EPS - Entrepreneurship

EPS1000 Foundations of Entrepreneurial Management
(Formerly MOB1000)

The content of EPS1000 is equivalent to the material covered in FME 1000 and FME 1001. Students who are enrolled in FME therefore cannot enroll in this course.
    

This section is a new pilot version of EPS 1000 called Hatch and Hustle. In Hatch and Hustle you won’t just talk about entrepreneurship — you’ll live it. This action-based course challenges you to start a real business (yes, an actual venture), working in a three-person team. Whether your idea is a product or service, you’ll move fast from concept to launch. Grounded in Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought & Action® (ET&A™) framework, this course teaches you to take smart steps forward even when you don’t have all the answers. You’ll act, learn from what happens, and build toward something better—again and again.

What You’ll Do:
•    Hatch your business idea through customer insights and creative thinking.
•    Hustle to build and launch a real, for-profit venture within the semester.
•    Apply the Act–Learn–Build–Repeat cycle of ET&A to make real-time progress.
•    Balance predictive thinking (planning based on known data) with creative action (moving forward in uncertainty).
•    Gain real-world experience in the core functions of business: marketing, sales, operations, accounting, finance, and pitching.

This course is for students who want to make something real, not just theoretical. You’ll leave with more than a grade—you’ll leave with a launched venture, an entrepreneurial mindset, and a toolkit you can use for life. No prior experience needed—just curiosity, a willingness to take action, and the drive to hustle.
 

Prerequisites: None

EPS 1001: Transformation Through Entrepreneurial Leadership

3 Credits course for Humanities and Entrepreneurship Certificate Students Only

The Transformation Through Entrepreneurial Leadership course cultivates core career and life skills by helping students transform their self-perception and agency by developing an entrepreneurial mindset that supports their ability to overcome challenges and seize opportunities.

The course helps students understand how entrepreneurial thinking and acting can enable them to become an entrepreneurial leader while defining their unique strengths and capabilities based on their self-identified value systems.

The course is experientially-based, providing students with feedback and an opportunity to build and reflect on their individual entrepreneurial leadership skills. Students will engage in interactive sessions with Babson faculty and be supported by Babson students; work on an individual entrepreneurial leadership project; and discover how Babson’s entrepreneurship methodology, Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® (ET&A), applies to their individual entrepreneurial journey.

This course is offered over 12 weeks with classes held in person once a week for three hours. Students will discover that being an entrepreneur goes deeper than developing a business. In the first part of the course, they will build upon what they learned in “The Art of the Self” course as they further explore how they can cultivate their entrepreneurial abilities, passions, and strengths.

As they discover what inspires them, students will learn about the United Nations Global Goals and how those connect to their own lives and to opportunities in the market. They will strengthen their ability to solve problems through Babson’s ET&A® methodology and discover how these skills connect to opportunities they can secure once they venture out. Through support, they will learn how to create the story of self, seeing themselves as entrepreneurs with experience and expertise to address real world problems. The course concludes with students’ final deliverable, a presentation of their transformed personal narrative as an entrepreneurial leader capable of creating social impact.

Prerequiste: Course is for Humanities and Entrepreneurship students only

EPS 1002: LEADING YOUR START UP

3 Credits course for Humanities and Entrepreneurship Certificate Students Only

Leading Your Startup builds on groundwork laid in Transformation Through Entrepreneurial Leadership, with units on business essentials; designing SMART goals, entrepreneurial leadership, customer discovery, competition, brand design, marketing, sales, data for decision making, finance, business models, and developing a business plan. This course concludes the four-course sequence in entrepreneurial leadership and prepares students to seize opportunities either when they return to their communities, post-incarceration, or if they remain incarcerated.

In this hands-on business course, student will gain critical experience by focusing on how they can create value by developing a SMART (Specific, Measurables, Actionable, Realistic, Time-based) business plan that addresses important customer needs. Working individually or in teams of two, students will learn how to view the customer engagement experience through the eyes of their target market to effectively build a sustainable brand. They will also evaluate the feasibility of their own and their peers’ business ideas, work with Babson students to conduct primary market research, and develop a business model. The approach of this course is entrepreneurial in nature with the understanding that students will look at a variety of ways that they can seize the identified problem or opportunity identified.
The first half of the course focuses on learning how to actively listen to, define, and respond to evolving consumer needs. Next, they will use this knowledge in the second half of the class to develop a SMART business action plan that describes how they will engage customers and create traction using a variety of channels that align with identified customer behaviors, interests, and attitudes.
While students will not likely launch their business (profit or non-profit) during the class, it must be realistic and actionable. The business might reflect the idea that they identified during Transformation through Entrepreneurial Leadership or be an entirely new idea. In addition to developing the business model, they will identify key performance indicators, and define metrics and milestones related to their business’ success. They will also develop a marketing campaign that will engage prospects and entice them to interact with the business/organization.
The course focuses on business and marketing frameworks, best practices and learning through class discussions, articles, customer primary research, and the course book. They will be challenged to apply the topics to their business and their peers’ businesses.  As students focus on a solution or business that inspires them, they will learn how to assess the feasibility of their idea, taking it from vision to reality. The course concludes with the students’ final deliverable, a SMART Business Plan that includes:
• Business Model Canvas
• SMART Business Action Plan
• Marketing Campaign
• Startup Budget
• Customer Persona

The course is offered over 12 weeks with classes held in person approximately once a week for 3 hours. The course is experientially-based, providing students with feedback and an opportunity to build and reflect on their individual skills. Students will engage in interactive sessions with Babson faculty and be supported by Babson students; work on an individual (or in teams of 2) entrepreneurship projects; and discover how Babson’s entrepreneurship methodology, Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® (ET&A), applies to their individual entrepreneurial journey.

Prerequiste: Course is for Humanities and Entrepreneurship students only

EPS1110 Introduction to the Entrepreneurial Experience

4 Credits

The Online Babson Summer Study program is designed to help high school students (primarily rising juniors and seniors in high school), like you, cultivate core career skills and a sharp entrepreneurial mindset for overcoming challenges in any setting, in any role. You will participate in interactive online sessions with Babson faculty, entrepreneurship experts, and Babson near-peer students, work on team-based projects with peers from around the world, learn how to apply Entrepreneurial Thought and Action®, and understand the competencies needed to start your own venture.

EPS1210 The Ultimate Entrepreneurial Challenge
(Formerly EPS3510 and EPS3579)
4 Credits

This highly competitive course involves intense TEAM competition and problem-solving. Students will elect CEOs, negotiate to acquire team members, and compete for ten weeks to determine the ultimate winner. We have designed a learning experience that will develop and test your skills in strategy, marketing, negotiation, management, negotiations, and finance -- as well as creative, innovative, entrepreneurial out-of-the-box thinking.

Your learning experiences will primarily engage you in real-world business cases, including, when feasible, interactions with the entrepreneurs that are the subjects of the cases, or practitioners who have relevant experiences and insights to share. Our goal is to make this course one of the most challenging and rewarding learning experiences for you during your time at Babson.

Prerequisites: FME1001 or MOB1000

EPS1220 Entrepreneurial Leadership Field Studies 
4 Free Elective Credits 

This course is designed specifically for Arthur M. Blank School of Entrepreneurial Leadership Scholars (AMBSEL Scholars) and for other Scholars (e.g., Weisman, Presidential, Posse, etc.) by instructor consent.

Entrepreneurial leadership theories and frameworks, considered to be distinct from other forms of leadership, are still at the nascent stage of development. Babson Professor Scott Taylor and his colleagues are currently developing an entrepreneurial leadership model that includes the following constructs: “leader internal clarity”, “leader opportunity seeking behavior”, “leader outward focus”, “follower motivation effect”, and “recognizing and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities”. Each of these constructs will be explored by students through discussions of assigned readings and qualitative research in the form of entrepreneur interviews and a case research project which includes a written case and teaching note. Students will develop qualitative research skills (e.g., interview techniques) through in class lectures and asynchronous videos that have already been produced by Professor Shay. The learning-focused activities and assignments, especially the field-based entrepreneur interview and case research project, are designed to enhance student (and the field’s) understanding of the unique nature of entrepreneurial leadership and to develop the student’s own entrepreneurial leadership skills. Student course deliverables (entrepreneur interview and case study) will provide insights to advance our understanding of entrepreneurial leadership as well as teaching materials for classroom use. The entrepreneur interviews and case studies will be submitted for inclusion in Babson’s case resources and possibly for publication in peer-reviewed journals such as Case Research Journal. 

EPS3501 New Venture Creation:  Starting the Right Business for You

(Previously titled Entrepreneurship and Opportunity)
4 General Credits

EPS3501, EPS3502, EPS3503, EPS3530, EPS3508 and EPS4520 are all equivalent courses. Students can take only ONE of these courses.

Knowing whether or not an idea is worth pursuing is a critical first step in the entrepreneurial process.  In fact, some of the main causes of new venture failure are the lack of product-market fit and cash flow problems resulting from underestimating the costs of the venture.  This course focuses on improving your ability to analyze and assess a business concept to determine if the idea has the potential to meet your personal goals.  Students will gain first-hand experience with market and customer research as well as a better understanding of what they need to do to determine if an idea represents a true opportunity for them.  Students will leave the class being better able to understand their own personal entrepreneurial capacity and the process and tools that they can use for evaluating any venture idea that they may have in the future.  Student teams will conduct both primary and secondary research on a venture idea of their choice.

Prerequisites: (SME2021 or FIN2000) and (SME2011 or MKT2000) and (SME2031 or ECN2002)

EPS3503 New Technology Ventures
4 General Credits

EPS3501, EPS3502 and EPS3503 are all equivalent courses. Students can take only ONE of these courses.

Creating a new venture that has technology as a basis for its products or services presents special challenges. On one hand is the _push_ of new technology, as evidenced by the plethora of scientific invention and technological innovation. On the other hand is the _pull_ of the market as it presents new entrepreneurial opportunities. Other key challenges present themselves in areas of intellectual property protection, team building and funding opportunities. In this course we will explore entrepreneurship in technology industries in depth with the hope of penetrating the popular veneer, and uncovering the guts of starting a growing new technology ventures. Of course, there is a lot about new technology venturing that is common to all new venture creation, and also the qualities entrepreneurs demonstrate are valuable in a wide spectrum of life's activities.

A unique aspect of this course is its desire to include students from both Babson as well as the F.W. Olin College of Engineering. Particular value from this intermingling will be evidenced in the true interdisciplinary nature of the course field project teams that are formed, and the ability for students to begin to develop networks of relationships outside their individual domains of business or engineering.

Primary Course Objectives:
1. To investigate the components, tools, and practices of technology entrepreneurship: identifying new venture opportunities, evaluating the viability of a new business concept, calibrating risk of successful technology development, protecting intellectual property, building a team that possesses the attributes necessary for success, obtaining appropriate financing, writing a business plan, and developing an investor presentation, creating an entrepreneurial culture that increases the odds of success, and creating liquidity for shareholders.
2. To identify and exercise entrepreneurial skills through classrooms debate and assignments.
3. To introduce students to a variety of technology entrepreneurs. Case studies are used as tools for discussion, and are augmented with readings and guest speakers.

The core project for this course will be the development of a technology based business plan. Students will form teams to explore a business opportunity, and develop a business plan and investor presentation.

For more information view this video.

Prerequisites: SME

EPS3504 Future Trends and Entrepreneurial Ventures
4 General Credits

This course is designed to provide a strategic decision-making, future-oriented perspective in Entrepreneurship for undergraduate students interested in Entrepreneurial Thought & Action methods used by start-up, early-stage ventures, and corporations that practice innovation. We explore Entrepreneurial Thought & Action techniques for looking at the future including scenario planning, key-trend impact analysis, systems thinking, and experiencing the gestalt of the future. Students will develop an understanding of the future that applies to her/his own entrepreneurial leadership vision, identify Key Future Factors (KFF) that allow entrepreneurial leaders to address customer needs currently unmet, identify trends and systems key to developing opportunities scalable into large markets, and develop an action approach to scale an opportunity with an assessment of future trends and markets.

Prerequisites: None

EPS3505 Great Entrepreneurial Wealth: Creation, Preservation, and Destruction
4 General Credits

This course will explore the stages of great entrepreneurial wealth creation, preservation and destruction. Topics will cover geographical and sector concentrations of great wealth formation, along with socio and economic conditions prevailing at the time of generation. Particular emphasis will cover the detailed paths of notable entrepreneurs from the past century, along with the ethical dilemma and social contributions attributed to each of them. The course also discusses the rise and fall of great family dynasties in the section of wealth destruction.

Current practice of wealth generation, preservation and destruction methodologies will be reviewed, covering hedge funds, family offices and entrepreneur impropriety. Participants of this course will be expected to enhance skills in identifying market opportunity and wealth generation techniques as well as gain greater insight on interpersonal and market forces that contribute to wealth evaporation. Ethical dilemma, including a thorough discussion of high-profile industry scandals, will be explored along with factors contributing to fraud and investor impropriety.

Prerequisites: None

ENV4605 Global Environmental Activism  
4 Advanced Liberal Arts Credits 

“It has never been more important to protect the environment, and it has never been more deadly. The battle for the environment is emerging as a new battleground for human rights.” (Global Witness).  

This course examines environmental activism around the world. The impact of anthropogenic activity on the environment has raised serious global concern and triggered several efforts to tackle the problem from the global to local level. Individuals and groups are using various tools to create awareness and help curb the growing environmental menace from different sources. Activists – especially local and indigenous ones – often face danger, including persecution by powerful actors like states and multilateral corporations, and the murder rate of environmental activists continues to rise globally. Environmental activism has thus become increasingly perilous. Nonetheless, advocacy for environmental responsibility remains vibrant around the world. This course uses various cases in different regions of the world to help understand the global environmental movement These cases include Shell in Nigeria’s Niger Delta; Tahoe Resources in the Guatemalan town of Mataquescuintla; and Coca-Cola in India. The course will use these cases to examine: 1) the theoretical basis of environmental activism; 2) motivations of and challenges for activism; 3) the nature and composition of actors – activists, perpetrators and collaborators, policy communities, and governments; 4) nature and scope of issues and activism in the various regions of the world; and 5) relationships between environmental degradation, advocacy for its protection, and climate change.  

Prerequisites: Any combination of 2 ILA (HSS, LTA, CSP, LVA, CVA)

EPS3509 Entrepreneurship New Ventures in Fashion
4 Elective Abroad Credits

Entrepreneurial leaders in Fashion excel in being innovative and resourceful with respect to creating new designs that capturing customer attention, attracting high quality human and financial capital, and building business partnerships that ensure their products get to market in a timely way. The Fashion business cycle demands that ventures gather timely customer information, make the most of limited resources, and manage uncertainty in changing market conditions. In this course, students will have the opportunity to apply their classroom knowledge and past professional experiences to practice these facets of entrepreneurial leadership in London, England. The course is built around a Design Challenge – including preparation, research and thought about opportunities and the fashion industry and an intense, one-week exercise that invites students to create a solution to address an underserved customer/market niche while visiting leading British companies and cultural attractions.

As a part of the field work associated with the Design Challenge, students will participate in local excursions to leading businesses, start-ups, incubators, design companies, and cultural destinations. You will meet British and Global entrepreneurs, managers, Full-Circle Economy/Environmental leaders, and other experts in fashion design and production. You will also interact with different facets of everyday life in London as you collect information, develop an opportunity, rapidly prototype solutions, and validate your findings. The goal is to provide ample opportunities for you to immerse yourselves in the dynamic London fashion culture and expose yourselves to the design- friendly ways pioneered by British companies and leaders. At the end of the week, student teams will present their solutions to a panel of Fashion Faculty. The course is designed for students who have a strong interest in entrepreneurship, fashion, innovation, fashion technology, or design and wish to participate in a dynamic cross-cultural learning experience.

EPS3513 Entrepreneurship in Fashion
4 Credits

Entrepreneurship in fashion explores the challenges to entrepreneurs in the fashion industry with a view toward understanding opportunities, the changing nature of design to distribution technologies and processes, and the resources required to successfully launch and grow new ventures and corporate innovations. This course will examine past, current, and leading-edge business models while building entrepreneurial thought and action skills in the fashion context to create economic and social value. Students will focus on areas of interest in the fashion industry and design business models around opportunity spaces. The course examines current business cases. Speakers from the fashion industry will be invited to converse with students about experience and opportunities in fashion.

Prerequisites: FME1001

EPS3514 Be the Change

2 General Credits

The course is designed for creative changemakers committed to utilizing their entrepreneurial leadership and global mindset to make a positive social impact and work towards social justice.  Students will develop a deeper understanding of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development goals and the issues that exist at the heart of the social problems social entrepreneurs aim to address.  Students will explore the moral and ethical questions that face non-profit organizations social enterprises, and social entrepreneurs and learn motivation, approach, and best practices as it applies to social change makers. Students will be equipped with the tools and methods to apply their entrepreneurial mindset to advance equity and social justice and create a response to a social problem they would like to address.  

Note: The Natalie Taylor Scholars will use what they create in this course and implement it in the Scholar in Action EPS3534-01.

Prerequisite: FME 

EPS3518 Crowdfunding
4 General Credits

This hands-on workshop gives students the opportunity to plan a crowdfunding campaign for a creative project or entrepreneurial venture. Online crowdfunding builds community around innovative projects by organizing stakeholders and leveraging in-person and online social networks. Goals of crowdfunding include stakeholder alignment, concept testing, product pre-selling and venture de-risking. Students work individually or as part of a team to design a crowdfunding campaign which at students’ discretion may be executed following the workshop. Students are expected to meet high standards and the focal point of the course is the production and refinement of a pitch video developed based on stakeholder engagement and opportunity shaping. The course integrates emerging research on crowdfunding and ongoing developments in the industry.

Prerequisites: Students must be at least second semester sophomores.

EPS3520 Managing Growing Businesses
4 General Credits

This course covers the growth phase of an entrepreneurial business, focusing on the nature and challenges of entrepreneurial businesses as they move beyond startup. The primary task for entrepreneurial firms in their growth phase is to build an organization capable of managing this growth, and then ensure the organization can sustain growth as the market and competitive environment changes. The entrepreneur needs to create a professional organization both responsive to external change and entrepreneurial enough to continually create new businesses through innovative thinking.

Issues of particular importance to rapidly growing companies include: getting the right people and systems in place, managing with limited resources, cash flow planning, leadership and delegation, professional zing the business, turning around a troubled business, establishing and communicating culture, and creating a vision to drive the organization toward the future.

Prerequisites: SME and EPS350%

EPS3524 Made in Japan: Culture & Opportunities

4 Elective Abroad Credits

This course is built on two major themes:
1. Cultural excursion
Provide students to have an in-­depth look and a chance to experience Japan’s culture, in other words, its institutional environment (i.e., formal and informal rules of the game)
-­ Students will have opportunities to examine this through various dimensions that constitute the diversity and complexity of the country’s cultural/institutional environment today:
o Metropolitan vs. suburban
o Modern-­contemporary vs. old-­fashioned
o Young-­emerging vs. mature-­established
o High vs. low tech, etc.

2. Entrepreneurial opportunities
Encourage students to practice Entrepreneurial Thought and Action (ET&A) within the cultural/institutional environment in Japan.
-­ Students will work in teams to conduct observations, identify problems and opportunities, design an entrepreneurial initiative, and assess its impact (including stakeholder analysis) and feasibility – in various contexts/perspectives:
o Location-­based
o Industry-­based
o Interest/theme-­based, etc.

The entire course is designed on the concept of interactive learning through site visits, mini projects, and individual/group research.

EPS3529 IDEATE
4 Advanced Management Credits 

The ability to consistently recognize new ideas and seize opportunity develops over time, with experience and with knowledge. And when you don’t have the knowledge and experience, it can seem very difficult to come up with new ideas and to know whether that idea has market potential that can develop into a viable and sustainable business. Welcome to IDEATE – a course designed to overcome your existing barriers to idea generation and help you develop a “practice” in ideation that will serve you well beyond this course. 

Coming up with good business ideas can seem excruciatingly difficult. Ideation is challenging to most because 1) we don’t give ourselves enough time to generate new and valuable ideas, 2) we don’t continuously practice proven techniques, 3) we lack confidence in our creative abilities, and 4) we fear failure and rejection. As a result of these confounding challenges, the focus on just idea generation is too limiting. During this course we also focus on the development of your entrepreneurial mindset, your creative ability, and your courage to take action.

This course is not about the execution of ideas (there are many of courses for that), but rather about the generation of lots and lots of ideas with the associated mindset, skillset, and toolset to do so.

Prerequisite: (FME1000 and FME1001) or (EPS1000 and MOB1010)

EPS3531 Failure is Good: as Long as You Act, Learn, Build and Repeat  
4 Advanced Management Credits  

Among the building blocks of Entrepreneurship education, this course focuses on “failure”. Is it relevant? Should we even care? Is it important? Does it even matter? The assumption is YES, and we will examine this hypothesis by exploring academic journal articles, learning from case discussions and rom experiences of entrepreneurs including my/yourself. After all, Entrepreneurial Though and Action (ET&A) will not necessarily make any given effort more successful (at least no research so far). ET&A does not guarantee success; some (but not all) will fail. But knowing how and under what conditions “failure can be good”, employing ET&A will enable more individuals to try, try sooner, often fail sooner, try more times/multiple simultaneous ventures thus making personal success more likely and sooner. These in turn will increase the aggregate number of successful ventures for society as a whole. In essence, the course will shed positive light on the dark side of entrepreneurship. There is often good in failure-how so? There is often a better way to fail- how so? Entrepreneurship permeated Babson College; it is considered the liberal arts of business education. Keep an open mind, think outside of the box, re-evaluate view of failure and intellectually challenge your peers as well as yourself!  

Prerequisites: None

EPS3532 Global Entrepreneurship

(Formerly International Entrepreneurship)
4 General Credits

This Global Entrepreneurship course will explore the many dimensions and challenges of global venture creation and growth. The course offers a framework for understanding the entrepreneurial process in global contexts and exposes students to key issues and problems specific to international ventures. As the world becomes increasingly global, this course hopes to (1) encourage students to consider exploring entrepreneurial activities outside the domestic setting, (2) prepare them to see through a different set of lenses in order to better and more accurately identify vast global opportunities, and (3) equip them with various skills to better meet and tackle complex global challenges.

EPS3534 Scholar in Action Experience
2 General Credits

This two-credit course is designed to help individual students in the Bernon Scholar Program research, draft, and plan, execute, and evaluate a programmatic response to social or community need or concern for which the student is passionate.

This course is accomplished in five parts: exploration of issue, benchmarking and research of existing responses, planning of student's response, execution of that response and the student reflection on efficiency and effectiveness.

Enrollment by Permission Only

EPS3536 The Entrepreneurial Innovator  
4 Advanced Management Credits  

In the Entrepreneurial Innovator, transdisciplinary teams will identify multiple entrepreneurial innovation opportunities, through user engagement and extensive prototyping, over the course of two separate design sprints. This experimental, hands-on seminar will be held in the Weissman Foundry and offer broad exposure to prototyping processes and capabilities. The seminar is open to 3rd and 4th year Babson, Olin and Wellesley (BOW) community students. Innovation can be defined as creativity that is new and useful, combining elements of novelty and some compelling utility to an end user or target customer. Entrepreneurship considers ways to generate and monetize innovations, making value-creation profitable and sustainable. Working in transdisciplinary teams, BOW students roll up their sleeves to investigate and define unmet needs and innovation possibilities for two different user groups/customer groups. Participation in the seminar requires an action-orientation, frequent off-campus trips, user engagement, physical prototyping, as well as visual representations of user problems and innovative solutions.  

Prerequisites: Open to all Babson, Olin, Wellesley (BOW) community students in their 3rd or 4^th year of study

EPS3538 Growing Pains: The International Experience  
4 Advanced Management Credits   

We hear a lot about the growing pains of entrepreneurial ventures, but sometimes these pains are hard to understand unless you've been on the inside. This course will put you inside an international growing venture as part of an online consulting team that incudes students from Babson and from Manizales, Colombia. Together you will help a growing venture solve a real growing pain. This is a four-credit course managed and taught online by a faculty member from Babson College and a faculty member from the Autonoma University in Manizales, Colombia. The course provides important lessons on the major challenges that companies face while growing - and it provides students from Babson and Autonoma the opportunity to work together in teams to apply the lessons in a consulting project for a growing business in Manizales. The student teams will also contribute to and participate in cultural lessons about Manizales and the US, especially Boston. By application.  

Prerequisites: Junior or Senior status (Application Required)

EPS3539: Cultivating Entrepreneurial Youth Leaders

4 Advanced Management Credits

Through the Cultivating Entrepreneurial Youth Leaders course, Babson undergraduate students will learn how they can help middle and high school students develop stronger agency, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and empower young changemakers in Costa Rica. The course provides Babson students with the opportunity to learn key elements of teaching entrepreneurship and serving as coaches for youth, using a proven curriculum developed by Babson’s Youth Impact Lab, EPIC (Entrepreneurship Program for Innovators and Changemakers). EPIC is a youth entrepreneurship program that teaches social entrepreneurship skills framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) to youth to increase their resiliency and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. EPIC is designed to help middle school and high school students understand what it means to be a social entrepreneur, empowering them to make positive change in their lives, communities, and the world.

EPIC balances entrepreneurial concepts with social-emotional skills, or “soft skills.” This unique combination, framed by the UNSDGs, helps youth develop grit, resiliency, a growth mindset, social awareness, social entrepreneurial intention, critical thinking, and self-reflection skills that can:
• Increase high school graduation rates
• Improve academic achievement
• Strengthen employability
• Raise earning potential
• Decrease mental health issues, drug and alcohol use, incarceration rates

​Prerequisites: (FME1000 and FME 1001) or (MOB1010 and EPS1000)
 

EPS3540 Raising Money
4 General Credits

Students must be Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors to take this course

This class concentrates on how early-stage companies raise money to fund their launch and growth.  Students will gain knowledge of the asset classes available for early stage and acquisition funding (both equity and debt). These include money from family and friends, angels (both individual and angel groups), VC funds, and debt from venture debt funds and special commercial banks. Much of the class is taught from the entrepreneur's perspective, but it will also cover the dynamics of starting and running a VC fund since many of the investor classes rely heavily on the VC when making investment decisions. Case material, lectures, frequent exercises/presentations and guest speakers will provide future entrepreneurs with a detailed understanding of how investors think, analyze and behave. This understanding is critical so that entrepreneurs can understand the deals they make with investors and how to manage the process to a mutually beneficial conclusion.

Prerequisites: Sophomores, Juniors or Seniors Class standing

EPS3541 Grow Your Venture
4 Credits

To enroll, instructor permission is needed. Email Mary Gale for an application: mgale@babson.edu

This course is designed for undergraduate students who are actively pursuing a venture that has already launched. The course will support students in their active quest to achieve major development milestones in all aspects of their businesses, including but not limited to, products and services, revenue, organization, geographical expansion, distribution, partnerships, funding, profitability/sustainability, pivots, investor pitching, and social initiatives.

For more information, click here

Prerequisites: FME or (MOB1000 and MOB1010) and permission from instructor (application and interview-based)

EPS3542: Innovation Ecosystems of Spain

4 advanced management credits (Elective Abroad)

Startup Ecosystems of Spain is a study abroad course designed to introduce Babson undergraduate students to the diverse Spanish economy with emphasis on the regional innovation ecosystems of Madrid and Barcelona. It examines the challenges that Spain has faced in recovering from the global financial crisis and evolving after the global pandemic COVID-19. It involves a multidisciplinary orientation at Babson followed by a 10-day study tour to Madrid and Barcelona. Students will meet on-site with executives from some of the top startup and multinational organizations in Spain.

Prerequisite: Application through Glavin Office

EPS3543: Entrepreneurial Opportunities in AI

4 advanced managements credits

This experiential seminar explores the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential for creating new business opportunities. Students will learn about cutting-edge technologies in AI, such as machine learning, computer vision, neural networks, and natural language processing. We will also cover recent developments in the AI industry and the impact of venture capital investment on AI startups. Throughout the course, students will have the opportunity to experiment with AI technologies and develop their own innovative projects. By the end of the course, students will have a deep understanding of the current state of AI and the potential for new business opportunities in this field. This course is ideal for students interested in the intersection of entrepreneurship and technology.

EPS3544 Entrepreneurship in Context: South Korea

4 Advanced Management Credits

The course is designed to provide a global perspective on entrepreneurship by providing students with opportunity to experience Korean culture and learn more about entrepreneurship in South Korea. South Korea, known for innovation, grew their economy so quickly that it is referred as the “Miracle on the Hangang River.” Korea is an interesting context for entrepreneurship because of the mixture of tradition and innovation. With cultural immersion activities, visits to new ventures, accelerators and companies with emerging innovations, Babson students will gain an understanding of societal, cultural, technological, and economic trends in Korea. As part of this experiential experience, students will practice Entrepreneurial Thought & Action to propose a solution to societal problem.

EPS 3546: Cultivating the Next Generation of Entrepreneurial Leaders through Education

4 advanced elective credit

This four-credit experiential course is for creative changemakers committed to using their entrepreneurial mindset to advance entrepreneurship education for youth in communities worldwide. Through the course, students will better understand Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought and Action, experiential pedagogy, application of the entrepreneurial mindset, and curriculum design and delivery. They will learn how these methodologies support the creation of social and economic value for well- and under-resourced communities.  

By the end of the course, students will have developed and led unique, age-appropriate, culturally sensitive, and inclusive entrepreneurship education programs. They will be prepared to use their knowledge to explore further developing future entrepreneurship educational programs locally and globally.    

Prerequisite: (FME1000 and FME1001) or (MOB1010 and EPS1000)

EPS3551 Entrepreneurial Families
(Formerly Family Entrepreneurship Amplifier)
4 General Elective Credits

If you come from a family business or have an interest in starting a business with a family member or members, this course is designed for you.  The course is like no other offered at Babson or elsewhere in the world.  In this course, you will work directly with your family as part of the learning process.  Together you will learn about how and why families are responsible for over 75% of global entrepreneurial activity and how your family can be more successful in its entrepreneurial efforts. You will learn about succession, ownership structures, family business strategy, family and business governance, conflict management and communication. You will strengthen your ability to work with your family, build your confidence and increase your family’s understanding of the value you can bring to the business.  You will also learn from your peers and their families establishing relationships that will endure long after you graduate.  If you know that you want to lead the family business, this course will provide a foundation for your future.  If you are uncertain about joining the family business, this course will help provide clarity for your decision.  If you have no desire to join the family business and prefer creating your own venture or opportunity, this course will help you to leverage the knowledge and resources within your family in order to increase the likelihood of your success.

To get the most out of this class, students should have a connection to a family entrepreneurial activity, such as a family business, a family non-profit venture, a family-related start-up, etc. Students with family businesses or other entrepreneurial ventures of all sizes, ranging from very small to large in scale, are encouraged to register.

For more information, please watch this video.

Prerequisites: FME or equivalent

EPS 3580 Marketing for Entrepreneurs 
(General Credit)  

This course provides an in-depth study of entrepreneurial marketing strategies for the 21st century. It examines how start-up and small/medium-size companies reach the marketplace and sustain their businesses, within highly-competitive industries. Recognition is given to the need of management to operate flexibly, make maximum effective use of scarce resources in terms of people, equipment and funds, and the opportunities that exist within new and established market niches.  Classes focus on a combination of brief lectures, extensive case study analyses and a term-long group assignment involving student-generated entrepreneurial product or service offerings.  

Prerequisites: SME

EPS4510 Entrepreneurial Finance

(Formerly EPS3511)
4 General Credits

How much money should I raise? Who should I raise it from and how? What do I do with the money once I have it? This course focuses on the various aspects of funding and managing entrepreneurial ventures through the various stages of business growth. The class will utilize videos, cases, simulation and experiential learning techniques to explain how to finance the entrepreneurial firm, investment analysis and decision making, and managing company finances through growth, crisis and harvesting. Frequent guests ranging from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, banking and legal professionals will bring the entrepreneurial experience to life in this course which utilizes the “flipped classroom” methodology of teaching.

Prerequisites: (SME2001 and SME2002 and SME2011 and SME2012 and SME2021 and SME2031) or (ACC2002 and OIM2001 and MKT2000 and OIM2000 and FIN2000 and ECN2002)

EPS4515 Design Justice Studio

(Formerly Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship (ADE))
4 General Credits

Students must be Juniors or Seniors to take this course

This course engages students in community-based, participatory design and action. Teams partner with communities and organizations to achieve positive social and environmental impact with a strong justice framing, working for change in areas like air quality, community development, food processing, global health, and rights and privacy (addressing mass incarceration) over several semesters.

Guided by an experienced faculty advisor, teams make change through design for impact, social entrepreneurship, community organizing, participatory research, political advocacy and other practices. All teams practice social benefit analysis, theory of change, assumption testing, cross-cultural engagement tools, dissemination of innovation methods, and ethical norms.

Students regularly engage stakeholders in inclusive processes, in person and virtually, to observe, strategize, plan, co-design, prototype, test, and implement approaches supported by a significant project budget and student fundraising. There are often opportunities to travel locally, nationally, or internationally to work with partners.

Students are exposed to mindsets and dispositions for working with integrity and responsibility in their stakeholders’ contexts through guided exercises, case studies, guest speakers, readings, and reflections. Students learn and apply changemaking practices through project work and gain essential experience building relationships across difference and developing their own self- and cultural awareness.

For more information watch this video.

This course is part of the BOW collaboration, offered jointly between Babson and Olin, and open to

Wellesley students. Prerequisites: FME1000, Junior standing (students must be juniors or seniors to take the course).

Prerequisites: FME1000

EPS4520 Innovation Odyssey: Silicon Valley Insider
4 General Credits

Silicon Valley and the surrounding Bay Area is known for being the foundation of many iconic companies from startups to some of the most recognized technology brands in the world.   The area brings some of the most innovative people together to collaborate, innovate, and build entrepreneurial empires.  While entrepreneurship can be seen throughout the world, many developing entrepreneurial ecosystems are inspired by the beginnings of technology revolutions that have driven the world economy and were started in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area.

This immersive travel course is designed to give Babson students the chance to learn about how Silicon Valley started, the people who keep it going today, and how they can think about the kinds of companies they want to join or start as their careers develop.  They will also meet and experience some of the unique places to explore in the Bay Area. Over the last decade, the epicenter of entrepreneurial activity in the region has expanded to San Francisco.  So, this trip will include both Silicon Valley and the tech hub in San Francisco.

The course will begin with some prep-work during the fall semester prior to the trip.  It will continue through the spring as you work on an experiential learning project, concluding with presentations to the innovative nonprofit organizations students engage with during the trip.

This will be an experiential course filled with:

• Meetings with some of the innovators of today and yesterday

• Meeting all types of entrepreneurs and innovators thinking about, imagining and creating the future

• Engaging in learning and experiences that exemplify what it might be like to live in the Silicon Valley – Bay Area innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.

• Creating a class blog to tell our trip story

• Learn to use tools that can help you imagine and strategize for the future

EPS4521 Financing Start-ups: From Seed to Public Offering
4 General Credits

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the financial journey required to take a start-up from zero to a publicly traded company, focusing on the various financing options and strategies along the way. While only about 1% of start-ups successfully make it to a public listing, the financial decisions they make at each stage significantly impact whether companies go public, get acquired, or fail. This course examines those decisions, with particular attention to the later stage financing rounds, include the IPO process, and alternative methods of going public.

The course is divided into two main sections:

1. Early-Stage Financing (1/3 of the course) – Students will explore the early funding mechanisms that allow start-ups to scale, from bootstrapping and angel investing to securing seed capital and Series A/B rounds. Special emphasis will be placed on understanding how entrepreneurs and investors navigate risk, negotiate terms, and structure deals that balance short-term needs with long-term growth objectives.

2. The Process of Going Public (2/3 of the course) – The second portion of the course focuses on the various routes to take a company public. While the traditional Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the most well-known path, this section also covers alternative options such as direct listings, reverse mergers, and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). Students will learn why companies choose to go public, how to assess the right time to take this step, and the financial and regulatory preparations necessary for a successful transition to the public market.

Key topics will include the role of investment banks, understanding the underwriting process, determining pricing strategies, and managing investor relations. Students will also evaluate the potential risks and rewards of different exit strategies, including mergers and acquisitions (M&As), many of which, unfortunately, fail to yield positive returns or may occur for strategic reasons like “saving face.”

Throughout the course, students will gain hands-on experience through case studies, financial modeling exercises, and insights from guest speakers working in venture capital, investment banking, and corporate finance. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to advise start-ups on the best ways to finance their growth, whether through venture rounds or by taking their company public.

For More Information please watch this video.

Key Topics:

· Early-stage funding options: bootstrapping, angel investing, venture capital

· Negotiating terms, equity distribution, and ownership in early rounds

· Scaling a business: financial strategies for sustainable growth

· Going public: why, when, and how to transition to the public market

· Alternative routes to going public: direct listings, SPACs, reverse mergers

· Risk management and the role of financial institutions in public offerings

· Understanding regulatory requirements, investor relations, and market timing

· Assessing M&A opportunities and recognizing when they don’t lead to meaningful returns

This course is ideal for aspiring entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investment bankers, or anyone interested in understanding the financial mechanics and strategic decision-making behind start-ups’ paths to public markets.

Prerequisites: (FME1000 and FME10001) or (EPS1000 and MOB1010) and FIN 2000

EPS4527 EPS By Design: Economic, Social, Environmental Challenges   
4 Advanced Management Credits   

How would you change the world if you could? This course is designed for entrepreneurs who want to learn and explore opportunities aimed directly at improving/benefitting the economic, social, and environmental challenges we face today. Design Thinking methodology, user-oriented collaborative design, and key Entrepreneurship concepts and action methodologies will be used to solve economic, social, environmental/climate problems.  Examples of opportunity spaces include renewable energy, eco-friendly Fashion, Nature’s Design (Biomimicry), carbon-positive construction, increasing manufacturing efficiencies, protecting wildlife, food production, waste management, managing impacts of climate change on communities, and building a sustainable future, etc.   This Course encourages students to focus on challenges you are passionate about, to give these problems definition, and to build solutions that are well-defined. The Course is experiential. Students have the opportunity to engage with multiple stakeholders to motivate their entrepreneurial approaches and solutions.    Guest Entrepreneurs, including notable Babson/Olin/Wellesley Alumnae, who have developed innovations in the economic, social, and environmental/climate change opportunities spaces will share their venture experiences with the Class.   

Open to Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors of Babson College, Olin College, Wellesley College  

EPS4530 Launch Your Venture

(Formerly Living the Entrepreneurial Experience)
4 Advanced Management Credits

This hands-on course is designed for undergraduate students who have an entrepreneurial opportunity that they are ready to launch. Students will engage in Entrepreneurial Thought and Action to develop and execute key steps to launch their businesses. During this course, students will do secondary research and primary research where they will engage experts, stakeholders, analogous/complementary ventures, and investors/donors to enrich their understanding of the entrepreneurship ecosystem and test their ideas.

Course readings and cases will provide supplemental background that students will use as they take steps to start their venture. The core of the course is "action-based learning" which will result in pivoting the venture based on information gained in experimenting and testing assumptions. Students will set their milestones to move their venture forward based on where they are in the entrepreneurial process. The course has multiple deliverables related to key actions and decisions in marketing, finance, customer service and operations, all designed to move entrepreneurs closer to launching. Students are expected to work independently as well as interdependently with other entrepreneurs in the course.

Contact time for this course will be split between in-class sessions and out-of-class individual meetings with the instructor.

Prerequisites: FME1001 or EPS1000

EPS4530 (formerly EPS3530), EPS4525, EPS4531, EPS4532, EPS4533 and EPS4534 are equivalent courses. Students can only take one of these courses.