

Ask HN: Teaching Entrepreneurship – Where Would You Begin? - BrianCurlissATX

::Problem::
I have six students who are extremely interested in learning "how to be and entrepreneur". Given the premise (assume) that building a company is more a science than an art and is teachable. What would be the very first lectures in a class that teaches entrepreneurship look like?<p>::About the Situation::
Assume I am qualified to teach entrepreneurship. Assume I am successful. Assume I am here looking for others opinions on how they would solve the problem. Assume these students are extremely gifted, passionate, driven, able to learn, but lack the tools and knowledge to launch a company. Assume the students currently have no idea's for a startup.<p>::Ideal Solution/Responses::
Ideally, HN will help me figure out where to begin, what to teach first, and why to teach that first. Also, HN will ideally suggest entrepreneurial tools to teach them, specific skill sets, theory/theories, etc.
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tribbettz
This is a great question. I'll be quick but a lot about teaching
entrepreneurship isnt teaching at all; at least not in the traditional sense.
"Teaching" entrepreneurship is really teaching innovation and thinking
divergently. Listing problems, figuring out solutions, finding users, selling,
and yada yada yada. The important thing is to start something. A close second
is to fail... A lot.

As a teacher you should focus on developing the innovator as opposed to the
innovation. This happens by building self confidence in a person, something I
will iterate over and over is paramount in innovation: taking risks, learning
from failure, seeing opportunity in difficulty. These are the traits to have.
It starts by having your 6 students start something. Right now.

I'll recommend two resources I've personally used. One is the Founders Journey
class at MIT taught by Ken Zolot. I TAed this class after taking it. In a
nutshell: bringing in guest speakers to talk about their experience in the
context if a theme (raising rounds, pivoting, etc). <http://founders.mit.edu>

The other resource is Start Labs, a non profit I cofounded over a year ago to
"develop the next generation of technical entrepreneurs." We had hack nights,
hackathons, pitch nights, career fairs and the "bread and butter": a 4 week
accelerator called Concept to Company which took 7 teams with ideas, gave them
space, a small bit of money, mentor ship, and the networks of the SF, NYC, and
Boston ecosystem. It was definitely a structured program because unlike YC or
TechStars we wanted to develop the people and that was our focus. We built a
lot of curriculum for MIT and expanding leisurely over to Harvard as well. In
any case great program tackling exactly your question. <http://startlabs.org/>

To close, teaching entrepreneurship really is about taking down the curtain of
this world by having experienced guest speakers and a culture supporting you
as well as starting something. Just do it! Fail often, fail fast. Out failure
rises new ideas, thoughts, and opportunities. Finally, through building and
doing, you become more confident in yourself - a necessity... Dream Big. Think
Limitlessly. Do Fearlessly. Start Something.

~~~
tribbettz
I forgot to point out that there are infinite resources for teaching
entrepreneurship like Stanfords E- corner, etc etc. the two I mentioned were
there because of the large amount of time and focus spent developing and
building them...

