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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies by Case Western Reserve University

4.4
stars
125 ratings

About the Course

The path for entrepreneurs to grow their companies outside of well-developed entrepreneurial ecosystems like Silicon Valley is challenging. Most markets around the world do not look like Silicon Valley, and they never will. But there are other models to support new businesses. In transitioning markets (where entrepreneurs do not have much access to private sector financing), government officials, donors, and business leaders are experimenting with creative approaches to support the growth of entrepreneurs. Northeast Ohio, whose largest city is Cleveland, is one such community. During our time together in this course, we will be exploring some of these innovative approaches. A massive intervention of government and donor resources in Northeast Ohio has been in place for over ten years. In that time, Northeast Ohio has experienced success (including job creation and follow-on funding) with alternative methods of financing startups, but it has not been easy. Yes, some progress has been made, but whether or not they've hit on ultimate success has yet to be determined. A dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem takes many years, even decades, to develop. Government officials and donors typically are looking for shorter term success with their support programs which makes long-term support for entrepreneurship challenging. During this course, we will hear from entrepreneurs who have launched products and services ranging from medical devices to LED lights to whiskey. You will learn how these entrepreneurs engaged with resources made available to them through a variety of programs and intermediary organizations. We have chosen to talk with many business people that are still in the process of developing their companies and whose ultimate success or failure is still to be determined. In addition to learning about Cleveland's attempts to support entrepreneurship, you will also be hearing in the lectures from leaders in selected markets around the world including Greece, Vietnam, Tunisia, Argentina, Rwanda and China about how they are working to support the growth of start-up companies. One of our goals is to learn from you how different communities around the world are approaching implementing strategies and methods to support businesses. Taking what we've learned from our examples in class, I will ask you to reflect on how to best grow entrepreneurship where you live. I am excited to use this global platform to create a dialogue where information flows in multiple directions. Most MOOCs rebroadcast professors’ lectures, but this course will be different. Don’t expect to see me standing in front of the camera, talking and lecturing every module. Instead, the lectures will be relatively short in length and will have more of the feel of an engaging documentary than a static classroom setting....

Top reviews

GB

Sep 24, 2015

Interesting course! Strongly opened my mind further on understanding entrepreneurship success, its impact on business and communities development as well as jobs creation.

Thanks

MI

Apr 24, 2019

Review classmate assignment or work some times make me difficulties due to not found it properly. Need easy to searching.

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26 - 38 of 38 Reviews for Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies

By raoul

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Aug 29, 2016

Interesting course on how the startup ecosystem was build in Cleveland, Ohio. Especially interesting was to tell and read about how the startup ecosystem in the Netherlands and the countries of the fellow students look like. I would recommend this course when you're interested in how startup ecosystems work (and why sometimes they don't work)

By Ian D

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Sep 11, 2015

This is not the entrepreneurship primer I was hoping for, but it did a tremendous job of educating me on the different ways in which public and private partnerships can potentially spur the growth of entrepreneurship in a region if utilized effectively.

By José L C

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Oct 22, 2016

Good course for people involved in the design of public policies. This course is perfect to politics and CEOs, people with the money to invest or the ability to organice big group of people and educate them to invest.

By Jaime R

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Dec 12, 2015

I would have expected more in terms of the depth of content beyond Ohio, but still it is very interesting and complete. A must do for anyone looking to build a startup ecosystem

By Ahmed S A

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Nov 3, 2016

Very helpful, I definitely am much more equipped with ideas and proven methods to grow as an entrepreneur even with the challenges in economies like mine.

By Cortina M

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Jul 17, 2020

Great course. There were some links that we no longer working; however, the information that was provided was valuable.

By Daniel O

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Jul 9, 2017

Very useful information and great enlightenment to upcoming entrepreneurs.

By Kumar D R

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Jun 20, 2016

Extremely useful concept wise with case studies.

By Roberto

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Feb 15, 2016

Bueno, pero no lo que esperaba :)

By S M R I

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Jan 10, 2016

Very good course

By Lauren A

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Oct 31, 2019

I am really happy I didn't pay for this course. While some of the readings were interesting, I found that the videos were so redundant and hard to follow. Also, half of the links for reading assignments do not work or require a subscription (i.e. The Economist). Why don't you post PDFs like most other classes require? This course is not worthy of money.

By Valeria

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Sep 24, 2015

The course touches the topic very lightly. There are transitioning economies around the globe in dire need of start ups and the overall entrepreneurship spirit of Silicon Valley. I wish the course had provided deeper knowledge on this particular subject, specially focused on The Americas.

By Paweł M

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Sep 5, 2017

A plenty of resources, but feels shallow in a way it focuses on Cleveland, Ohio too much.