This experiential course will expose students to the planning and development process of creating a startup. Emphasis is placed on integrating and applying all of the foundational skills acquired in previous entrepreneurship and innovation classes in a real world setting.
Bring your own business idea or join a team to create a startup from scratch. Incorporating all the tools and skills learned from your foundational entrepreneurship courses, this class acts as an incubator, with built in support!
Doug, our instructor, was incredibly insightful and supportive throughout the semester. It was the perfect way to wrap up the certificate so I could utilize all the knowledge that I have gained and apply it to my own venture. Marzia Sager, CMNS student, 2021
Doug, our instructor, was incredibly insightful and supportive throughout the semester. It was the perfect way to wrap up the certificate so I could utilize all the knowledge that I have gained and apply it to my own venture.
Work with professors that know the ins and outs of the startup journey.
Douglas really enjoys working with product-focused companies and sharing his experiences bending metal, writing code, building boards, and optimizing manufacturing. He also knows first-hand what happens when you let the magic smoke out of a component on the lab bench.Douglas is a Mentor-in-Residence at SFU so that he can share his experience with student entrepreneurs and help them build successful companies.When Douglas is not mentoring, he is the Founder and CEO of Dark Water Tek, a consultancy that provides guidance to clients in product commercialization – particularly products that incorporate hardware as a key element.Prior to founding Dark Water Tek, Douglas held the roles of CEO at Nyce Control, President of Spectrum Signal Processing, and Executive Vice President of Vecima Networks Inc. Douglas joined Vecima in its early days, and played several key roles in helping scale the company to success at 921 staff and top line revenue of C$120M.
Areas of specialization:
BUS 477 comes with amazing mentors like Doug Fast! Cannot recommend the course enough.Anon, BUS student, 2019
BUS 477 comes with amazing mentors like Doug Fast! Cannot recommend the course enough.
To find out what semester, date, time, and who’s teaching BUS 477, check out the SFU course outlines here.
Charles Chang Certificate for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Open to students in any faculty at Simon Fraser University, the Charles Chang Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship develops future entrepreneurs using the power of learning by doing. As students taking the Certificate learn and apply market-based approaches to innovation and venture development, they also cultivate connections between peers, […]
Technology Entrepreneurship @ SFU Tech e@SFU at a Glance The 2023-24 cohort started in Fall 2023. Check here again in Summer 2024 for next year’s cohort application! Would you like to: • Build a high-impact startup from the ground up? • Work collaboratively on real-world problems with students from other faculties?• Speak with real customers and work on creative solutions. Join this […]