Entrepreneurship Certificate

Foster MBA Students

Application and Registration information

The MBA Graduate Entrepreneurship Certificate is open to all full-time and part-time Foster MBAs. On a space available basis, the certificate is also open to Foster TMMBA, GEMBA, and MSIS students.

Application

Send the Entrepreneurship Certificate Application Form to [email protected].

There are no application deadlines.

Registration

Once accepted into the program, MBAs register for ENTRE classes through their regular bidding system.

Course Schedule: 18 credits are needed to complete

The schedule may change at any time, and the quarter in which a class is offered may change each year.

Required courses: ENTRE 509 (2), ENTRE 510 (4), ENTRE 555 (4), ENTRE 557 (4). Plus 4 additional elective credits. All courses must be completed for graded credit where offered.

Students who have completed core classes may apply for these cross disciplinary opportunities:
ENTRE 600—Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (2 credits each quarter; you can take 1, 2, or 3 quarters of the clinic, but must start in autumn)
ENTRE 600—New Ventures Practicum (2 credits; offered every quarter except summer)
These courses are by application only and the academic terms offered may vary.

Required Core (minimum of 14 credits)

ENTRE 509 Foundations of Entrepreneurship (2 credits)

Five noted Seattle entrepreneurs will lead students through the steps, stages, trials and tribulations of starting a company—as only they can. Each and every one of them has been in the trenches, and survived. What’s more, these are people you’ll want to know as you head down the entrepreneurial path. The class will be a fast-paced overview of the entire company creation process and is designed to help you decide if entrepreneurship is the thing for you to pursue. Students will develop a model for a start-up and reflect on what they’ve learned weekly. (Instructor: Chris Metcalfe)

ENTRE 510 Entrepreneurial Strategy (4 credits)

Start-ups are high-risk, high-return endeavors, and although there are notable examples of wealth creation, failure is the norm. This course uses competitive strategy to analyze the success and failure of entrepreneurial ventures and identifies the strategic principles that could increase the probability of success. (Instructor: Alicia DeSantola)

ENTRE 555/MKTG 555 Entrepreneurial Marketing (4 credits)

Examines the skills and tools entrepreneurs need for bootstrap or guerilla marketing in their early-stage companies. Covers how to target market segments, position products, estimate demand, set prices, gain access to channels, and manage issues of rapid growth. (Instructor: Michael Megalli)

ENTRE 557/FIN 557 Entrepreneurial Finance (4 credits)

From the start of a new venture, entrepreneurs have financial decisions to make. They need to understand venture capital markets, stages of financing, business cash-flow models, measuring early-stage financial performance, and how to prepare financially for a successful placement. In this course, students will examine the elements of a term sheet, learn how to value early-stage companies, discuss compensation issues, make presentations to angel investors and venture capital groups, and learn to manage the finances of a new venture.
(Instructor: Lance Young)

Electives (2-4 credits combined)

ENTRE 522 Innovation Strategy (4 credits) WINTER

This course explores the unique aspects of crafting a strategy for innovative businesses. What are effective strategies for winning in new, emerging industries? How can innovative firms disrupt or displace the competition? What are the challenges and opportunities of governing technology-intensive firms? This case-based course will help prepare students interested in founding, leading, and managing innovative and high-technology firms, as well as those interested in consulting, private equity, or venture capital.

ENTRE 532 Software Entrepreneurship (4 credits) WINTER

by application
Entrepreneurship: Company-Building from Formation to Successful Exit. This is a case- and project-based course, focusing on starting a software or hardware company. Guest entrepreneurs, lawyers, and financiers discuss market identification & analysis, planning the business, financing, and typical operating/administrative problems. (Instructors: Ed Lazowska and Greg Gottesman)

ENTRE 540 Business Plan Practicum/Resource Nights (2 credits) WINTER, (2 credits) SPRING [spring qtr. is not a class]

Winter: This 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. It is a great way to prepare for the Buerk Center’s UW Business Plan Competition (BPC), Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC), and the Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge (HIC). Students do not have to take the Resource Nights for credit in order to compete in the BPC, nor are students required to compete if they take the class. Credit/no credit only. (Instructor: Christy Johnson)
Spring: This is not a class. Students are eligible to receive 2 credits if their team advances to the BPC Investment Round.

ENTRE 541 Technology Commercialization (4 credits) SPRING

Thousands of patents for innovative technologies are granted each year, yet only a fraction of them reach the market as products. Turning a 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. (Instructor: Lisa Hjorten)

ENTRE 542 Venture Capital Investment Practicum (2 credits) AUTUMN

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. The class is interactive and integrative, featuring speakers who are entrepreneurs, VCs, early-stage attorneys and prior VCIC competitors. The VCIC is a national strategy competition for venture-minded, entrepreneurial grad students. Student teams assume the role of a venture capital firm and are given a hypothetical fund to invest and has 48 hours to evaluate bona fide business plans before making investment decisions. Teams then defend their allocation decisions before a judging panel of VCs from firms. Credit/no credit. (Instructor: James Newell)

ENTRE 543 Environmental Innovation Practicum (2 credits) AUTUMN

Unique interdisciplinary course focuses on what it takes to develop innovative clean-tech solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges and creating exciting new business opportunities along the way. Weekly speakers include top national, international and local experts in natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, entrepreneurial finance, policy and law. Topics include alternative energy and energy efficiencies, green building, and transportation. (Instructor: Chris Metcalfe)

ENTRE 545 Health Innovation Practicum (2 credits) AUTUMN

This class teaches the mechanics of taking a promising healthcare solution from inception to commercialization. Topics will revolve around the big problem areas, biodesign processes, and the health innovation pipeline, including issues related to intellectual property, company formation, healthcare markets and reimbursement, and the medical regulatory process. This is a precursor to the Buerk Center’s Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge on March 1, 2018. (Instructors: Will Canestaro)

ENTRE 579 Grand Challenges for Entrepreneurs (2 credits) SPRING

ENTRE 579 Entrepreneurial Influence and the Pitch: Learn the role that verbal communication, influence, and persuasion play in entrepreneurship. Learn how to create an effective pitch and how to influence key stakeholders. (Instructor: Elizabeth Scallon)

ENTRE 579/BIOE 505 Biomedical Entrepreneurship (4 credits) SPRING

This course introduces to students the concepts and methodologies important for the commercialization of medical technologies such as implants, diagnostics and therapeutics. Medical technologies, in contrast to other engineering technologies, have unique funding, regulatory and market requirements and these specialized ideas are the foundation of the course. Specific science and engineering knowledge are not required for this course—science and technology ideas will be introduced as appropriate. We also seek to build potential commercialization teams in the medical device space. Through a combination of lectures and guest lectures from local and national experts, we cover aspects of the following topics specific to medical technology: market analysis, regulations, funding strategies, reimbursement strategies, FDA standards, patents, business-plan development, and productization. Graded. (Instructor: Dr. Buddy Ratner)

ENTRE 600 New Ventures Practicum (2 credits each quarter) AUTUMN, WINTER, SPRING

by application
Students work on technology commercialization projects from CoMotion with assistance and comprehensive mentoring from technology managers, Northwest entrepreneurs, UW researchers, and venture investors. For the duration of a quarter, students perform a variety of tasks that range from producing a plan for future industry application, market analysis, or licensing opportunities. Credit/no credit.

ENTRE 600 Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (2 credits each quarter) AUTUMN start, WINTER, SPRING

by application
The Law School and the Buerk Center produce an Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, providing very early-stage technology entrepreneurs with both legal and business consulting services. The student teams include law students (with specialties in intellectual property, tax, and corporate securities) and second-year entrepreneurship MBAs to conduct legal audits and business due diligence. Credit/no credit. (Director: Jennifer Fan)

Visit startup.washington.edu or contact the Buerk Center at [email protected] for more information.

UW Seattle Graduate Students-Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate (TEC)

Application and Registration information

The Technology Entrepreneurship Certificate (TEC) is open to all UW Seattle graduate and PhD students from a variety of disciplines such as engineering, medicine, law, built environments, forestry, pharmacology, and public administration. It will take a minimum of three quarters to complete the TEC, and we recommend leaving three to five quarters to complete the coursework.

Please Note: UW graduate students who are in a Professional Master’s Program degree or certificate program, pay tuition through the Professional & Continuing Education (PCE) program, and are in a fee-for-service or tuition-based program, need to contact their home program advisor to determine the cost PCE will charge their student to take ENTRE classes.

Application

Send the Entrepreneurship Certificate Application Form to [email protected].

• Please combine your three TEC application documents (Application Form, Resume, and Statement of Interest) into one PDF if possible
• Naming convention for files should be: LastName, FirstName – Title of doc
• There are no application deadlines

Registration

Once accepted into the program, students receive priority registration for select ENTRE classes. The day before registration opens, instructions are emailed to students. Seats are issued on a first-come, first-served basis. View the MBA Registration Calendar for upcoming deadlines. Email [email protected] with inquiries.

Course Schedule: 18 credits are needed to complete

Buerk Center courses for enrolled non-business UW graduate students (18 credits minimum).

The schedule may change at any time, and the quarter in which a class is offered may change each year. 500-level entrepreneurship courses in the summer quarter are reserved for Foster MBA students only.

Required courses: ENTRE 509 (Entrepreneurial Foundations: 2 credits), ENTRE 510, 555, 557 (4 credits each), and 4 additional elective credits. All courses must be completed for graded credit where offered (Exception: ENTRE 557 may be taken C/NC).

Students who have completed core classes may apply for these cross-disciplinary opportunities:

ENTRE 600—Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (2 credits each quarter; you can take 1, 2, or 3 quarters of the clinic, but must start in autumn)
ENTRE 600—New Ventures Practicum (2 credits; offered every quarter except summer) These courses are by application only and the academic terms offered may vary.

Additional Information
Entrepreneurship Class Syllabi

Required Core (minimum of 14 credits)

ENTRE 509 Foundations of Entrepreneurship (2 credits): Five noted Seattle entrepreneurs will lead students through the steps, stages, trials and tribulations of starting a company—as only they can. Each and every one of them has been in the trenches, and survived. What’s more, these are people you’ll want to know as you head down the entrepreneurial path. The class will be a fast-paced overview of the entire company creation process and is designed to help you decide if entrepreneurship is the thing for you to pursue. Students will develop a model for a start-up and reflect on what they’ve learned weekly. (Instructors: Chris Metcalfe) OR ENTRE 530.

ENTRE 510 Entrepreneurial Strategy (4 credits): Start-ups are high-risk, high-return endeavors, and although there are notable examples of wealth creation, failure is the norm. This course uses competitive strategy to analyze the success and failure of entrepreneurial ventures and identifies the strategic principles that could increase the probability of success. (Instructor: Alicia DeSantola)

ENTRE 530 Entrepreneurial Decision Making (4 credits): Provides an overview of the major decisions entrepreneurs face when creating a business. Covers the startup lifecycle from idea generation, opportunity recognition, entry strategy, growth, and exit strategy. Various business models will be discussed to include high-tech, retail, franchising, and e-commerce, to name a few. (Instructor: TBD) OR ENTRE 509

ENTRE 555/MKTG 555 Entrepreneurial Marketing (4 credits): Examines the skills and tools entrepreneurs need for bootstrap or guerilla marketing in their early-stage companies. Covers how to target market segments, position products, estimate demand, set prices, gain access to channels, and manage issues of rapid growth. (Instructor: Michael Megalli)

ENTRE 557/FIN 557 Entrepreneurial Finance (4 credits): From the start of a new venture, entrepreneurs have financial decisions to make. They need to understand venture capital markets, stages of financing, business cash-flow models, measuring early-stage financial performance, and how to prepare financially for a successful placement. In this course, students will examine the elements of a term sheet, learn how to value early-stage companies, discuss compensation issues, make presentations to angel investors and venture capital groups, and learn to manage the finances of a new venture. (Instructor: Sue Preston)

Electives (2-4 credits combined)

ENTRE 532 Software Entrepreneurship (4 credits) WINTER: (by application) This class is also called, “Entrepreneurship: Company-Building from Formation to Successful Exit.” A case- and project-based course, focusing on starting a software or hardware company. Guest entrepreneurs, lawyers, and financiers discuss market identification & analysis, planning the business, financing, and typical operating/administrative problems. (Instructors: Ed Lazowska and Greg Gottesman)

ENTRE 540 Business Plan Practicum/Resource Nights (2 credits) WINTER, (2 credits) SPRING* Winter description: The Resource Nights give student entrepreneurs the opportunity to network with the founders/CEOs of companies, explore their entrepreneurial aptitude, and work through the details of their own start-ups. Provides structure, tools, and resources to start of company, and to compete in the Dempsey Startup Competition (Dempsey Startup) . Students do not have to take the Resource Nights for credit in order to compete in the Dempsey Startup. Credit/no credit only. (Instructor: Christy Johnson) Spring: This is not a class. Students are eligible to receive 2 credits if their team advances to the Dempsey Startup Investment Round. *[spring qtr. is not a class]

ENTRE 541 Technology Commercialization (4 credits) WINTER: Thousands of patents for innovative technologies are granted each year, yet only a fraction of them reach the market as products. Turning a 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. (Instructor: Lisa Hjorten)

ENTRE 542 Venture Capital Investment Practicum (2 credits) AUTUMN: 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. The class is interactive and integrative, featuring speakers who are entrepreneurs, VCs, earl-stage attorneys and prior VCIC competitors. The VCIC is a national strategy competition for venture-minded, entrepreneurial grad students. Student teams assume the role of a venture capital firm and are given a hypothetical fund to invest and has 48 hours to evaluate bona fide business plans before making investment decisions. Teams then defend their allocation decisions before a judging panel of VCs from firms. Credit/no credit. (Instructor: James Newell)

ENTRE 543 Environmental Innovation Practicum (2 credits) AUTUMN: Unique interdisciplinary course focuses on what it takes to develop innovative clean-tech solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges and creating exciting new business opportunities along the way. Weekly speakers include top national, international and local experts in natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, entrepreneurial finance, policy and law. Topics include alternative energy and energy efficiencies, green building, and transportation. (Instructor: Chris Metcalfe)

ENTRE 545 Health Innovation Practicum (2 credits) AUTUMN: This class teaches the mechanics of taking a promising healthcare solution from inception to commercialization. Topics will revolve around the big problem areas, biodesign processes, and the health innovation pipeline, including issues related to intellectual property, company formation, healthcare markets and reimbursement, and the medical regulatory process. This is a precursor to the Buerk Center’s new Health Innovation Challenge scheduled for March 2016. (Instructors: Dr. Will Canestaro)

ENTRE 579/BIOE 505 Biomedical Entrepreneurship (4 credits) SPRING: This course introduces to students the concepts and methodologies important for the commercialization of medical technologies such as implants, diagnostics and therapeutics. Medical technologies, in contrast to other engineering technologies, have unique funding, regulatory and market requirements and these specialized ideas are the foundation of the course. Specific science and engineering knowledge are not required for this course—science and technology ideas will be introduced as appropriate. We also seek to build potential commercialization teams in the medical device space. Through a combination of lectures and guest lectures from local and national experts, we cover aspects of the following topics specific to medical technology: market analysis, regulations, funding strategies, reimbursement strategies, FDA standards, patents, business-plan development, and productization. Graded. (Instructor: Dr. Buddy Ratner)

ENTRE 579 Grand Challenges for Entrepreneurs (4 credits) SPRING: Grand Challenges for Entrepreneurs is a new course for business students, geeks, and other undergraduates who want to do something out of the ordinary. The world faces some extraordinary challenges in innovation, big data, food and water, energy, education, careers, poverty, etc. This course will explore those grand challenges—and the opportunities that come with them. Students will examine how solutions to these massive challenges can be researched, validated, and implemented using entrepreneurial creativity, opportunity recognition, business models, pivoting, and skilled execution. (Instructor: Emily Pahnke)

ENTRE 600 New Ventures Practicum (2 credits each quarter) AUTUMN, WINTER, & SPRING: (by application) Students work on technology commercialization projects from CoMotion with assistance and comprehensive mentoring from technology managers, Northwest entrepreneurs, UW researchers, and venture investors. For the duration of a quarter, students perform a variety of tasks that range from producing a plan for future industry application, market analysis, or licensing opportunities. Credit/no credit.

ENTRE 600 Entrepreneurial Law Clinic (2 credits) AUTUMN: (by application) The Law School and the Buerk Center produce an Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, providing very early-stage technology entrepreneurs with both legal and business consulting services. The student teams include law students (with specialties in intellectual property, tax, and corporate securities) and second-year entrepreneurship MBAs to conduct legal audits and business due diligence. Credit/no credit. (Director: Jennifer Fan)