Focus Your MBA in Entrepreneurship
WashU Olin’s top-ranked entrepreneurship program works because students are challenged to do more. By enrolling in Olin’s MBA entrepreneurship platform, you learn to fall in love with a customer’s problem, how to do something about it and how to leverage our entrepreneurial ecosystem in St. Louis and around the world.
Entrepreneurship Fellowship
The Entrepreneurship Fellowship is aimed at students seeking to influence business and society in areas including sustainability/environmentalism, social responsibility, global impact, and equity, diversity and inclusion. Fellows receive full tuition remission, housing within the Lewis Collaborative, networking opportunities, one-on-one mentorship and more. Download this information sheet (PDF) or read more.
With more than two dozen courses dedicated to teaching the entrepreneurial spirit, and a host of hands-on opportunities, we give you the tools to solve vexing business problems.
Available courses include opportunities to:
Workshop your own original idea
- The Hatchery
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship
- Social Entrepreneurship
Embed with a startup
- CELect: St. Louis, San Francisco, New York City and International
- The Metrics Clinic
- The Marketing Clinic
Consult with investors
- Venture Capital Methods & Practice
- Private Equity Methods & Practice
- Acquisition Entrepreneurship
Innovate within larger entities
- Managing the Innovation Process
- Innovating for Defense
Change the world
- Social Innovation
- Taylor Community Consulting Program
- Sustainable Development and Conversation through Entrepreneurial Collaboration: Madagascar
- Innovating for Healthcare
Whether you’re concentrating on commercial entrepreneurship or social entrepreneurship, together we can chart your path from idea to business plan—and beyond.
The path is there for you
This program exposes you to entrepreneurship and innovation around the world as part of your global immersion. After that, you’ll experience:
Summer, year one. Values-Based, Data-Driven Decision-Making forms the foundation of your Olin experience.
Fall, year one. The Entrepreneurial Platform seminar. Exposure to guest speakers from all aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Spring, year one. Introduction to Entrepreneurship or Social Entrepreneurship. Learn the fundamentals.
Summer, year two. Apply for Olin’s MBA Entrepreneurial Stipend—$5,000 to work on your startup over the summer with a primary goal of customer discovery. Pair this opportunity with an internship at a larger company.
Fall, year two. Enroll in Olin’s famous Hatchery course. Start pitching ideas on day one. Form teams. Take your ideas as far as possible over the course of the semester—right up to the Olin Cup Business Pitch Competition.
Spring, year two. Launch your business while still in school. Apply to enter The League, our new accelerator course. Compete for more than $100,000 worth of prizes in various entrepreneurship competitions. Pitch to the WashU Venture Network of angel investors.
By the end of our program, you’re prepared to work in corporate innovation, small business, family business, nonprofits or consulting. Your skills even scale to venture capital and private equity firms. And, yes, if launching a commercial or social startup is your goal, you’re ready for that, too.
Platform Director: Doug Villhard, professor of practice in entrepreneurship (learn more about Doug on
the Olin Blog)
Club/Organization: Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Association (EVCA)
MBA Platform Requirements: 15.5 credits (9.5 foundation credits, 3 experiential learning credits and 3 concentration credits). Read more about the
entrepreneurship concentrations (PDF).
The program is aimed at students seeking to influence business and society in areas including sustainability/environmentalism, social responsibility, global impact, and inclusion, diversity and equity.
