This website provides information about BUS 477 for current and prospective students. It's also a place to share the venture planning resources we use in the course with former students and the wider business community.

The next class will be offered in the fall of 2009 at the Burnaby campus.

If you would like to suggest a resource or learn more about the course, please contact me at any time for a prompt reply.

Ean Jackson
Instructor, BUS 477

Thinking about taking BUS477 this fall?

Here's a program from the BCTIA that might interest you:

"Know of someone graduating high school or attending University or College that is interested in a Tech Career?  They may qualify to receive a BC Technology Scholarship.

Our industry-funded program provides non-repayable grants to students who have a proven passion for technology, and who are studying in a variety of areas such as engineering or computer science, marketing, sales, and product development and project management.

** Note to everyone who has taken BUS477 in the past as well as those who plan to take it in the future...

New Ventures BC is a venture business competition aimed at supporting the technology industry.  Those who have taken BUS477 will have heard me recommend they participate in this competition in particular because:

Enterprize is the largest student business plan competiton in Canada.  The conference and selection of the best student business plans in the country was held this past weekend in Vancouver.

I am very proud to say that Carve, a business that develops innovative devices for the snowboarding market, won third prize in this prestigeous competition.

Congrats to David Leung from ENSC 201 and Jeffrey Lam and Tony from BUS 477!

You should by now have received a note from me indicating the letter grade I assigned you for BUS477 and exactly how you earned it.  Please let me know ASAP if your grade on an assignment is differnet that what I confirmed in the note, as I plan to submit all grades before the Ken Spencer Competition on Wednesday 3 December.

I truly enjoyed our class this semester and I hope you did, too.

While it's the end of BUS477, this may be the beginning of your entrepreneurial career! 

By now, you should have received a note from me with the grade for your team project (business plan and pitch.)  The 5 teams that were recommended to the Ken Spencer Business Plan competition by John Jones (ENSC201 instructor) and me should have also received a note from Khosrow inviting them to the competition.

Business Overviews (Pitches)

While it doesn't contribute to your grades, I though you would appreciate how the members of our venture panel felt about your presentations in our last class. 

You will recall that I gave each of them $1M to invest.  I asked them to pick the 5 presentations they liked the best, then invest in up to 5 of those they chose.  Out of fairness to the panelists, I've not put names to the choices.

Panelist A

Here's a note I just received from Khosrow.  Congrats to everyone who worked very hard on their business plans.  I hope everyone in BUS 477 will come to the Ken Spencer Competition to cheer the finalists along.

On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 2:50 PM, Khosrow Mossannen <kmossann@gmail.com> wrote:

Congratulations to all teams!

I've been grading your plans for the last 2 days solid.  John Jones and I have been comparing notes, but we will need to meet again before we can agree on your grades for the business plans.  We will meet on Sunday, so I hope to have the short list of 5 recommendations for Ken Spencer competition on Sunday.