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Karl T. Ulrich is CIBC Endowed Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches innovation, entrepreneurship, and design. His books include Product Design and Development, Innovation Tournaments, The Innovation Tournament Handbook, and Winning in China. At Wharton, he has won the Anvil Award, the Miller-Sherrerd Award, and the Excellence in Teaching Award. In addition to his scholarly work, Professor Ulrich is a prolific innovator and entrepreneur, holding 24 patents. He earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from MIT.

@ktulrich
ulrich@wharton.upenn.edu
562 JMHH | 3730 Walnut Street | Philadelphia, PA 19104 US

  • Finding Content on This Site

    Most content here is a WordPress “post.” The exceptions are books and published articles, which are listed on dedicated pages you access directly via the main navigation menu. You can probably find the content you are looking for by searching using keywords. I’ve tagged most posts so that the search should work pretty well.

  • Introduction to Entrepreneurship

    It’s more fun to be a pirate than to join the navy. Steve Jobs What is Entrepreneurship? Entrepreneurship is the creation of a new economic entity to do a job in society. The hallmarks of entrepreneurship include a focus on solving a problem, creative exploration of solutions, experimentation to reduce uncertainty, formation and operation of…

  • TAM, SAM, SOM and the Beachhead Market

    Most investors agree that the two most important factors in a decision to invest are the market size and the quality of the team. This chapter focuses on market size. The most common ways to think about market size, and the estimates most institutional investors expect to see are: Some investors, advisors, and entrepreneurs (including…

  • Go-to-Market (GTM) System

    This little piggy went to market,This little piggy stayed home,This little piggy had roast beef,This little piggy had none.This little piggy went …Wee, wee, wee,all the way home! Mother Goose What is Go to Market? Go to Market or GTM is a term of art originally used in the enterprise software industry in Silicon Valley.…

  • Allocating Equity to Teams

    One of the most common challenges faced by founding teams is how to allocate equity in their enterprise. This is essentially equivalent to the challenge of how to value the different inputs required to create the product, service, or company. There are no predefined formulas, but basic economic logic applies here. This figure illustrates how…

  • Customer Persona and the Job to be Done

    I enjoy cooking. I’m not one for recipes, and I especially like making savory stews and soups from seasonal vegetables, and with interesting spices, especially cumin. I usually make a big pot and after enjoying a nice dinner, I’ll stow away a few leftovers in serving-size containers in my freezer. Few moments give me greater…

  • Drawing for Product Design

    I made three relatively short videos to teach my undergraduate students at Penn to draw. There are many types of drawing; the focus of these videos is quick visualization tools for communicating the form of physical objects. Video 1 – Basics </iframe> Video 2 – three simple types of drawings /iframe> Video 3 – two-point…

  • How to Name your Product or Company

    Innovators, marketers, entrepreneurs, and managers will face the vexing problem of creating a name for something they have created dozens of times in their lives. Here is a guide to efficiently creating a great name. If you prefer to learn via video, here is my Wharton Online tutorial in video format. Full Dot-Com Availability I’m going…

  • Olipop (beverage) – David Lester Interview

    Olipop is a healthy prebiotic soft drink in traditional flavors like root beer. (Originally aired September 12, 2022.)

  • Shef (food) – Joey Grassia Interview

    Joey Grassia tells the story of food prep and delivery service Shef, allowing individual chefs, mostly working from home, to create exciting food. (First aired September 12, 2022.)

  • Mercury (banking app) – Interview with Imad Akhund

    Interview with Imad Akhund, CEO, Mercury. Includes interesting discussion on Thiel’s 10x rule.

  • Whoop (health and fitness) – Will Ahmed Interview

  • Magic Spoon (packaged food) – Gabi Lewis Interview

  • Orbillion (Alternative Protein) – Patricia Bubner Interview

  • Hydrow (fitness) – Bruce Smith Interview

  • Better Chew (Alternative Protein) – GW Chew Interview

  • Goodr (sunglasses) – Stephen Lease Interview

  • Coravin (Consumer Hardware) – Greg Lambrecht Interview

  • Alpha Assets and the Five Flywheels

    Karl T. Ulrich | Original Version June 15, 2018 | This Version November 1, 2022 This is a concise note describing the alpha asset framework, and intended for students and busy professionals. It may be reproduced and used for non-commercial purposes with citation. I am writing a book Alpha Assets: Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage,…

  • Wealthfront (Fintech) – Andy Rachleff Interview