Where is Entrepreneurship Really Taught?
Between Y Combinator's Startup School, the influx of seed fund incubators, the list of legendary mentors and investors and the dotcom bust's school of hard knocks, is there really any reason to go to grad school? At ReadWriteWeb we're supportive of lifelong learning and universities that coach entrepreneurs, but a recent post by Venture Hacks founder Naval Ravikant has us wondering, "What is the value in grad school?"
Ravikant suggests that incubators and accelerators like YCombinator and Techstars are the new grad school.
He writes, "In some ways, it's better," and that unlike business schools, YCombinator pays entrepreneurs, which allows founders to be their own boss and encourages original work.
In addition to Ravikant's points, the fact that every incubator participant is connected to advisors through a financial agreement means the group may be motivated to maintain their network and share contacts. Nevertheless, before dismissing the idea of grad school altogether, it's good to remember many of the top entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley are MIT, Harvard and CalTech grads (including some of the Venture Hacks team). Perhaps the argument here is not so much about incubators over traditional institutions, but in the value of good mentors that have a stake in your success and do not rest on the laurels of a tenured position.
As a startup entrepreneur, what is the best lesson you've ever been taught and who taught it to you?
Photo Credit: Duncan Hull
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I think there is some truth to this argument, however, I don't know that you can broadly say "entrepreneurship," when in reality we are talking specifically about technology start-ups here.
For people who want to start tech companies, then yes, I would say you can safely skip grad school. However, for other industries, that may not be the case.
Beyond the resources you listed above, I thought you should have included reading. I have learned a lot from simply reading what is out there on the topic.
www.innovatorssourcebook.com
I always thought it was taught by DOING.
Jerry
www.private-surfing.be.tc
Y Combinator is a great way to get your startup going with some small money and get it off the ground. The network and mentoring they provide is superb.
However, it's only for a select few, and it's in San Francisco.
If you want to learn entrepreneurship, the best is to simply start.
I see several universities that feature entrepreneurship classes, with lessons that cover economics, negotiations, etc.
The truth is that these theoretical situations are meaningless in practice.
What makes an entrepreneur is his ability to understand and deal with failure quickly and intelligently. You cannot learn that in a safe environment.
You learn by doing.
There are two things you need to have a successful career as an entrepreneur (or serial entrepreneur): experience, and connections.
Ramine is right on saying it is best to simply start. There's no substitute for learning by failing.
When it comes to connections though, you can't do much better than going to a top notch business school. That's the real value of them - you can get an education anywhere, but having an intense shared experience with many others who are at the top of their professions in positions of power, and who can help you and make introductions for you is something not easily replaced. For that reason alone, I'd say get the MBA. Not because it will make you a better entrepreneur, but because it will make many key events that will happen for you (first customer, first angel, first strategic partnership) much, much easier. 2 years of effort will payoff for your entire working life.
But Duncan, most of the founders of web 2.0 companies don't have an MBA. They're creative thinkers who end up hiring someone with an MBA to be their CEO (think Google). No one who founded Twitter has a grad degree. Kevin Rose, Mark Zuckerberg etc, they don't have grad degrees.
There really is no point in having an MBA if you can build something and get an insane amount of traffic. Doors will open; your connections will be built. To be blunt, an MBA is a good thing to have if you don't have the natural talent to build a startup or something of value through your own creative thinking. That said, I would agree with you that most people don't have this natural talent.
Even failing is more valuable.Although this might be true for me and people reading this blog – it is often not true for a lot of others out there.Not everyone is cut out for entrepreneurship. A college degree is still the best fit for the mindset of 99% people out there.
Best lections were taught by disappointments in everyday business. You have to make a lot of them to get one hit. I learned slowly to be passionate about my idea and at the same time act with a cold heart. This keeps me from loosing too much energy when I dont get response the way I expected.
I think you need some natural aptitude to be an entrepreneur, no one can teach you how to make millions, they only can point the way you have to go yourself.
I learnd one thing : "whatever you want to do, you only have to try it, not attempt anything is the failure".
http://mymillioncompany.com
A systematic, sustained acquisition of knowledge is probably still required. Traditionally, this was offered by post graduate studies, but in a rapidly changing world, the syllabus and content of these courses are hard pressed to keep up with the times. But the latest developments are for the better because it offers a diversity in education.
You have to do it yourself. Finding ways around problems is learned by experience
When we spotlight successful entrepreneurs, we fail to show the uphill climb they took to get to where they are today. Regardless of degree or lack thereof, many successful entrepreneurs tried their hand at a business or two (or more) before failure turned to success. It's a bumpy road for everyone.
Entrepreneurial skills need to be practiced through trial and error. The issue with grad school is that most often it's based on textbook knowledge (or theory) rather than experiential work. The bigger issue is that as a society we wait to teach business skills in college rather than exposing our youth to it early on when it's best to teach entrepreneurship. Kids don't have the same risk level or perception as adults and have the ability to try different tactics and exposing them to the necessary trial and error elements of entrepreneurship.
http://www.bizinaboxx.com
Entrepreneurship is taught in the supportive environment of undergraduate education here at the University of Michigan. I'm a freshman student, and I've been hugely impressed by what is available.
**As Melissa and others said, by teaching this in school, it provides a low-risk environment to learn and try out this hard stuff. Also, it teaches us to not be as risk-averse before we become even further risk-averse when we enter the workforce**
There is a curriculum open to any student in the school where you can earn a certificate in entrepreneurship. It has a couple core classes such as a speaker series which brings in a different entrepreneur each week and courses on IP law, and a practicum course where students work on either developing an idea for a venture or starting their venture. There is grant funding available from a number of sources ranging from $500 to $10,000 and investments up to $100,00 by a university-sponsored program. Ann Arbor also has a very active startup community with its own incubator, Ann Arbor SPARK.
MPowered, a student-run organization, promotes entrepreneurial thinking on campus with activities such as 1000Pitches.com, which collected 2165 different business pitches from students, and the Peer Mentorship Program where experienced students lead small student teams through business development from idea conception to seeking funding.
In addition to that, I am currently part of a student team founding the first living community of student entrepreneurs. These students will live together in the same hall in the same dorm and do activities together such as monthly challenges where they are asked to tackle some general problem for either general customers or university-specific organizations.
There are so many resources and programs I've left out here -
All in all, entrepreneurship is taught very well here in school so students like myself can go out and get their ventures started while in college.
I headed back to grad school (MBA) to start my business. Why? I have two years to try and make something happen. At graduation I can give an honest assessment of whether the venture is going to work. If failure is on the horizon, I can safely retreat to the corporate world until I am ready to step out and try the entrepreneurship thing again...
I completely agree with Jerry
Reality check....no one gets rich going to school.
Get Entrepreneur from Successful Entrepreneurs who share relevant timely information.
http://ceospacestpaul.com/ceospacenews/70/ceo-space-guaranteed/
The raw materials of entrepreneurship can't be taught. They include (i) a personality type in which optimism and resiliance dominate, (ii) life circumstances that permit a long-odds undertaking, and (iii) a market insight that ideally is derived from actual domain expertise.
B-school is great for most people, because most people are not suited to be entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs should hire managers, operators and financiers who did well in their MBA programs.
"I want to start a company, therefore I think I'll go to school for two years" is a terrible premise. Winning entrepreneurs (there are less of them than you think) start companies to fix failures in markets they know from the inside. They don't decide to start a company and then go look for a problem to fix.
If you want to spend two years preparing to become an entrepreneur, get a job in the industry you want to build your career in. Then, don't quit that job until you are so certain that you can do a better job than your employer and its competitors that you can no longer sleep at night.
The only way to become an entrepreneur is by DOING IT. School does not teach you how to deal with your clients, how to come up creative solutions to your problems, etc.
Ramine hit the "learn by doing" point immediately. Totally agree with it. I'm with a very early stage start-up right now, and the learning curve is steep.
Working with founders is also invaluable. I worked directly under four entrepreneurs in four separate industries and they were full of useful knowledge and enlightening stories.
Now I'm in a full-time MBA program (while I work at the start-up). The MBA is essentially a two-year vocabulary lesson with great networking, and a few useful nuggets of theory sprinkled in. I haven't seen much value from the MBA related to the day-to-day start-up work yet, but for some of the big moments (presenting to VCs, financing negotiations, etc.) understanding the MBA language will be helpful.
Will . . . Eric Schmidt (Google's CEO) does not have an MBA. He's got an MS and a PhD.