I will be teaching a course in Reykjavik University starting this fall. The title of the course is “How to Start a Startup”. In case you did not follow the lecture series created by Sam Altman of Y Combinator last year at Stanford or my weekly post covering the topic, here is another opportunity to get synced up. The idea for the course is based on the work Sam Altman did and before him Peter Thiel at Stanford. In order for us to create a sustainable startup ecosystem in Iceland we need to create an environment that is safe for people to experiment and see if Entrepreneurship and Startup Founding is something for them.
I wrote about why I started on this journey to build a sustainable startup ecosystem in Iceland. I announced that we are exploring launching Founder Institute in Reykjavik, we successfully passed the threshold requirement to launch Founder Institute in Reykjavik. Founder Institute is an after work initiative targeting those who have a day job and are thinking about venturing out to start their own business. It is a 14 week program and you can apply for the semester in Reykjavik here. Make sure you pick Reykjavik as the location. Founder Institute is in over 100 cities in the world. I am really excited to have achieved this milestone. The semester starts in the first week of May. You can follow the meetups and events for Founder Institute Iceland at our Facebook Page. I abandoned the idea of Founder Institute in Iceland due to a number of reasons, if you are interested to learn why please contact me.
Coming back to the topic, I believe no one should have to go through life thinking to be successful or accomplish something they need to be lucky. I even wrote about how to get lucky. To quote from Zero to One (Required reading for the How to Start a Startup course):
In 1912, after he became the first explorer to reach the South Pole, Roald Amundsen wrote: “Victory awaits him who has everything in order – luck, people call it”.
Through the course I want to inspire those taking the class to build their own future. Convert job seekers to job creators. Or at least show them how they can be job creators. I don’t believe Entrepreneurship or Startup Founding is for everyone, but it is a life skill and everyone should learn the process. This course is not meant to be a manual or a record of knowledge but an exercise in thinking.
A Startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. A new company’s most important strength is new thinking: even more important than nimbleness, small size affords space to think.
I have no idea how to get the link for the course catalogue in Reykjavik University, I will update this blog post with the link as soon as I learn how. Here is the description of the course and the requirements, required reading and what you will learn. If this is something that interest you and you are enrolled in Reykjavik University, take the class. There are no restrictions to take this class. I believe anyone irrespective of their major, background or ability can learn how to start a startup.
