About the Course
Intro to Software Startups is a new elective course launched in partnership with Dr. Arnab Nandi, Associate Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and founder/former CEO of Mobikit (acquired by Azuga Inc., a Bridgestone Company).
This course equips students with practical skills for working at, building or launching new software ventures. As a Computer Science course, this course covers technical topics like continuous deployment, agile development, MVP creation, AI integration, software architectures and more. We pair these teachings with business fundamentals like fundraising, IP, and growth strategies.
The course is blends flipped classroom techniques, founder journeys, case studies and interactive discussions through readings, videos, podcasts and guest lectures from tech leaders and entrepreneurs, many of whom are Ohio State alumni.
By the end of the semester, students can expect to learn the ins and outs of the software startup lifecycle from ideation to product launch, all while working in teams to develop a prototype, analyze market fit and pitch ideas to real-world stakeholders.
Past Guest Lecturers Include:
- Bill Babeaux ('11), Head of Product, Advocate (former Instacart, Circulo Health, PopSQL)
- Andy Jenks, General Partner, Drive Capital
- Priyang Shah, Founder & CEO, Healia Health (YC24)
- Dan Fabbri, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
- Pat Carroll ('17 MBA) & Peter Schrock, co-founders, Paintable Pictures
- Tim Grace, Managing Director, Techstars Columbus (co-founder & former COO of Draftbit)
- Patrick Shuff ('10), Engineer, Netflix (former CTO of eFuse, Engineer at Coinbase)
- Will Matz ('19), founder, Superfan (Techstars '24)
- Cole Smith ('19), co-founder & CTO, Visor.vin (Techstars '24)
- Behrooz Omidvar-Tehrani (PostDoc '18), Senior ML Scientist, AWS Q
- Robb Winkle, co-founder & CTO, Doohickey AI (Techstars '24)
- Paras Chadha, Head of Engineering, Block (former Twitch, Teespring, Meta)
- Dan Manges, co-founder & CEO, RWX (co-founder and former CTO at Root, former CTO at Braintree)
- Mike Panetta, Engineering, HubiFi (former VP of Product at Root)
- Jean Bredeche, CTO at Stealth Startup (former co-founder & CTO at Quantopian, acquired by Robinhood)
- Zia Mohammad ('17), Senior Technical Product Manager, AWS Quantum
- Shane Richardson, Senior UX Designer, ZoCo Design
- Kevin Unkrich ('19), co-founder & CTO, Superpower Health
- Jeff Schumann ('06), co-founder & former CEO, Aware (acquired by Mimecast); Head of AI, Mimecast