Clean Tech Entrepreneurship

(BUS 189)

For those who have asked themselves how their business idea can contribute to solving global environmental issues, this course is ideal. It explores the promise of the emerging clean tech industries and offers actionable tools that students may apply in their own “green” ventures.

Recent economic and environmental realities have opened up pioneering opportunities for entrepreneurs to do good as they build highly profitable businesses. This course will explore the emerging landscape for clean tech ventures. Drawing on recent practical experience, we will examine how capitalizing on such opportunities will require unique skill sets and expectations. The course will then address proven strategies for new ventures to obtain their initial financing and then survive the typically long sales cycles. The final project involves a short “pitch” of ideas that students will present in small groups to the class and to a renowned industry expert. Class sessions will include prominent guest speakers from clean tech enterprises.

Andres Wydler, CEO, RealGreen Power

Andres Wydler currently serves as CEO of a technology firm that turns wastewater into energy and clean water. Previously, he was a founder of the smart-grid firm BPL Global, where he led strategy, various rounds of financing, business development, and sales, and the company’s partnerships and acquisitions. He also held leading positions with a number of technology firms, from startups to intrapreneurial ventures at Macromedia and SGI, and he set up an angel group that invests in early stage technology companies. Wydler received an MBA from Stanford and a law degree from the University of Zurich.