精东影业

For months, Anders Bill and Theo Chapman had been tossing the idea for Darkroom, a web-based platform from which photographers could sell professional-quality prints. But the idea didn鈥檛 coalesce until it became Bill鈥檚 semester-long project in Idea2Launch, a new marketing class in the Carroll School.

This past fall, Bill, Morrissey College 鈥�17, and three classmates were able to spend 12 weeks scoping out the size of the potential market and writing a go-to-market plan. Darkroom, which Bill and Chapman, Carroll School 鈥�17, continue to pursue, aims to use a so-called campaign business model. Photographers post their shots on the site and announce how much they鈥檇 like to charge for prints and how many they want to sell. Darkroom makes the prints only if it receives sufficient orders and then shares the revenue with the photographer.

Idea2Launch is taught by聽Bridget Akinc, a senior lecturer in marketing, and聽Brian Harrington, entrepreneur in residence at the聽Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship. The Center sponsors a coconcentration in entrepreneurship that includes this course.

鈥淏ridget and Brian are both experienced entrepreneurs,鈥� Bill said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e more like mentors than professors鈥攖hey give you a lot of room to be creative.鈥�

The class is built upon the idea of learning by doing and structured around a semester-long project like the one Bill and his group did. Over the course of the class, teams of students conceive of an idea for a new product or service and shepherd it all the way through to a formal presentation to a group of executives.

鈥淥ften, marketing is taught by combining theory and tools鈥斺�楬ere are the techniques you employ as a marketer, and here鈥檚 how you implement them,鈥欌�� Akinc said. 鈥淲e wanted this to be very hands-on.鈥� 聽聽聽

Forty-two students enrolled this fall. Several of them used their projects as entries into the Shea Center鈥檚 Elevator Pitch competition. At that annual event held in late October, student teams take 60 seconds to pitch their business ideas to a panel of experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. The Darkroom duo of Bill and Chapman (the latter is a marketing and entrepreneurship student) won for best overall pitch in the competition, which awards cash prizes.

Idea2Launch germinated in conversations between Akinc and Harrington, both veteran marketers. Akinc previously worked for several Silicon Valley-based software companies. Harrington, Carroll School 鈥�89, was chief marketing officer for Zipcar, a Boston-based car-sharing network. They met when Harrington visited campus in 2014 as part of the Carroll School鈥檚 Distinguished Marketer Lecture series. Friendship and collaboration ensued.

When the Carroll School created its聽entrepreneurship coconcentration聽last year, the two instructors saw an opening for a new kind of class. 鈥淥ur aim was to give students a taste of what it鈥檚 like to be a real entrepreneur,鈥� Akinc said.

Adds Harrington: 鈥淲e wanted them to be able to analyze a market opportunity鈥攖o assess whether an idea could be successful in the market.鈥�

To teach that kind of thinking, the professors begin by asking everyone in the class to generate at least three business ideas. They then group the students into teams, and each team must winnow its members鈥� ideas down to one they鈥檙e willing to pursue as a project.

Bill鈥檚 group had actually started with another idea鈥攁n app that translated sign language via a smartphone鈥檚 camera. When that idea faltered, Bill suggested they jump to Darkroom. He says working with the group taught him that anybody can be an entrepreneur; he鈥檇 had a hand in a prior 精东影业 startup,聽, but none of his other Idea2Launch teammates had started a company before. He worked with Natalie Carbonell, Sheryn Saab, and Austin Wang, all Carroll School 鈥�17.

鈥淭he team caught on really quickly,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t made me realize that entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and that anyone can participate in a startup.鈥�

Over the course of the semester, as the groups refine their ideas, they must submit two milestone papers. In the first, they define their market, answering the question, Who鈥檚 the customer? In the second, they present their go-to-market plan. It must be based on primary research, such as surveys or interviews with potential customers.

The students also did a field study, visiting HubSpot, a sales-and-marketing software company in Cambridge. There, they met with CEO Brian Halligan. Other marketing executives came to campus to speak with the group, including Lesley Mottla of M.Gemi, Denis Scott of OpenTable, and Peter Bell of Highland Capital.聽

The class culminates with the students鈥� presentations of go-to-market plans to the judges and their classmates. This past fall鈥檚 judges, in addition to Akinc and Harrington, were Nick Rellas, Carroll School 鈥�13, cofounder and CEO of聽, and Stephanie Shore, chief marketing officer of聽.

鈥淎 big part of the final presentations is learning how to handle questions,鈥� Akinc said. 鈥淚deally, we want them to be so prepared that they鈥檒l have what Brian calls 鈥榖ack-pocket slides鈥欌�攏ot ones that are part of their presentations but extras that anticipate likely questions.鈥�

Idea2Launch is open to any upper-level Boston College student and requires no application (though that might change in the future).

Caroline Grindrod, Carroll School 鈥�17, said she hadn鈥檛 considered working for a startup until she took the class last fall. 鈥淚 thought startups were for tech people,鈥� she said. She鈥檇 enrolled because she鈥檚 a marketing concentrator who鈥檇 enjoyed a prior class taught by Akinc. She and her team ran with the idea of a rooftop greenhouse that would provide year-round fresh local vegetables to people in the city.

Idea2Launch changed her outlook about her career, and she鈥檚 now looking for opportunities with startups for when she graduates this spring. Part of the reason is the startup ethos she learned about in the class, she said.

鈥淚 loved the do-or-die mentality鈥攖hat you learn by going after something. I鈥檇 heard the saying, 鈥楨very problem is an opportunity.鈥� But I never really believed that before this class. The class made me listen to and think about people鈥檚 problems in a different way.鈥�

Parts of this article originally appeared in聽the Shea Center鈥檚 newsletter.