This document summarizes teaching an entrepreneurship capstone course at Ashesi University in Ghana based on the Lean LaunchPad methodology. Some key points: - The course was team-taught by Dr. Sena Ageypong from Ashesi University and Todd Warren from Northwestern University, bringing complementary perspectives and strengths. - Students formed teams and developed business ideas across two semesters, with a focus on execution in the second semester. Successes included stronger business convictions from students and improved investor pitches. - Challenges included engaging advisory boards, student fatigue, and implementing minimum viable products without engineering expertise. - For future iterations, the instructors recommend allowing more time for

1. From
West Coast to
Gold Coast
Teaching a Capstone Entrepreneurship
Course in Ghana based on the Lean
Launchpad
Dr. Sena Ageypong – Ashesi University
and
Todd Warren – Northwestern

2. Ashesi: A world-class, 4-yr African university
• Entrepreneurial Venture Launched in 2002
• Mission: Educate the next generation of African Leaders
• 631 current students, Over 600 graduates
• 14 African Countries, 48% Women
• Majors in Computer Science, Business, and MIS
• Ethics, Critical Thinking, and Liberal Arts Core
• 95% stay in Africa, Many start businesses
• Launching Engineering in Fall 2015
 Freshman Design and Entrepreneurship

3. Course was Based on ‘Lean
Launch Pad’
• US NSF Curriculum, Also
Stanford and Berkeley
• Follows ‘Startup Owner’s
Manual’ (Blank and Dorf)
• Supported by a Udacity
MOOC
• Software Support via
‘LaunchPad Central’
• Heavily based on
Interviewing “getting out of
the building”
• Advisory Board members
paired with teams
4

4. Ashesi Learning Goals
Goal Class Activity
Ethics & Civil Engagement Code of Conduct, Engagement in
Critique
Critical Thinking & Quantitative
Reasoning
Canvas Development, Writing
Assignments
Leadership & Teamwork Team Assessment and Charter
Innovation and Action Development of Business Idea
Curiosity and Skill Getting out of the building!
Technological Competence LaunchPad Central and MVP
development
Scholarship ● Citizenship ● Leadership

5. Course Outline

6. The TeamsInitial Concept Final Concept
A spa offering Ghanaian specialty treatments. A mobile spa focused on massage in-home.
A culinary school for young professionals. A system to help caterers develop and manage an online
presence to attract and engage customers.
Locally made sports apparel for primary and secondary
schools.
Locally designed and manufactured sports bras focused on
young professional women.
An app that would enable weekly online delivery of food
for busy professionals
Soup delivery focused on young urban professionals in the
Accra business core.
An add-on to external water tanks (“Poly-Tanks”) for
households to determine water level more accurately
than by thumping on the tank, and without climbing to
the roof or other tank locations.
A water monitoring and delivery service that insures
businesses won’t run out of water.
Bakery Restaurant. Housekeeping Service.
Market place for idea exchange between African
Diaspora and local African Projects.
Crowdfunding service for educational projects in Ghana.
Pizza delivery for rural college campuses. Pizza and Wing delivery for rural college campuses.
Soccer Academy for high potential soccer players. Video site to connect high potential soccer players and soccer
scouts looking to acquire talent.
Plastic waste collection from households for recycling. Device for compacting waste in trash cans, sold to households
and businesses.
Online site for download of ‘Trap’ style music targeting
Ghanaians.
Integrated event promotion and music site for ‘Trap’ style
music.
Individual packaging of cut and cleaned vegetables for
commercial kitchens
Pre-made frozen West African dishes (fried yam and kelewele)
targeted at students and young professionals.

7. Instructors Perspective

8. What is was like: Todd
• I loved working with Sena!
• Sena understood the local context and could help me
translate
• She had a better understanding of the students,
including subtle relationships between people in the
class
• Sena had better class room control: 60 close-knit
Ashesi Seniors can be tough!
• Sena was instrumental in tirelessly recruiting a first
class set of advisors
• We would push each other to get material done
• Sena brought a different ‘bag of tricks’ I could learn
from as an instructor
9

9. What it was like: Sena
• My first attempt at team teaching and it was a career enhancing
opportunity.
• Todd has been great from the very first time we shook hands.
• His command over the methodology and his personality made it
easy for us to work well together.
• Our different backgrounds helped us to bring different perspectives
to critique sessions. In my view, our strengths were complimentary
which helped us achieve most of our objectives.
• The students were great, and eager to work on the projects so it
was easy to push them to succeed.
• In my opinion, team teaching is better than individual teaching if
structured well and the personalities involved are compatible.
10

10. What worked
• Doing team formation in class
• Using the MOOC + Text Book
• Focus on case studies/ learning the business model
canvas up front
• Having students “Get out of the Building”, doing
interviews
– Berekuso location is tough…
• Tracking in launcpadcentral
• Adding a writing component at Midterm and Final
• Engaging a local advisory board to pair with teams
– Though difficult to get them to travel to Berekuso
– Need to work on teams to manage the relationships well
11

11. What didn’t work
• Industry Analysis
– Should be a larger part of the
course
– Should focus on more divergent
ideas
– Need more analysis of good ideas
• Launchpad central for critique
– Internet problems
– Counter to No-laptop Ashesi norm
– Ashesi Students engage more in
critique than US students
• Quizzes are a ‘must have’ to
insure students do the
reading/watch the MOOC
• Hard to implement ‘Minimum
Viable Product’ concept without
engineers
• Method is not well geared to
capital intensive businesses
• Number of moving parts can
make things hard to manage
12

12. Purpose of the 2nd
Semester
Goal was to focus on
Execution
-Customer Creation
-Company building
But…
-MVPs needed
more testing
-First 3 weeks of
semester was used
for this

13. Successes
• Stronger conviction and belief in their businesses. They
speak about it with confidence, they believe in it
• Interacting with students, some seem to think
entrepreneurship is a career as well
• Valuing their businesses improved their investor pitches
significantly
• Some teams with challenges in first half had new leaders
step up---teams realize the CEO is a serious role.

14. Shortfalls
• We did get advisors, but some are not responsive and
some not in the direct area.
• Students need more structure / coaching on engaging
with advisors
• By mid-semester, teams are getting fatigued. We did not
do a good job of painting a good picture of the journey of
the entrepreneur
• More team dynamics challenges in second half

15. What We Would Change
• It’s a year class, so there is no
reason to rush
• Insure they understand more
fundamentals before jumping into
teams
• More exploration up front
– Greater Industry Analysis
– More speakers/analysis of
successful ventures
– Greater idea generation
– More Exposure to local social and
for-profit entrepreneurs
– Wait until the week before mid-term
break to form teams
• Delay canvas creation until value
proposition, customer segment, and
customer journey are clear
• More focus on pitches rather
than presentations
• Develop a process flow for the
business
• Do back of the envelope cost
analysis early
– This is more of an issue in Ghana
and for Capital intensive
businesses
• Consider other ways of getting
advisory board to see final
pitches
– Perhaps do in Accra?
• Provide funding support to the
teams as going outside the
building and testing the MVP is
capital intensive.
16

16. Key Takeways in adapting
LLC to a new geography
• Team teaching with someone who knows
the method and someone who knows the
local environment
• For non-venture funded startups,
understanding cash requirments and
alternatives is essential.
• Get input from a local advisory board.
Cast a wide net.

17. Thank You!