A fast business curriculum for PhDs
Core idea#
You don't need an MBA to found a deeptech company. You need a working knowledge of about eight topics, learned just before you need each one, and practised on your own company rather than on case studies. Most researchers can get to "good enough" in about three months of part-time effort.
Three principles:
- Learn by doing. For every topic, there's an exercise on your own company. The exercise matters more than the reading.
- Just in time, not just in case. Learn fundraising mechanics when you're about to raise, not a year before. Learn hiring when you're about to hire.
- Skip what won't matter for 18 months. Detailed marketing strategy, organisational design, international expansion and most of corporate finance can wait.
This playbook is a reading-and-doing list, organised into eight modules, with a 12-week schedule.
Who it's for: PhD students, postdocs and faculty preparing to found, especially those without business training.
The eight modules#
| # | Module | Core reading or course | Exercise on your own company |
Related playbooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Customer discovery |
The Mom Test(Rob Fitzpatrick); Steve Blank and Bob Dorf,The Startup Owner's Manual (customer discovery chapters) |
20 interviews with potential buyers; a one-page summary of what you learned |
1.19 |
| 2 | Market and business model |
Business Model Canvas (Strategyzer); Geoffrey Moore,Crossing the Chasm |
A bottom-up market size and a one-page business model |
1.07, 1.08 |
| # | Module | Core reading or course | Exercise on your own company |
Related playbooks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Startup finance basics |
A plain-language guide to income statements, cash flow and unit economics; your incubator's finance workshop |
An 18-month budget and runway model in a spreadsheet |
1.05 |
| 4 | Fundraising and term sheets |
Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson,Venture Deals; Y Combinator's SAFE documents and guides |
Model dilution from a pre-seed and seed round; list 30 target investors |
1.14, 3.05 |
| 5 | IP and tech transfer |
Your institution's IP policy; this library's area 2 |
A one-page IP map: what you own, what the institution owns, what you need to license |
2.01, 2.03, 2.07 |
| 6 | Selling | A B2B sales primer on discovery calls and qualifying deals; any good guide to enterprise or industrial sales |
Ask three prospects for a paid pilot or letter of intent |
1.19 |
| 7 | Team, equity and hiring |
Noam Wasserman,The Founder's Dilemmas; Carta's equity and compensation data |
A founders' agreement draft and a hiring plan for 18 months |
1.18, 3.05, 3.06, 5.01 |
| 8 | Pitching and storytelling |
Y Combinator's guidance on pitching (free online); your incubator's pitch sessions |
A 10-slide deck and a 2-minute verbal pitch, practised five times |
1.09, 1.20 |
Free, structured options#
- Y Combinator's Startup School offers free online lectures and a course built on YC's material.
- NSF I-Corps (US), Innovate UK ICURe (UK) and institute incubator programmes (India) teach customer discovery hands-on, and often fund the interviews (section below).
What to skip for now#
- Advanced corporate finance and valuation models.
- Brand strategy and detailed marketing plans.
- Organisational design for large teams.
- Long-form business plans (a one-page thesis is enough; playbook 1.20).
A 12-week schedule#
About 6 to 8 hours a week alongside research. Each week has a little reading and a real exercise.
| Weeks | Focus | Reading (2–3 h) | Doing (4–5 h) | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Customer discovery |
The Mom Test | 10 interviews | Interview notes; top 3 problems |
| 3–4 | Market and model |
Business Model Canvas;Crossing the Chasm(early chapters) |
10 more interviews; draft market size |
One-page model and market size |
| 5 | IP | Your institution's IP policy; playbooks 2.01 and 2.03 |
Meeting with the tech transfer office |
IP map |
| 6–7 | Finance | Finance primer | Build the runway model |
18-month budget |
| 8 | Team and equity |
The Founder's Dilemmas(selected chapters) |
Founders' conversation on roles and split |
Draft founders' agreement terms |
| 9 | Selling | B2B sales primer | Ask three prospects for a pilot or LOI |
At least one yes or a clear no |
| 10–11 | Fundraising | Venture Deals(term sheet chapters); SAFE guides |
Dilution model; investor list |
Target list of 30 investors |
| Weeks | Focus | Reading (2–3 h) | Doing (4–5 h) | Output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Pitching | Pitch guidance | Deck; five practice | Deck and 2- |
| pitches | minute pitch |
At the end, write the one-page thesis (playbook 1.20) and re-score your founder readiness (playbooks 1.01 and 1.09).
Worked example (illustrative)#
Tomas, a chemistry postdoc, followed the schedule over a summer. What changed:
- Weeks 1–4: 22 interviews showed that his catalyst's real value was cutting energy costs, not yield, for mid-sized chemical plants. He changed the pitch.
- Week 5: the IP map revealed a co-inventor at another university, which he hadn't realised needed a joint licence.
- Weeks 6–7: the runway model showed he needed a grant before quitting.
- Week 9: one plant agreed to a paid lab trial.
- Weeks 10–12: his first pitch to an angel took 25 minutes and lost the room in the chemistry; by the fifth practice it took 8 and led with the energy saving.
He applied to a fellowship with the thesis and the trial in hand, and was accepted.
Structured programmes by country#
If you learn better with a cohort and deadlines, use a programme. Many pay you or your interview costs.
United States#
- NSF I-Corps: a customer-discovery training programme built on Steve Blank's Lean LaunchPad method. Since inception, 52% of National I-Corps teams have been linked to startups (NSF). Regional hubs run shorter versions; NIH and DOE run their own. Ask your tech transfer office.
- University entrepreneurship centres often run free founder bootcamps and venture competitions.
- Activate (playbook 1.10) includes a curriculum for its fellows.
United Kingdom#
- Innovate UK ICURe: Explore is a four-month, full-time market exploration programme (Innovate UK Business Connect); Discover programmes are shorter and part-time (Royce).
- Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowships include a bespoke training programme and mentoring (RAEng).
- University enterprise programmes and business-school electives are often open to PhD students and postdocs.
India#
- NSRCEL Launchpad (IIM Bangalore): a five-month pre-incubation cohort open to founders across India (Startup Grants India); good for business-model and go-tomarket skills.
- Institute incubator programmes at IITs, IISc and C-CAMP run founder workshops alongside incubation (playbook 1.11).
- The National Innovation and Startup Policy encourages institutes to offer entrepreneurship courses and part-time programmes; check what your institute offers (playbook 1.03).
Online and self-directed#
- Y Combinator's Startup School and library of founder talks.
- Lean LaunchPad and customer-development material from Steve Blank.
- Free short courses from business schools on finance for non-financial managers.
Common mistakes#
- Reading without doing. Ten books and no interviews teaches very little.
- Doing an MBA instead of founding. It's two years of opportunity cost for skills you can learn in months on the job.
- Learning everything up front. You'll forget what you don't use; learn each topic when it's next.
- Treating the curriculum as a gate. You don't need to finish it to start.
- Ignoring the IP module. For researchers, this is often the biggest source of surprises. Practising the pitch only once. The fifth version is always better than the first.
Related playbooks#
- 1.01 Should I start a company?
- 1.02 From researcher to founder
- 1.12 Finding mentors and early advisers
- 1.19 Customer discovery from inside the lab
- 1.20 Writing a one-page thesis
Sources and reading#
- Rob Fitzpatrick, The Mom Test (2013).
- Steve Blank and Bob Dorf, The Startup Owner's Manual (2012).
- Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation (2010), for the Business Model Canvas.
- Geoffrey Moore, Crossing the Chasm (3rd edition, 2014).
- Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson, Venture Deals (latest edition).
- Noam Wasserman, The Founder's Dilemmas (2012).
- NSF, 2025 I-Corps Biennial Report.
- Innovate UK, ICURe Explore guidance; Royce, ICURe Discover.
- Royal Academy of Engineering, Enterprise Fellowships guidance.
- NSRCEL Launchpad.
Worked example is illustrative. Last checked November 2026.