The Official Info

Answers to the pressing questions about how this intensive and rewarding program can fit into your academic and personal life.

What does it take? A lot — but it is manageable.

Entrepreneurship Teams

Every student becomes a member of a new venture team (generally self-selected). The team forms the entity that explores a new idea from concept to reality, completing all the stages of validation, strategy, and execution in between. As a final outcome, the team communicates the opportunity and its future in an investment-quality business plan. By that point, the team will know the innovation inside and out and will be able to speak to it, defend it, present it, and launch it!

Program credits range from 6 to 15, depending on track (graduate concentration, undergraduate major, associate certificate). This formal class time is dedicated to concepts that apply to every new venture.

But class time is only the beginning. Education in the McGuire Program is customized to meet the specific needs of each venture almost entirely outside of class. The Program model ensures each team has access to academic and industry-specific leadership to help members continually advance their concept through the five Idea Path phases: Innovation, Validation, Executables, Business Plan, and Launch.

All team members, regardless of status, participate equally in all activities and outcomes.

How it Works

Entrepreneurship teams are comprised of students from a variety of backgrounds and fields of study, ranging from business to science to the arts and humanities. Each student holds a formal position in the venture team. All team members attend all entrepreneurship courses in a cohort. The classes are limited to Program students. All coursework is closely integrated with the development of the venture idea and the progression of the capstone Venture Development I and II courses. Entrepreneurship courses are offered at one time only. The program is 1 year long.

Shortly after being accepted into the Program in the spring, entrepreneurship students participate in program orientations designed to advance team-building, idea generation, and innovation exploration with significant support and assistance.

Once teams agree on a few good ideas, members assess the viability of the ideas through a formal feasibility study during the summer months. Faculty advising and draft reviews take place at intervals over the summer to ensure that assessments are progressing. Feasibility studies are due roughly 2 weeks prior to the beginning of the fall semester, allowing Program faculty time to review the studies before formal coursework begins.

Through the fall semester, students:

• Develop core components of market, product, and competition knowledge in the Innovation phase of the Idea Path;
• Create comprehensive analyses of industry and competition, barriers to entry, and resource projections through the Validation phase;
• Develop full-scale strategies in marketing and sales and financial plans, cash flow analyses, manufacturing, distribution, and operations plans, risk and contingency plans, exit strategies, etc., in the Executables phase
• And finally, bring the experience and knowledge of these three phases together in the Business Plan

In the spring semester, teams focus heavily on deepening their knowledge of market, product, and competition; the communication of the plan; and simulated launch activities such as hiring C-level management, facilities negotiations, IP agreements, and so forth.

How much time does it take outside of class?

This depends on the venture and how each team manages its time. Teams spend anywhere from 2 to 5 hours per week outside of class on the development of the idea. This translates to 10 - 30 person-hours per week. A lot goes into each plan, which means a lot is accomplished. Time commitment also varies through the Program. Some periods are more time intensive, for example late in the fall when the actual written plan is due, and in the spring during competition preparation.

Without exception, students that have excelled share that “You get out of it what you put into it.”

After all this, what do I have?

Once you've completed the Program, you have an educational package that uniquely positions you to be able to “move a concept from idea to reality” in any industry, in any environment, in any circumstance. You'll be equipped with the knowledge and skills to be effective, productive, and a more significant contributor in any field you chose.

And by the way, you'll also own the results of your work.

If your team developed an idea of your own, your team owns that intellectual property entirely and can advance the venture as a team or as individuals, based on team agreement. If your team developed an idea belonging to a party outside the program, your team is the owner of the intellectual property in the form of the business plan. You will be positioned to participate in an actual launch, negotiate for compensation, sale of the business plan, partnership, equity, management position, or any other outcome that you want to negotiate with the idea owner.

Is it worth it?

A landmark study sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation demonstrates that graduates of entrepreneurship education in general, and of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship specifically, simply achieve more than do their non-entrepreneurship counterparts. McGuire alums:

• Earn more money (as much as an average of $23,500 more when working in large firms)
• Own more assets
• Report greater job satisfaction, regardless of choice of profession
• Are more likely to be involved in research and development in new and existing firms
    

  Learn more about Program outcomes.