In this article, we are going to learn about the top five free courses on startups.
- Startup India Learning Program
The first course on our list is backed by the government of India itself under its scheme of Startup India which basically aims to boost the number of startups in the country by providing basic things that startups need to thrive. The course is named Startup India Learning Program which is owned by the Indian government but it is designed and produced by the company called UpGrade. This course is specially designed considering the Indian startup ecosystem and the problem related to it. Some of the famous Indian startup founders like Kumal Bahil (Snapdeal) and Ronnie Screwvala (UpGrade) have thoroughly shared the knowledge gained through their journey.
This free course is only to be taken online and the recommended time to complete this program is four weeks. This course is available in two mediums: English and Hindi. Does this course support the students from ground zero by teaching them important fundamentals like how to come up with a great idea? How to test the idea before implementation? How to register the company as a legal entity? How are the business finances managed? How to pitch to the investors? How to manage the business? How to make a term sheet? And so on. So all in all it is a must-do course for future startup founders!
- Y Combinator Online Startup School
As most Indian students dream of getting into the IITs similarly most of the startup founders dream of getting funded by Y Combinator. Y Combinator is an organization based in America that provided initial funding to the startup in their early phase to accelerate their growth. Y Combinator has funded many big startups in their very early stage and to name a few they are Reddit, Twitch, Dropbox and Airbnb.
To provide detailed knowledge related to startups Y Combinator has started an online portal to serve the startup founders who are entering this arena for the first time. Apart from the detailed information they also provide some free credits for digital services like Amazon AWS, Stripe, Digital Ocean. Segment and else.
- Antler Launch Academy
Similar to Y Combinator there is another company called Antler which provided funding to the initial stage startups to accelerate their growth in the market. Antler has taken an initiative called Antler Launch Academy which provides a 5 weeks long detailed course on the subject of startups. Besides the course, founders can also showcase their product and get feedback from the early users. Along with this they also host an engaging community where candidates can interact with other founders and take help from them. They also take workshops from time to time to update the founders about the latest trends in the market.
- Launching an Innovative Business Specialization (University Of Maryland)
So apart from the courses offered by startup accelerators the other sources to gain knowledge on the subject of startups are university specialization on startups which are offered by various universities. The University of Maryland is one such university that offers specialization in launching a new business. The name given to this program is Launching an Innovative Business Specialization and it comprises four separate courses.
The first course is Developing Innovative Ideas For New Companies: The first step in Entrepreneurship, so as the name of the course suggests it will deal with the process of coming up with problems that are there in the market to be solved and monetized. The second course is Innovation For Entrepreneurs: From Idea To MarketPlace, which teaches a candidate how to do in-depth market research before moving on to the production stage. The third course is New Venture Finance: Startup Funding For Entrepreneurs which is going to be an extensive course on how to pitch the startup ideas to get the maximum possible capital from the investors for the growth of the company. The fourth and last course is Entrepreneurship Capstones which is essentially going to talk about how to integrate all the knowledge gained through this course in the making of a successful business. This is a very extensive program and all of this is going to take around five months to complete if one spends a sound 3 hours per week.
- How to Build A Startup (The Lean LaunchPad – Udacity)
The last course on this list is available on Udacity by the name of How to Build A Startup from an organization called The Lean LaunchPad. As it is an intermediate level course it is recommended that a candidate have their fundamentals clear before taking this. The instructor for this course is Steve Blank who has previously taught at Stanford University and has written many books addressing the subject of startups. This course contains nine-lesson and is going to take about a month to complete.
So these are the five courses that will give you a deep understanding of the workings of the startups. After taking these well-structured courses you will gain a new perspective on startups which will make you more equipped to grab new opportunities around you. But in no way these will give confirmation that your next venture would be a unicorn or even a successful startup for that matter. All in all these courses will at least give you the vision to see the obstructions in your path to success and doge them.
