Courses & Electives
The entrepreneurship curriculum and co-curriculum at Tuck supports the entire entrepreneurship lifecycle: from initial idea generation, through testing and development, to building a new or growing organization, and beyond.
Tuck believes that students learn how to be entrepreneurial best by doing it within an environment that is both supportive and challenging. Much of our entrepreneurship curriculum and co-curriculum is experienced-based: it involves a broad team of academics, advisors, and entrepreneurs to help students learn by integrating their experiences with leading methodologies and practices. Maximum success has always required a team effort. Tuck has developed a hypothesis-driven entrepreneurship methodology built on the Lean Start-Up methodology, getting students out of the classroom to test and refine their business ideas.
Below are several entrepreneurial courses taught by affiliated faculty.
Core Courses
Entrepreneurship First-Year Project (eFYP)
The eFYP uses hypothesis-driven principles to identify the assumptions behind a business idea and to begin to test and refine these assumptions in the real world. The goal here is to build a tested and viable business model from the initial idea. eFYPs may include student-founded ideas and ventures which include ETHINK projects and Venture Learning Lab ventures, as well as early-stage client projects.
Check out Zippity Car Care as one example of a Tuck Startup which used eFYP as one part of the venture development while at Tuck.
General Electives
Entrepreneurial Thinking (ETHINK)
This full-term mini course is an introduction to entrepreneurship and “entrepreneurial thinking.” Taught by Professor Daniella Reichstetter T'07 and Professor Trip Davis, this course exposes students to methodologies and practitioners and allows for the development of personal perspectives about starting a company now or in the future, joining an entrepreneurial venture, and/or exploring career options in fields related to entrepreneurship, such as early-stage investing.
Social Entrepreneurship (SESHP)
Social Entrepreneurship seeks to inform students who are interested in understanding the theoretical and practical elements of Social Entrepreneurship, and in addition equip those who wish to explore the possibility of defining or starting a social enterprise.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategy (EIS)
The entrepreneurial challenge is one of selecting among the many potential combinations that you see, and then organizing the venture, whether startup, corporate, or non-profit, that will allow you to realize your ambition for the opportunity. In this course you will develop a ‘Wide Lens’ perspective on the challenges of innovation, with a particular focus on the context of innovation ecosystems. We will explore a set of analytic lenses that will help us assess the potential of new opportunities and to strategize about how to best exploit them. We will apply these tools using a combination of cases, exercises and projects.
Diversity Entrepreneurship Collaboration Practicum (PRDEC)
This practicum offers an opportunity for Tuck students to partner with entrepreneurs participating in Tuck’s Executive Education Diversity Business Programs’ “Building a Successful Diverse Business” and help growth-stage entrepreneurs tackle their current business challenges, including strategy, marketing, financial analysis, operations, management, and leadership.
View All Entrepreneurial Electives
Specialized Electives
Tuck and Dartmouth more broadly offer a collection of electives that enable students to specialize in areas appropriate to their idea and new ventures, as well as to early-stage growth companies, including:
- Data Analytics (Thayer)
- Design Thinking
- Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation
- E’ship and Innovation Strategy
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Entrepreneurial Thinking
- Entrepreneurship and Innovation Strategy
- Entrepreneurship FYP
- Entrepreneurship GIX (select courses)
- Entrepreneurship in Health Care Services and Technology
- Entrepreneurship Onsite
- Entrepreneurship through Acquisition
- Field Studies in Venture Capital
- Field Study in Private Equity
- Fundamentals of Web Programming
- Investing and Dealmaking in Health Care
- Law, Technology, and E’ship (Thayer)
- Marketing in the Network Economy
- Medical Device Commercialization (Thayer)
- Medical Device Development (Thayer)
- Multichannel Route-to-Market Strategy
- Platform Design, Management, and Strategy (Thayer)
- Selling and Sales Leadership
- Social Entrepreneurship
- Strategic Principles of Internet Business
- Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Thayer)
- Tuck Startup Incubator
- Venture Capital & Private Equity
- Venture Capital & Private Equity Basics
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