What this course promises
By December you'll have built your own AI agent, pointed it at a real inefficiency inside a real organization, run it there for a week, and pitched the business behind it to a panel of founders. You'll keep the agent. It follows you through the rest of the minor.
Two things happen here. One is knowledge, and you'll memorize it. The other is habits: deciding with incomplete information, committing, and changing direction when the world says no. Habits are the point. You can only practice them on something real, with people who can actually tell you no.
How it works
- Mondays you build. One piece of your agent's harness each week: skill, hook, rule, memory, sub-agents. Demo it to a classmate before you leave.
- Wednesdays you venture. One "what is" question, put to work on your project: opportunity finding, markets, interviews, prototypes, the pitch.
- Fridays you write. A Venture Log by 11:59pm: what you tried, what you learned, what you decided.
- November 19 you pitch. A three-minute video, judged live by alumni. Required.
Teams of two or three for the venture. The harness is yours alone. Details: the project, the harness and the log.
How you're graded
Specifications grading. Every piece of work is Satisfactory or Needs Revision against a published checklist, no points. Your letter grade is the bundle you complete.
| C | All core deliverables · 9 of 11 logs · up to 3 absences |
| B | C, plus 10 of 11 logs · 1 book memo · 2 mastery options · up to 2 absences |
| A | B, plus both book memos · 4 mastery options · up to 1 absence |
Two tokens. Each buys one late submission (72 hours), one resubmission, or one absence forgiven. Harness work gets a free 48-hour revision window after my evaluator agent reads it. Full rules, checklists, and why it works this way: grading and deliverables.
Schedule
Twelve weeks. Fridays are log days. Due dates in the last column are Fridays at 11:59pm unless noted. Readings are due before that Wednesday's class.
| Wk | Dates | Monday · build | Wednesday · venture | Due |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sep 7 / 9 | Agent setup. How it works. | What is entrepreneurship and design? The seven entrepreneurial thinking skills. Gift-giving. | Log 1 · Three inefficiencies |
| 2 | Sep 14 / 16 | Your first skill. | What is opportunity finding? Your three inefficiencies, on the wall. Teams form. Read: Co-Intelligence, intro and ch. 1–3 | Log 2 · Gift exercise |
| 3 | Sep 21 / 23 | Your first hook. | What is a market? Research. Think about the money. The ten-more-customers test. Read: Minimalist Entrepreneur, ch. 1–2 | Log 3 · Inefficiency Brief |
| 4 | Sep 28 / 30 | Rules. Make it argue with you. | What is a customer interview? Practice on your agent first. Read: Co-Intelligence, ch. 4–6 | Log 4 |
| 5 | Oct 5 / 7 | Memory. The assumptions ledger moves in. | Prototype 1. How does this make money? Measure the baseline. Read: Minimalist Entrepreneur, ch. 3 | Log 5 · Discovery Pack |
| 6 | Oct 12 / 14 | Second hook. | Validate with the process owner. Alumni panel: red, yellow, green. Read: Minimalist Entrepreneur, ch. 4 | Log 6 · Business Case |
| 7 | Oct 19 / 21 | The harness. Assemble it. | Prototype 2. Pivot, persevere, or abandon. | Mon: Harness v1 · Log 7 |
| 8 | Oct 26 / 28 | Agent org. Sub-agents. | Validate again. Read: Co-Intelligence, ch. 7–9 and epilogue | Log 8 · Validation Report · Book memo 1 |
| 9 | Nov 2 / 4 | Agent org. Evaluators. | What is a pitch? Storyboard the video. Read: Minimalist Entrepreneur, ch. 5 | Log 9 |
| 10 | Nov 9 / 11 | Hardening. Deploy prep. | Video production. Rough cuts. Read: Minimalist Entrepreneur, ch. 6–7 | Log 10 · Book memo 2 |
| 11 | Nov 16 / 18 | Final cut critique. | Deploy week. Your harness runs live. | Tue: Pitch video · Thu Nov 19: Competition · Log 11 |
| — | Nov 23–27 | Thanksgiving. No class. | ||
| 12 | Nov 30 / Dec 2 | Debrief. Handoff. | Final studio. Retrospective. | Deployment Log (Dec 4) · Dossier, Reflection, Peer Eval (Dec 11, noon) |
Reading days Oct 8–9 don't touch us. Last class day is Fri Dec 4. No final exam.
Before Week 1
- Bring a laptop you can install software on. We set up Claude Code on Monday; access is paid for.
- Get the two books: Mollick, Co-Intelligence and Lavingia, The Minimalist Entrepreneur. Both short. First reading is due Wed Sep 16.
- Start noticing tedious work: anything someone does by hand every week. Post three, with evidence, to Canvas by Fri Sep 11, 11:59pm — same deadline as Log 1, which goes in the form. What counts as evidence is on the hunt page.
- First things due: Log 1 (Venture Log form) and your three inefficiencies on Fri Sep 11; gift exercise and Log 2 on Fri Sep 18.
Workload, honestly. Plan on eight hours a week outside class, more in Weeks 5–7 and 10–11. You'll talk to twenty strangers, build a system that runs inside a real business, and put your face on a video. That's the course.
Everything else
What's new
- Week 3 Wednesday slides are up: Week 3, Day 2. Two stories about college, hooks picked up, Douglas Lindsay, and how to watch a process and run an interview: the guide you write before the call and the page you fill in after it.
- Week 3 Monday slides are up: Week 3, Day 1. Log 2 read back, Co-Intelligence argued with, touch points drawn, teams announced, your first hook, and two guests: Douglas Lindsay on Wed Sep 23 and George Matelich teaching Mon Sep 28.
- Week 2 Monday slides are up: Week 2, Day 1. Your first skill: what one is, watch me build one, build yours, demo to a classmate, what goes in Log 2.
- The Venture Log form is live. Log 1 is due Fri Sep 11 by 11:59pm. It's linked from the harness page and deliverables too.
- No weekly Wednesday stand-ups. Wednesdays are "what is" days, put to work on your project. The two numbers, conversations and touch points, live in your Venture Log and get asked for in class.
- Day 2 slides are up: Week 1, Day 2. Install clinic, five syllabus questions, entrepreneurship and design, the gift exercise finished.
- Day 1 slides are up: Week 1, Day 1. All decks live at slides.
- Readings assigned week by week on the schedule; two books, two memos.
- Syllabus published. Course number is ENT 1000. Nov 19 competition confirmed. The "nothing leaves the building" rule added to the project constraints.