Perspectives of Entrepreneurial Cybersecurity

Perspectives of Entrepreneurial Cybersecurity

In this lecture series, we give insights into the founders' activities in the vicinity of cybersecurity. We put a focus on marketable and innovative ideas and trends.

Schedule

This lecture takes place every Thursday, 14:15 to 16:00 on Zoom. Instructions to access the lecture are provided here.

Note: To allow invited guests from the US to join POSER, we will use two exceptional slots at 18:15 - 20:00 (marked in yellow).

Every event is composed of a new topic presented by an invited founder or VC who presents their story.

Modus Operandi

Weekly presentations and Q&A

Roughly every week will be a presentation by a founder of a security/privacy-related startup (or a company that sees an urgent need for a security/privacy product in its domain). This talk is followed by a Q&A (or interview) with the presenter. This should give you insights into the experiences of creating a startup.

Students task (mandatory): In preparation for the Q&A session, every student has to prepare by checking the startup and supplemental material (URLs are in the schedule) and submit via the CMS 2-3 questions they would ask in the Q&A. Questions could be related to the niche in the market that the company occupies, the target group they aim at, pitfalls and challenges etc.

Joint event

At the end of the semester (i.e., 07/04/2022) we will have a joint 1-day event where every student/team pitches its own idea for a product in a short presentation with subsequent feedback/discussion. The idea of this event is to make students go once through the process of developing an idea, doing the necessary background research, and then pitching it in front of an audience. 

To this end, the CISPA faculty will provide a short list of recent research results with potential for tech transfer into a product, and students/teams should derive their product idea and pitch from this list. This avoids the need to reveal any real business idea that students already have in mind and at the same time this day also provides an opportunity to exchange ideas and thoughts with the CISPA faculty.

To prepare for this event, in the introduction, you'll get to know

• General guidelines for entrepreneurial pitches
• A typical pitch structure
• How to motivate your topic

Grading and requirements for passing the course

The final grade is based on your pitch at the joint event. We base this grade on:

1. 50% Content:
   • A 5-page report, showing the research for your product idea 
2. 50% Form, of which 12.5% each:
   1. Structure/Thread
   2. Action Titles (covered in intro lecture)
   3. MECE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MECE_principle, covered in intro lecture)

   4. General presentation (e.g., rhetoric)

To pass the course, you need:

1. Hand in the Q&A questions in preparation for each talk
2. Attend the talks
3. Achieve at least 50% in your pitch

LSF Registration

You have to register for the course in LSF until Nov 11 in order to receive a grade.