Graduate Entrepreneurship Programs

Angel Investing (ENTRE 579)

Application Information

Open to advanced MBA, JD, and PhD students.
Interested students must submit their applications through the Angel Investing (ENTRE 579) Application Portal each spring to be considered for this course for the following academic year. Your application should include a single PDF file with 1) a recent resume or CV and 2) a one- to two-page cover letter describing how this class will be of use to you and your career interests.

The application for the 2026-2027 class will open in April 2026.

Class Details

Angel Investing (ENTRE 579) is a unique, year-long elective focused on early stage investing and tech entrepreneurship. As part of the course, students are “placed” with local angel, seed-level VC, or other early investor groups in the greater Seattle area. Unlike an internship, students participate as investor members of the team. Collectively, the class sources investment opportunities to screen and diligence for a $25,000 class investment. Previous class investments include C-SATS, SafKan, Aquagga, and Sparrow.

Course content focuses on early stage investing concepts such as pitch deck evaluation, business model analysis, venture & angel investor financing, and due diligence.

This is a multi-quarter class, with sessions held one evening per week:

• Autumn – 4 credits: Intensive in-class learnings about early stage investing while onboarding with their placement. Sessions may include in-person founder pitches.
• Winter – 4 credits: Live founder pitches and discussion anchor the sessions alongside due diligence work and presentations. Outside of class, students attend meetings with their investment placement.
• Spring – 2 credits: Due diligence work and presentations continue with content and speakers on a class-selected topic. Outside of class, students attend meetings with their investment placement through May.

Through this immersive leadership experience, students learn multiple aspects of entrepreneurial strategy, due diligence approaches, evaluating investment pitches by entrepreneurs, business model design, and relationship building with investors. If the class chooses well, future classes will reap that return and use the capital to continue the student investment program. This class is a tremendous opportunity for students to leave a tangible legacy of their time at UW!

Student Eligibility

Rising 2nd year Foster MBA students, Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate (TEC) students, and graduate students with entrepreneurial core coursework in marketing, strategy, and finance in their backgrounds are eligible to apply.

Cohort size is limited to 12-16 students each year to ensure suitable placements with a local early-stage investor, and thus entry is quite competitive. This class is more hands-on than any other class offered through the Buerk Center; students need to be self-motivated, comfortable presenting ideas, and mobile to get the most of their experience.

Instructor Information

Minda Brusse is a Founding Partner at First Row Partners, a pre-seed venture firm investing across the US. In advising founders and helping new investors enter the ecosystem, Minda advocates an investing approach that emphasizes inquiry, analysis and curiosity. Prior to investing, Minda was a business co-founder or leadership team member for four tech startups. She began her career at Accenture in change management and business process design for Fortune 100 companies.

Creative Destruction Lab (ENTRE 579)

Application Information

Open to MBA, PhD, and other graduate students as well as advanced undergraduates.
Interested students must submit their applications through the Application Portal each summer to be considered for this course for the following academic year. Your application should include a single PDF file with 1) a recent resume or CV and 2) a one- to two-page cover letter describing how this class will be of use to you and your career interests.
The application for the 2026-2027 class will open in May 2026.

Class Details

Administered in conjunction with the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) accelerator program, this course combines classroom learning with real-world impact. Open to MBAs, PhDs, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates, you’ll attend intensive CDL sessions alongside participating startups, engage in venture projects, and become part of a vibrant entrepreneurial community at UW.

Instructor Information

Chris Metcalfe is the president and co-founder of Korvata. He is passionate about technology including data science, networking standards, food safety and environmental sustainability.

Software Entrepreneurship (ENTRE 532)

Application Information

Permission of the instructors is required in order to ensure balance among the participants. Visit the Computer Science & Engineering page for more information.
The application for the Winter 2026 class will open in October 2025.

Class Details

This case- and project-based course focuses on the process of starting, growing, managing, leading, and ultimately exiting a new software or hardware venture. Guest lecturers include CEOs, venture capitalists, lawyers, journalists, and others who are actively working in the current ecosystem.
The course objectives are two-fold: (1) to develop an awareness and understanding of the range, scope, and complexity of issues involved in startups; and (2) to gain insight into how entrepreneurs conceive, adapt, and execute strategies to create new enterprises. Visit the Computer Science & Engineering page for more information on course structure.

Instructor Information

Ed Lazowska, long-time Professor at the UW School of Engineering, and Greg Gottesman, Managing Director at Madrona Venture Group, which has funded more than 15 UW CSE startups.

Business Plan Practicum (ENTRE 440/540)

Class Details

This survey class brings in experts from the local entrepreneurial community to teach various aspects of creating a startup venture, from idea generation to legal issues to raising capital. Although not a required component, the class is a great way to prepare for the Dempsey Startup Competition (Dempsey Startup), the Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC), and the Health Innovation Challenge (HIC). Credit/no credit only.

Instructor Information

Christy Johnson is a serial entrepreneur who wears many hats. In addition to teaching at the UW, she’s currently the CEO and founder of strategy consulting firm Artemis Connection, a course facilitator at Stanford and a working parent.

Technology Commercialization (ENTRE 541)

Class Details

Thousands of patents for innovative technologies are granted each year, yet only a fraction of them reach the market as products. Turning technology into a compelling product—and bringing that product successfully to market—is the opportunity of technology commercialization.
Through lectures, case studies, and guest speakers, this course provides students with hands-on experience building and presenting a commercialization plan for an innovative new technology. Students will evaluate the selected technology (of their own discovery or chosen from an instructor-provided pool) for potential markets with the goal of answering:

• What is the business application for this technology and in which markets can we be successful?
• Is there freedom to operate?
• What product are we selling and how will we profitably reach the market?
• How do we get a “green light” for commercialization?

Students will be part of cross-disciplinary teams to learn how to take advantage of the skills and insights of peers from other disciplines. Past teams have included students from bioengineering, business, engineering, health sciences, information science, and law.

Instructor Information

Taylor Black is a long-time startup mentor as well as the current Director of AI & Venture Ecosystems within the Strategic Programs and Communities team at Microsoft, where he designs and leads cross-company initiatives that integrate innovation, product development, and community engagement to foster the next generation of groundbreaking technologies.

Venture Capital Investment Practicum (ENTRE 542)

Class Details

This course provides an overview of the venture capital world. Though the capstone of the class is the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), the curriculum is more broadly designed to provide students with the necessary tools to evaluate early-stage investment opportunities. Attendance, however, is limited to students who fully intend to participate in the intramural VCIC.
The class is interactive and integrative, featuring speakers who are entrepreneurs, VCs, early-stage attorneys and prior VCIC competitors. Through team-based exercises, Q&A and role play, you’ll get into character as a venture capitalist. We will cover such basics as business analysis, valuation, term sheets, the investment life cycle, and negotiations. Credit/no credit only.

Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC)

Global VCIC is the world’s largest venture capital competition among top MBA students from 70+ prestigious business schools from 13 countries on 3 continents. At the core of the event is a creative turn of the tables. Unlike business plan competitions in which students pitch their own ideas to investors, at VCIC the students are the investors, and real entrepreneurs pitch to them. It is a very powerful learning experience for both parties. Add to the mix a dozen VC judges, and you have what the VCIC website describes as a “win-win-win.” Students learn (and win cash), entrepreneurs connect with investors and VCs get an early peek at some viable deals. The program culminates every April in Chapel Hill, NC, with the Global Finals, where the winning teams take home $10,000 in prize money.

Foster Victories

• 2025 3rd place at Global Finals
• 2020 2nd place at Mountain regionals
• 2018 2nd place and Entrepreneur’s Choice at West (Colorado) regionals
• 2017 2nd place at Silicon Valley regionals
• 2016 2nd place at West (Colorado) regionals
• 2015 2nd place at Global Finals
• 2011 won Silicon Valley regionals
• 2010 2nd place at Silicon Valley regionals
• 2009 won Silicon Valley regionals
• 2008 won Silicon Valley regionals, 2nd place Global Finals
• 2006 won Global Finals
• 2004 won Global Finals

Instructor Information

James Newell is currently a Partner at Voyager Capital and has been working with high-growth technology companies as an adviser and investor since 2005.

Environmental Innovation Practicum (ENTRE 543)

Class Details

This unique interdisciplinary course is designed to help you discover how entrepreneurial innovation is addressing some of our most pressing environmental issues, why sustainability should be embedded in the DNA of every business, and the process involved in taking a great idea forward. Weekly speakers include top national, international and local experts in natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, entrepreneurial finance, policy and law.
Students in the class will:

• Gain awareness of our most pressing environmental challenges and how businesses large and small are beginning to tackle them
• Learn from subject matter experts about solutions emerging in various industries
• Evaluate business opportunities in cleantech and environmental innovation
• Gain hands-on experience in developing an innovation concept through the team project

Students will also be well-prepared to enter the Buerk Center’s Environmental Innovation Challenge later in the year.
Visit the Environmental Innovation Practicum tab on the Environmental Innovation Challenge page for more information.

Instructor Information

Chris Metcalfe is the president and co-founder of Korvata, a company he was inspired to create after taking this exact practicum course years ago as a student at UW! He is passionate about technology including data science, networking standards, food safety and environmental sustainability.

Health Innovation Practicum (ENTRE 545)

Class Details

This class teaches the mechanics of taking a promising healthcare solution from inception to commercialization. Topics revolve around current challenges and opportunities in the healthcare landscape, biodesign processes, and the health innovation pipeline, including issues related to intellectual property, company formation, healthcare markets and reimbursement, and the medical regulatory process. Students in the class are well-prepared to enter the Buerk Center’s Health Innovation Challenge in Winter Quarter.

Visit the Health Innovation Practicum tab on the Health Innovation Challenge page for more information.

Instructor Information

Will Canestro is a venture capitalist, health economist and meta-epidemiologist with a 20 year history of working in the biotechnology industry.