Lean Launchpad Program (LLP) | Entrepreneurship (Leadership, Value Creation) Courses | 東京科学大学　リーダーシップ教育課程

Propose a business idea and verify its feasibility in a group.

Overview

This course is a program positioned at the last “Social Implementation Stage” of the three stages of entrepreneurship education: “Motivation and Awareness-raising Stage,” “Competency Formation Stage,” and “Social Implementation Stage.” To create a business, it is necessary to logically and comprehensively demonstrate the so-called “leadership” and “entrepreneurship” elements, such as extracting problems and setting issues, developing new ideas and prototypes, empathizing with users, verifying hypotheses, and sharing social trends, needs, and visions.

This program is the perfect program for you to demonstrate the “leadership” and “entrepreneurship” you have cultivated so far and develop the knowledge and experience to implement new value in society.

Lean Launchpad Program (LLP), a team project of about two months that proceeds while logically building consensus, is a great opportunity for those who are planning to enter the business field, including developing new business, in the future, as well as those who are planning to proceed to research in academia, to experience the social implementation of new value.

LLP was originally proposed by Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, USA, who teaches at Stanford University as well.

The winning team from this program will be able to participate in the LLP National Championship scheduled

<Pre-Program Briefing Sessions>

If you are interested in this program, we strongly recommend that you should attend one of the pre-program briefing sessions (in-person or online), then start necessary preparation work, and then register for courses and attend the first Meet Up Meeting ( to be held on 15/Apr(Wed)).

4 times of the pre-program briefing sessions are being scheduled between the end of February and early April. You can attend any session either in-person or online, so please be sure to attend one of them. Pre-registration is required to attend the pre-program briefing sessions. The schedule and pre-registration form are available below. If you are unable to attend the pre-program information sessions, please contact Prof. Yamada directly to have a personal meeting.

📂 Category	Innovation, Initiative, Motivation
📌 Keywords	Issue Identification, Hypothesis Testing、New Business Development, Mechanism of Needs
🎯 Objectives	・Understand the essence of the business (your idea has value and there are users) ・Discover customers with “serious needs” and create a business plan ・Demonstrate your “leadership” and “entrepreneurship” to gain knowledge on implementing new value in society
🌐 Language	Japanese (English support available)
👥 Target Participants	Graduate & Undergraduate Students
🗓 Format	7 sessions in about 2 months period (including 2 day camp) and works outside the classes will be needed
✅ Past & Upcoming Sessions	#1: 15/Apr(Wed) 18:00-21:00 Meet Up Meeting (Team Building) #2: 27/Apr(Mon) 18:00-21:00 Meet Up Meeting (Team Building) #3: 15/May(Fri) 18:00-21:30 Selection Pitch (Finalizing Participating teams) #4: 30-31/May(Sat/Sun) Session 1; Define products and value hypothesis (2-day camp) #5: 12/Jun(Fri) Session 2; Reporting activities and building MVP iteratively #6: 25/Jun(Thu) Session 3; Reporting activities and designing profit model #7: 9/Jul(Thu) Session 4; Reporting activities and designing scalability #8: 24/Jul(Fri) Session 5; Reporting activities and preparing business plan #9: 7/Aug(Fri) Session6; Demo Day; final presentation about business plan Held annually since FY2013
📍 Venue	S4-201, Ookayama Campus
🌟 Recommended for	– Those who want to demonstrate their own “leadership” and “entrepreneurship” – Those who want to go into “business” including starting a company in the future – Those who want to implement their own research into social value
📊 Points	–
🎟️ Capacity	30 participants

Main Content

Meet Up Meeting 1：Sharing business idea among students who are interested in this program and team building
Meet Up Meeting 2：Sharing business idea among students who are interested in this program and team building
Selection Pitch：Presenting business ideas by teams which want to participate thai program and finalizing teams to be participated
Session 1：Lecture and work (2-day camp): Define products(or services) and value hypothesis and design business model (business model canvas)
Session 2：Lecture and work: reporting exploring Early Adopter(s) by each team and a lecture (Minimum Viable Products(MVP)
Session 3：Lecture and work: reporting exploring Early Adopter(s) by each team and a lecture (Design profit model)
Session 4：Lecture and work: reporting exploring Early Adopter(s) by each team and a lecture (Design Scalability)
Session 5：Lecture and work: reporting exploring Early Adopter(s) by each team and a lecture (Prepare business plan)
Session 6：DEMO-DAY (presentations about business plan by each team) and Steve Blank Award

Note

During the first three sessions, students will form teams (3-6 people) that share their unique business ideas. After selection, the teams will begin implementing and verifying their business ideas from the fSession 1.
If you are considering participating in this program, please attend one of the multiple program briefing sessions held between February and April to fully understand the program outline and what you will be required to do. We also ask that you register for the following courses early:
- Bachelor’s Students: ENT.V205 Bachelor’s Group Work for Value Creation A (0-2-0)
- Master’s Students: ENT.V505 Master’s Practical Group Work for Entrepreneurship I (0-2-0, GA0M/GA1M)
- PhD Students: ENT.V607 Doctoral Practical Group Work for Entrepreneurship I (0-2-0, GA0D/GA1D)
- Total TAL enrollment: TAL.W504 Master’s Practical Group Work for Leadership I (0-2-0, GAoM/GA1M) or TAL.W602 Doctoral Practical Group Work for Leadership I (0-2-0, GA0D/GA1D)
There are no restrictions on team members, so feel free to invite friends or lab colleagues. However, please note that you must commit to the team, participate in each session of the program, and register for the relevant courses.
Of course, you are welcome to participate in this program not only by presenting a business idea and forming a team, but also as a team member proposing a business idea.
While we plan to use the first and second Meet Up Meetings to brush-up your business idea and form teams, we encourage those who are able to do so to start preparations well in advance, either through a dedicated Slack workspace or by discussing with friends.

Facilitator

Takashi Tsutsumi
CEO, Startup Brain, Inc.
(https://startupbrain.jp/)

He runs an incubation program that invests in and develops startups using the commercialization process. He has more than 20 years of combined experience in launching new businesses and investing in ventures at general trading companies, Silicon Valley, and domestic VCs, and his strengths lie in management support that blends his knowledge of commercialization methods such as the “customer development model.” He has translated books such as “The Four Steps to the Epiphany.”

Past Event Records

Voices from Participants

Not only will you gain the perspective you need to actually launch a business, but seeing business plans from various teams will broaden your horizons. (B2)
It’s fun, so definitely join! (B2)
It’s a great opportunity to get a feel for what it’s like to start a business! You don’t have to actually start a business, so feel free to join! (M1)
The learning experience through practice is immense, so I hope you don’t give up and see it through. (M1)
This is a must-do! (M1)
This class allows you to experience manufacturing and commercializing things from a different perspective than PEECs and other programs, and it’s free. There’s no reason not to take it. (M2)
It may be difficult to balance this with research if you’re in a master’s or higher level, but I think you’ll gain a lot if you allocate resources within your means. (M2)
Have an innovative idea. Think about prototype constriction early on. (M2)
Be creative and have fun（D1）