Course Details - Columbia University

Classroom Location Update: The classroom for H4E will be in Room 425 at Riverside Church (490 Riverside Dr, New York, NY 10027). The easiest entrance to use is on 120th street between Claremont Ave and Riverside Dr. It is an arched wooden door right after the entrance to the parking garage if you are walking on 120th from Claremont towards Riverside (see this image for the correct door).

Course Overview

Hacking for Energy is an new interdisciplinary class for graduate students to develop and test solutions to critical problems facing the energy industry using the Lean Startup methodology. Based on Steve Blank’s Hacking for Defense class (recently taught at Stanford), Hacking For Energy features problem statements for energy issues that need immediate solutions, supplied by industry hosts who also serve as mentors to the teams.  

Prior to class registration, Students will form interdisciplinary teams and propose a solution for one of the submitted problems. If accepted into the class, the team will investigate the viability of their solution using the Lean LaunchPad methodology.

Hacking for Energy is currently being offered at Columbia University (open to Columbia and CUNY students), and New York University. 

Course Structure

The course is designed to help students learn how to launch a startup while simultaneously learning about the energy industry as a whole. Class will be into divided into three activities:
  • Homework that includes conducting 10 customer interviews a week, watching the How to Build a Startup lectures on Udacity, and reading about the energy industry .
  • Presentations by students about their project progress
  • Lectures from industry domain experts on energy topics
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Teams will be assigned a mentor to assist them in getting customer interviews, interpreting the results, and preparing the weekly presentations. They will also have access to a liaison from their industry host.

All team members must participate in all class activities, including the out-of-the-building customer discovery. Each week will be a new adventure as you design experiments and test hypotheses about each part of your business model. You will see how agile development can help you rapidly iterate your idea to build something potential stakeholders customers will use (and buy).

Who can take this class?

  • This course is open to graduate students at Columbia University and CUNY.
  • Students must apply for the course in interdisciplinary teams of four.
  • Each team member within a team must come from the same school.

How do I take this class?

  • Review the Problem Statements
  • Attend an Info Session. 
  • Form a team
  • Apply for the class by submitting your proposed solution to one of the problem statements - use only one application for the entire team. 
  • Participate in a phone interview with the teaching team: Interviews will take place between November 14-November 28.
  • Wait to hear back. Students will be notified in December if they have gotten into the course. 

Application Schedule

10/19/17: Columbia Info Session
10/26/17: Columbia Team Matching Meetup
11/13/17: Applications Due by 11:59PM EST
11/14/17 - 11/28/17: Interviews
12/2017: Course acceptance notification

Course Schedule

Thursdays, 1:10-3:40PM
Morningside Heights Campus (Room TBA)
​January 18th - April 30th

Resources and Links

Industry Host Problem Statements

Info Session Registration

Info Session Slides

Matching Meetup Registration

Student Matching Doc 

Course Application



A Note on Class Culture
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The startup culture is dramatically different from the university culture. Startups communicate much differently than inside a university and lab. This class’s culture may feel brusque and impersonal, but it is intentionally oriented to simulate the time and cash-constrained environments in which startups operate. With limited time, we will push, challenge, and question you in the hope you will quickly learn. We will be direct, open, and tough – just like the real world. We hope you will recognize that our comments are not personal but part of the process. We also expect you to question us, challenge our point of view if you disagree, and engage in a real dialogue with the teaching team. This approach may seem harsh or abrupt, but it is all part of our wanting you to learn to challenge yourselves quickly and objectively, and to appreciate that as entrepreneurs, you need to learn and evolve faster than you ever imagined possible.

​Finally, you will encounter issues on how to build and work with a team. We will help you understand how to successfully build and manage your startup team. We encourage teams to recruit any and all resources. Others, including students and non-students may serve as extra members of the teams.
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