How the course works
Simulation and immersion. You simulate founding a company by building an investor pitch, and you immerse yourself in the startup world through readings, events and discussion.
Who it is for and what you will learn
Who it is for
Any UC Davis undergraduate, from any major, with no prerequisites. Most students are underclassmen. You do not need an idea, a technical background or a plan to start a company.
Ideas you will practice
- Start with a real problem someone has, not with an idea, a technology or a passion.
- Prefer hypotheses to plans, customer feedback to intuition, and iteration to big up-front design.
- See a startup as an organization in search of a repeatable and scalable business model.
- Learn what an investor needs to see, and weigh the costs of venture money.
- Form your own view when founders, investors and researchers disagree.
The official learning outcomes are in the syllabus on Canvas.
How class works
Socratic and cold-called
Class is discussion, not lecture. Your instructor cold-calls students, waits out silence, and expects you to have done the reading.
No screens, assigned seats
Laptops and phones stay away, and you sit with your team in assigned seats.
A typical session
Announcements and upcoming SSC events, a short reading check, a cold-call kick-off question, one or two framework segments with discussion prompts, and a team breakout where you apply the idea to your own company and report back.
Teams of 3 to 4 students
You form a team in the first week. Free-riding is a real risk in any team, so each write-up has an individual peer review, described below.
850 points, no rounding
This table is generated from the course data. If it ever differs from Canvas, Canvas governs.
| Category | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Attendance | 87 | 29 classes at 3 points each. TAs check attendance twice per class, and students sit in assigned team seats. |
| Reading responses | 87 | Short free-response prompts, about 3 to 5 minutes and 3 points each. They replaced multiple-choice quizzes in Fall 2026, and days with no reading are free points. |
| Event attendance | 120 | 10 entrepreneurship events at 12 points each, each with a short reflection due within 48 hours. |
| Team write-ups | 240 | 8 write-ups at 30 points each. Each is one pitch slide plus 600 to 700 words. |
| Final presentation | 150 | An 8-slide pitch, recorded as a video of 5 minutes or less. Every member speaks. |
| Final paper | 150 | 4,800 to 5,600 words, built from the weekly write-ups. |
| Final peer review | 16 | Uses a separate template. |
- Extra credit: Each event beyond the required 10 replaces your lowest reading or attendance score.
- Extra credit: Students who speak in more than half of classes get a half-letter-grade bump.
The three-stage write-up process
Each of the eight write-ups is worth 30 points and moves through three stages.
- 5 points
Stage 1: AI-free first draft
You write the first draft without AI. Your document's version history shows how it was written.
- 10 points
Stage 2: AI critique
You submit targeted questions you asked an AI tool about your draft, along with the responses.
- 15 points
Stage 3: Revised final
You turn in the revised write-up with an explanation of what you changed and why.
Peer review. Each write-up comes with an individual peer review. A student who skips it loses 10 points personally, and their teammates are not affected.
Using AI well, not as a shortcut
The course treats AI as a skill to develop, not a shortcut.
Allowed
- Brainstorm ideas and approaches.
- Summarize a reading to check your understanding.
- Check your writing for clarity and grammar.
- Explore slide designs.
Not allowed
- Paste AI-generated text, slides or data and present them as your own.
- Make up interviews, evidence or numbers.
- Let AI replace your own analysis.
Disclose it. Any use of AI must be disclosed in a short note at the end of your submission that lists the prompts you used.
How integrity is checked. The course does not use AI detectors, because they disproportionately flag writers whose first language is not English. Instead, your AI-free first draft is checked through your document's version history, and graders look for specific detail in each write-up.
Founders create things that did not exist before, which is exactly what tools trained on existing content do poorly. The course aims to simulate founding a company as faithfully as it can.
Common questions
Do I need a startup idea?
No. Many students arrive without one. Your team can pitch a real technology startup that is no more than 15 years old, as if it were raising venture funding today and you were its founders. You can also work on your own idea.
Do I need to know how to code?
There are no prerequisites. The work is readings, class discussion, customer research, slides and writing.
Can I take this as a non-engineer?
Yes. ENG 8 is open to every major, and most students come from outside engineering, many of them underclassmen.
How much time does it take each week?
Plan for readings before most classes, short reading responses, a team write-up of 600 to 700 words plus one slide, and 10 events across the quarter. Students have told us the workload feels heavy for 3 units, so be ready for that.
What happens in class?
Class is discussion, not lecture. Your instructor cold-calls students, you put your screen away, and you sit with your team in assigned seats. Each session includes a team breakout where you apply the idea to your own company.
How do event credits work?
You need 10 entrepreneurship events. Each one has a short reflection on Canvas due within 48 hours. Off-campus events need TA pre-approval, and every event beyond the 10 replaces your lowest reading or attendance score.
Is this class right for me if I do not want to start a company?
Yes, if you want to understand how ventures are built and judged. The questions in a pitch deck are the same ones a customer, a grant committee, a hiring manager or a boss at a large company will ask. Not every good venture is a high-growth startup.
Ready to see the quarter?
The schedule lists each week’s topics and readings, and the write-up that week feeds.