SYSEN 5213

Designing Robust Ventures Using Profitability as an Engineering Requirement

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

This project-based course introduces students to a systems-based methodology for startup ventures. The methodology designs ventures to be robust and resilient at launch—they’re profitable despite higher-than-expected costs, lower-than-anticipated demand, and unforeseen market changes. Today's venture capital-inspired way of innovating disruptive ventures—the lean startup—has a greater than 95% failure rate, requiring years of costly experimentation. For those building ventures to hold for profits, ventures must be designed using a holistic systems approach that enables high probability of success at launch while cutting validation time and cost. Working in a venture-studio style on an emerging technology or big societal problem chosen by sponsoring companies, students will learn to design a robust core business architecture by systematically solving 10 key requirements governing a venture's cost and value curves.

Last 4 Terms Offered (None)

Learning Outcomes

• Align systems innovation strategy with financial context by translating key financial parameters that dictate return on invested capital into key venture design parameters and by defining functional requirements using a financial lens.
• Design and evaluate core business system architectures that drive operational synergies across business models, pushing down the cost curve and driving up value potential.
• Apply first-principles reasoning to venture design for systems by translating stakeholder and functional requirements into structured logic models that support strategic decision-making and system solution validation.

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