Entrepreneurship Curriculum
Entrepreneurship is the foundation of every business.
Your Cornell MBA gives you skills to innovate and problem solve that will serve you in building a company from the ground up or innovating within an existing business.
Johnson School Applied Entrepreneurship Curriculum
Entrepreneurship is something you learn by doing. It’s also a team activity. Our program is designed to inspire you to actively engage and do entrepreneurship as a team.
Your teachers and coaches have a range of expertise across sales, marketing, finance, management, leadership, technology and law. They bring extensive experience doing and teaching entrepreneurship.
Every MBA student starts with an orientation and a core curriculum to establish the common language of business fundamentals. This shared experience supports you individually and in networking across the Johnson School and Cornell University for the partnerships your business will require.
In the second semester of your first year, you start to specialize as an entrepreneur, building the skills you need through elective courses.
Building on Your First Year Entrepreneurship Experiences
In the summer break between your first and second years, you may apply to participate in the Summer Start-up instead of accepting an internship.
For your second year, you can choose to apply for the Johnson Dual-Campus Track program, spending your second year focusing on tech and entrepreneurship at the Cornell Tech campus in New York City.
Or you can actively work on launching your own business by taking advantage of resources embedded in the Cornell Ithaca campus. If you decide to leverage the Ithaca resources, the Actualizing Your Startup courses will be the backbone of your experience. eLab instructors coach, guide, mentor and help you to start and grow your own real company in a team environment.
After completing both parts of this series, when you graduate with your MBA you will have launched your company, equipped with the experience, skills and connections to grow it successfully.
Actualizing Your Startup Parts 1 and 2
In the first of this two-part performance learning course, student project teams start their own companies. eLab‘s instructors serve as mentors, teachers and assistants to the teams, and coordinate the involvement of high-profile mentors from the startup and venture capital community.
Students enhance their business and entrepreneurship learning by putting theoretical concepts into practice in a team environment. Through eLab students start real companies with the potential to grow and provide employment and economic benefit to their founders, and to provide deep experiential learning in starting and growing a business.
Startup Suite of Student-Run Entrepreneurship Services
Gain actual experience creating your business in a supportive environment through the Big Red Venture Fund — a graduate course that behaves like a real venture capital firm. Working with real money, students invest start-up capital in US-based high-growth companies.
Cornell’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Supports Your Vision and Nurtures Your Network
As a Johnson School MBA, your network extends to all of Cornell, past and present. Cross-campus collaboration is natural as you explore courses in other colleges and meet students from engineering, law, computer science and other disciplines. You can meet similarly entrepreneurial students through Cornell’s campus-wide resources.
Blackstone LaunchPad Ezra
A campus-based entrepreneurship program designed to support and mentor students, staff and alumni — regardless of major, experience or discipline. The program offers connections for 1:1 mentorship with experts, business leaders and patent specialists. This is a valuable first-stop resource for entrepreneurs in the early stages of their vision.
Center for Technology Licensing
Cornell University’s technology transfer office. Their mission is to bring the university’s innovations and advances to the marketplace. For entrepreneurs, the Ignite Gap Funding program could be a promising avenue for support.
Cornell eHub
Two dynamic collaboration and coworking spaces to meet with your team, your mentor or entrepreneurship club to host events or work freely with 24/7 access. eHub Kennedy Hall has 5,000 square feet dedicated to entrepreneurship. eHub Collegetown is conveniently located at 409 College Avenue, near the Breazzano Family Center for Business Education.
Cornell eLab
The backbone of an entrepreneur’s second year as an MBA candidate, eLab acceptance is a prerequisite for our two-part Actualizing Your Startup curriculum. Johnson School students typically apply in the summer after their first year. A larger number of student teams are accepted in the fall, then narrowed in the spring as instructors evaluate teams’ performance and business models. Funding of $5,000 is offered to teams accepted to the spring program.