Difficulty: Beginner | Prerequisites: None, though familiarity with basic business vocabulary helps.
This assignment is one of the core assessed components of Introduction to Business. It asks you to research a real entrepreneur, build a PowerPoint presentation about them, and present your findings to the class. The point is to connect textbook concepts (risk, opportunity recognition, capital, community impact) to a living example. You do not need prior presentation-design experience, but you do need to be comfortable doing biographical research and organising information visually across slides. You will also peer-review two classmates' presentations, so expect to engage with others' work as well as your own.
Pick an entrepreneur you find personally inspiring. Research their background, education, startup capital, career positions, community contributions, and motivations. Build a clean, image-rich PowerPoint that covers all of that plus a "surprise fact" and a personal reflection on why you chose them. The rubric is ten categories at 10 points each, totalling 100.
Entrepreneur
A person who organises, operates, and assumes the risk of a business venture. In simple terms, someone who starts and runs a business, betting their own time and often their own money on an idea.
Startup capital / initial investment
The money an entrepreneur needs at the outset to launch their business. Think of it as the entry ticket: how much cash was required before the venture could generate any revenue.
Residual claimant
The legal principle that a business owner gets paid last, only after every contractual obligation (wages, rent, suppliers, lenders) has been met. Whatever remains, positive or negative, belongs to the owner.
Community impact / social responsibility
The ways an entrepreneur gives back beyond profit: philanthropy, local employment, mentorship programmes, environmental initiatives. In this assignment, you need to show what your chosen entrepreneur does for society.
Peer review
The process of evaluating classmates' presentations. You are required to watch and respond to at least two other students' work with constructive feedback.
Must contain your name and the entrepreneur's name
Worth 10 points on its own, so do not skip either element
This is pure formatting, there is no excuse to lose points here
A brief, surface-level explanation of what drew you to this person
Keep it short; the deeper, personal reflection comes later (Slide Set 5)
The rubric grades this on clarity: "clearly demonstrated why you chose this particular person"
This is the largest section and carries 30 of the 100 points across three rubric rows. Spread the content across several slides so no single slide is text-heavy. Cover all six sub-topics:
Age, birthplace, childhood, and early inspiration: Where and when were they born? What sparked their interest in entrepreneurship?
Education and schooling: Formal qualifications, notable institutions, any self-taught or dropout narrative
Startup capital: How much money did they need to begin? Did they bootstrap, borrow, or raise outside funding?
Career positions held: Roles before, during, and after founding their venture
Community and societal contributions: Philanthropy, advocacy, employment impact, environmental work
Motivation: What specifically prompted them to become an entrepreneur? This overlaps with the "why" slides but focuses on the entrepreneur's own stated reasons, not yours
If you cannot find information on one of these sub-topics, say so in the slide. The rubric specifically notes that demonstrating you did the research matters even if you came up empty.
Share something lesser-known about the entrepreneur, something the audience likely does not already know
The rubric calls this "what we did not know about your entrepreneur"
It does not have to be obscure or scandalous; a little-known early career move, a side project, or a personal hobby counts
The assignment acknowledges you cannot truly know what the audience already knows, so aim for something that would be new to most people
This is separate from the initial "why" in Slide 2
Here the professor wants genuine personal engagement: Is this someone you aspire to be like? A motivational figure you admire?
Effort and creativity are explicitly graded: the rubric distinguishes "excellent effort" from "lacked effort and creativity"
It is fine to reiterate points from Slide 2 if they are also your deeper reasons, but add personal depth
The assignment is worth 100 points total, split evenly across ten categories at 10 points each. Each category uses a three-tier scale.
Category | Full marks (10 to 6) | Partial (5 to 2) | Low (1 to 0) |
|---|---|---|---|
Presentation skills | Easy to read, not too many words per slide, strong use of images | Too many words, hard to understand, few pictures, boring | Very hard to understand, many errors |
Understanding of material | Full understanding demonstrated | Moderate understanding | Limited understanding |
Title slide (name + entrepreneur) | Both your name and entrepreneur's name present | Only one present | Neither present |
Why you chose them | Clear demonstration | Barely told the real reason | No explanation |
Background: age, birthplace, inspiration | All items clearly covered | Limitations on these items | Not addressed |
Background: schooling, capital, positions | All items clearly covered | Limitations on these items | Not addressed |
Background: community, motivation | All items clearly covered | Limitations on these items | Not addressed |
Surprise fact | Great idea of something unknown | Something audience probably knew | Not included |
Why you really chose them (personal) | Excellent effort and creativity | Some effort | Lacked effort and creativity |
Spelling | Correct throughout | One to two misspelled words | Three or more misspelled words |
The skills this project practises are not just academic. Researching a person's career trajectory, distilling findings into a visual format, and presenting them clearly are exactly what you would do when pitching to investors, briefing a team on a competitor, or preparing a case study at work. The peer-review component mirrors how professionals give and receive feedback on presentations before they go live.
Students often think the "why you chose them" slide and the "why you really chose them" slide are the same thing. They are not. The first is your initial, possibly surface-level reason. The second asks for genuine personal reflection and is graded on effort and creativity separately.
Students sometimes assume that if they cannot find information on a sub-topic (e.g. startup capital), they should just leave it out. The rubric penalises omissions. Instead, include a slide acknowledging you researched it but could not find a reliable answer.
Cramming all background information onto a single slide is a common mistake. The assignment explicitly says to use multiple slides for section 3 so no slide is overloaded. The "presentation skills" category penalises text-heavy slides.
Some students treat the surprise fact as optional or trivial. It carries 10 points, the same weight as every other category. Put real effort into finding something genuinely lesser-known.
This project is worth 100 points, making it one of the highest-weighted single assignments in the course
Every rubric category is worth equal points (10 each). There is no category that "matters more" than another, so do not neglect spelling or the title slide in favour of content
Peer review is a separate requirement: you must view and respond to at least two classmates' presentations. Failing to do so could cost marks beyond this rubric
The rubric rewards visual quality (pictures, clean slides) just as much as content accuracy. A text-only presentation, however well-researched, will not score full marks on "presentation skills"
True or false: The title slide only needs the entrepreneur's name.
False. It must include both your name and the entrepreneur's name.
Fill in the blank: The assignment is worth ______ total points across ______ rubric categories.
100 total points across 10 categories.
True or false: If you cannot find information about your entrepreneur's startup capital, you should skip that slide entirely.
False. You should include a slide acknowledging you researched it.
True or false: The "why you chose them" and "why you really chose them" sections are graded as one category.
False. They are graded as two separate 10-point categories.
Fill in the blank: You must view and respond to at least ______ classmates' presentations.
Two.
Q: What six background sub-topics must be covered in the presentation?
A: Age and childhood background (birthplace, inspiration); schooling; startup capital needed; positions held in life; community and societal contributions; what prompted them to become an entrepreneur.
Q: How does the rubric distinguish between the two "why you chose them" sections?
A: The first asks whether you clearly demonstrated your reason for choosing this entrepreneur. The second, later section is graded on effort and creativity, looking for a genuine personal connection or aspiration.
Q: A student's presentation has thorough research but every slide is a wall of text with no images. What rubric category will they lose marks on, and why?
A: Presentation skills. The rubric awards full marks for slides that are easy to understand, not text-heavy, and include "great pictures on a lot of the slides." A text-only deck would fall into the 5 to 2 or 1 to 0 tier.
Q: What should you do if you cannot find your entrepreneur's educational background?
A: Include a slide that acknowledges you attempted to research their schooling but could not find reliable information. The assignment explicitly states you should demonstrate you did the research.
Q: Beyond creating your own presentation, what else does this assignment require you to do?
A: You must view other classmates' presentations and respond to at least two of them with your thoughts and feedback.
This project ties directly into the course's broader coverage of entrepreneurship and small business management. The background research (startup capital, positions held, community impact) maps onto textbook chapters covering business formation, financing, and corporate social responsibility. The presentation and peer-review components connect to professional communication skills taught throughout Introduction to Business.
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