I recently discussed the value and use of entrepreneurship classes in a post I wrote for our partner Dallas Innovates. In that article, I discussed the importance and value associated with taking entrepreneurship courses for students who are genuinely interested in starting a business at some point in their career. When many people think of entrepreneurs, they think of Zuckerberg, Gates or Jobs — who all dropped out. What many don’t consider is that entrepreneurs who have taken entrepreneurship courses run thousands of successful small and medium-size businesses.
The fundamentals of starting and running a business that are taught by our faculty are extremely important to understanding the process of executing a new business launch. We have a faculty who have hundreds of years of experience (and no, I don’t mean their age!) and are successful entrepreneurs in their own right. Other faculty members have worked directly with hundreds of startups through programs, accelerators and venture funding. This knowledge differentiates our program from many others and positions students to have the highest success they can have outside the classroom.
We offer many entrepreneurship courses at UT Dallas, but there are a couple that I encourage all students to consider making room for in their time here. ENTP 3301/6370 is a “fundamentals of entrepreneurship” course that is offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level. This course walks teams of students through the process of evaluating a new business concept for viability and market feasibility while developing an action plan to prepare students to launch the business.
The other course I recommend for students who are passionate and committed to launching a business concept while at UT Dallas is ENTP 3320/6360. This course, appropriately named Startup Launch I, is the first step toward launching a business. During this course, students take a business concept that they have previously developed into a process where they engage prospective customers through customer discovery, develop a minimum viable product of their solution and begin marketing their concept to customers while preparing to raise capital. Students who are successful in launching their business are eligible to continue working on the concept in follow-up courses we offer called Startup Launch II.
For the very best startup concepts that exhibit a highly viable, scalable business concept, we also offer cash grants through our Startup Launch Funding program. Undergraduates who have completed Startup Launch I are eligible to apply for up to $5,000, and graduate students who have completed Startup Launch I are eligible for up to $25,000.
Learn more about these programs and the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship on the institute’s Web pages.
