to do mock runs of their plans for instructor(s) to provide feedback
o Establish judging criteria in mock runs.
o Provide each team feedback on how to ‘complete’ their respective plans.
- Business Plan competition: invite VCs, successful entrepreneurs to competition.
o Provide judging criteria matrix to judges to help evaluate
o Top 3 announced and rewarded, including Certificates
MODULE 2: Please go to http://www.siliconvalleycoders.org/faq.html
INSTRUCTIONS FOR MODULE1
Here are the slide decks
Please refer to Amit's Teach the Teachers page, he is available to mentor as needed.
https://sites.google.com/view/entrepreneurshipbcamp/
SET 1 http://www.slideshare.net/aseth/presentations (Set 1)
You will find some video recordings of Amit Seth on Youtube - just search for "Silicon Valley Coders Club". Set 1 is fairly concise and precise. This is a great starting point, and many instructors just use this set for their weekly presentations
SET 2 http://www.slideshare.net/VishalKirti/presentations (Set 2)
SET 3 by Reena Gupta and Milind Gokarn : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6ndJxdPSVdLeVdGY3M3Unk4clE
Actual content and recordings https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B6ndJxdPSVdLWWgyYlBvczVGUTQ
The objective of Module 1 is to spark creativity within the kids, get them excited about an idea, get their complete participation and interaction during the class, and guide them through the process of developing a business plan for that creative idea.
A key conclusion element of Module 1 is running the Business Plan Pitch Fest. Please plan to engage a few friends/ hi-tech executive as judges, to evaluate the business plans of the various teams, as part of the very last class of Module 1. You will find the evaluation sheet below
Week 1:
- Accomplish setting objectives for and expectations from students and parents.
o Set rules of operation, especially on attendance and criteria for success.
Remind them that this is NOT a coding program. Set expectations.
o Walk through what to expect in each week of first semester.
o Discuss Module 2, and how teams will be selected for Tech Day.
o Establish the objectives for Tech Day and how top 3 will be chosen.
- Get students involved from day 1 – all learning topics could be originated as questions being answered by students or ideas being introduced by students.
- Setup a regimen of working in teams.
o A mock in-class exercise that gets the rhythm going on team formation, team collaboration, and expectations of class work.
Week 2:
- Summarize first class.
- My favorite class of the entire semester!
- Students get very engaged when asked about their hero(s) – “who inspires you?”
- Get students into a regimen of looking at slideware and introducing the respective topic, with further discussion from students on topic.
o You will get complete coverage on the topic via this method.
- Class exercise to get a rhythm going on students coming up to stage and presenting their homework on stage.
- Build on first weeks ‘setting objectives and expectations’.
Week 3:
- This is the week when the startup starts to emerge.
- Goal is to introduce the business plan and get students going on familiarizing with components of a business plan.
- Building a founding team, and team-think is important.
- Watch out for dysfunctional teams – quickly help with getting teams setup.
o Pay attention to team dynamics of each team. If you identify any issues then try a fix (with parents included). Here are some example issues:
§ Team composition is too small - since there is a lot of work to do, it is best to have a team size of 4 to 6.
§ Team has members whose ages are very different – frustration builds when all are not carrying their load, and with a team with a young person teamed with older students this can be exemplified.
§ Team has only family members (brothers, sisters) – this is a flag as students do not really learn team dynamics in such a setup.
§ Team has ‘one’ overpowering leader – watch out for a member of the team wanting to run everything their way (other students in the team miss out on learning and developing confidence).
Week 4:
- Builds on momentum of Week 3 to reinforce Business Plan learning
- Introduces Venture Capital, Corporate Structure, etc.
- Students get excited on learning about ‘exit’ (IPO or selling the company). Concept of ‘Paper Money’ is an exciting one as well.
- Gets students going on team work and collaboration
- Facilitates converting team to a real startup structure – with CEO, CTO, Head of Technology and such.
Week 5
- This is an important class as pretty much all of the learnings here would be new to students – Financials
- Recommended teaching style is to correlate daily activities of kids to financials to facilitate better understanding.
o One good way is to look at the Apps economy as most would relate to it.
- Costs of doing business is a gotcha with most students as they (naturally) gravitate to revenue. Making sure they understand this and how it is reflected in the Business Plan is important.
Week 6:
- This class is about Marketing, with a focus on how to build presentation skills for the Business Plan competition (Week 8+).
- Introduce the concept of how to tailor your speaking to the intended audience.
- This class could be beefed up to cover a larger topic (of Marketing, in general).
Week 7:
- Intellectual Property – this is an intense class due to the numerous new concepts students learn.
- Students learn about Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights.
Week 8 (or 9):
- Students may need a week in between to do mock runs of their plans for instructor(s) to provide feedback
o Establish judging criteria in mock runs.
o Provide each team feedback on how to ‘complete’ their respective plans.
- Business Plan competition: invite VCs, successful entrepreneurs to competition.
o Provide judging criteria matrix to judges to help evaluate
o Top 3 announced and rewarded, including Certificates