Master of Innovation and Entrepreneurship | Academics

Leading People & Projects
Entrepreneurs need to build relationships and find people to support their new enterprises. Whether that involves persuading early- or later-stage investors, deciding whether to hire contractors or employees or the many other challenges of launching a start-up, entrepreneurs need to work with other people to move from ideas to successful organizations. Yet, despite this importance, surprisingly few people are accomplished at working with and persuading others, and entrepreneurial failure due to an inability to build the support of others and manage successfully is all too common. This course is intended to assist experienced and inexperienced entrepreneurs with some of the challenges of managing others, and to help them build their understanding and skills so they can become more successful managers of people. The objective is to improve their abilities to diagnose, analyze and take effective action in their organizational work. In addition to readings, discussions and cases, students will work in teams on a quarter-long project analyzing an actual start-up organization. 

Accounting for Entrepreneurs
This is an introductory course in Financial and Managerial Accounting. It provides the building blocks of accounting that are essential to entrepreneurs. It covers financial ratios and statements, including forecasting financial statements, basic transaction analysis and generally accepted accounting principles.

Marketing for Entrepreneurs
This course provides the fundamentals or building blocks of marketing knowledge, primarily for entrepreneurs involved in start-ups, and secondarily for intrapreneurs involved in growing established companies which need entrepreneurial skills to fast track products and services to market. Our focus is on how to create and deliver value in innovative ways and communicate this to multiple stakeholders from customers to investors. For example, we cover topics such as how to think creatively about identifying new value propositions for customers and thereby redefine existing markets or develop  entirely new markets; how to assess market potential and demand for products/services that are novel; how to determine the minimal viable product or service design including pricing necessary for market entry; how to evaluate alternative ways in which to communicate the marketing message to customers using conventional and social media; and how to assess the optimal way in which to distribute and deliver products/services using both direct and indirect channels.

We employ a combination of cases and a project. For the project, students will be offered two options. The first option is for students who have an idea for a new product or service. They will apply the principles discussed in the class to write a plan for the design and marketing of their new product or service. The second option is for students to select two existing products or services, at least one of which has been recently introduced, compare them on their design, pricing, promotion, distribution, sales and profits, and make recommendations for change, all from a customer point of view. Students can combine the two options by comparing their new product or service idea with one which exists in the market.

Finance & Venture Capital
This course is geared toward understanding the area of early-stage company finance from the entrepreneurial and venture capital perspectives. It’s geared to students who are seeking a career in early-stage financing and working with, or understanding of, venture capital firms, or are interested in starting a new business and want to become an entrepreneur. The course will use an iterative approach to both critiquing and creating early-stage financial statements. There will be a case-based learning (“CBL”) approach to generate an in-depth, multi-faceted understanding of a complex issue in its real-life context.

Business Creation
The Business Creation experience will take you from an idea to an investor quality presentation. Four key milestones include the Idea/Elevator Pitch, Business Model Presentation, MIE Pitch Competition and Investor/Incubator Presentations. Both start-up and corporate ideas will be supported. The program will include dedicated workshops, practice / live presentations and extensive feedback from mentors and experts. Business Creation will integrate and reinforce course concepts with real-world application to their project. The program will culminate in June with presentations to numerous investor groups and incubator programs, allowing the project to continue post-graduation. You are also encouraged to participate in the Stella Zhang New Venture Competition.

Entrepreneurship
This course is designed to expose you to an overview of the entire entrepreneurial process – identifying new venture opportunities, developing a business model, preparing a business plan, assembling a team, raising the necessary financing and launching a new business. Our primary learning vehicle will be the exercise of working with a team of classmates to create a business plan for a new company. For background, we will use a comprehensive text supplemented by key readings on different facets of entrepreneurship. For inspiration, you will hear presentations from experienced and successful professionals in the field of entrepreneurship. The heart of the course will be working in project teams to prepare a business plan for a new company of your choosing. You will present portions of it to your classmates in a workshop environment, culminating in the presentation of the completed plan in lieu of a final exam. To ground your new company in reality, you will be required to seek out and talk to at least ten customers, distributors or other relevant market representatives to validate that your concept has attractive potential. These efforts are designed to help you craft a more credible new business that can earn funding support and succeed in the marketplace.

Lean Startup
This is a practical class – essentially a lab, not a theory or “book” class. The goal, within the constraints of a classroom and a limited amount of time, is to create an entrepreneurial experience for you with all of the pressures and demands of the real world in an early-stage startup. The class is designed to give you the experience of how to work as a team and turn an idea into a company. You will be getting your hands dirty talking to customers, partners and competitors as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. You’ll practice evidence‐based entrepreneurship as you learn how to use a business model to brainstorm each part of a company and customer development to get out of the classroom to see whether anyone other than you would want/use your product. Finally, based on the customer and market feedback you gathered, you will iterate on a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to rapidly evolve something customers would actually buy. Each block will be a new adventure outside the classroom as you test each part of your business model and then share the hard‐earned knowledge with the rest of the class.

Business Law
Business Law is an introductory course focused on educating individuals starting or investing in a new business in the United States. Our objective is to provide an overview of common legal issues most likely to be faced by entrepreneurs, such as Business Formation and Structure, Governance and Employment Contracts, Intellectual Property and Taxation. Lectures will revolve around readings and case studies but will emphasize active discussions concerning hypothetical situations for which you will need to analyze the law to determine a likely outcome. The course will require you to develop the ability to identify both sides of an issue, to analyze the legal risk associated with business decisions and to communicate information to third parties.

Proseminar
This course, coordinated with the Merage School Career Center, provides students with practical skills for success in the program and future careers by teaching career planning, job search tactics and strategies, resume building, interviewing preparation, approaches to networking, salary negotiation, public speaking and business writing skills.

Innovation Career Pathways

MIE students may select courses based on their interests and career aspirations from various electives across the school’s seven masters programs.

• Sample electives: Experiential consulting, negotiations, B2B selling and sales, corporate innovation, supply chain management

• Sample electives: Innovation in the digital age, new product development, supply chain analytics, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions

• Sample electives: Advertising, marketing on the internet, marketing analytics, product life-cycle, marketing research, strategic brand management, digital strategies and markets

• Sample electives: Organizational change, negotiations, corporate innovation, performance management, leveraging professional networks

Examples of Elective Options