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Technology Ventures

From Idea to Enterprise

Chapter 7: The Business Plan

How are ventures actually formed and what is the role of the business plan?

Entrepreneurs respond to attractive opportunities by forming new ventures. In this chapter, we consider the five-step process for establishing a new enterprise. One particularly noteworthy step in the process is the development of a story and business plan. The story is a compelling synopsis of why this venture is needed at this moment of time and how it can achieve success. We then detail the task of writing a business plan, which is a significant and challenging effort for entrepreneurs.

To see these talks in their entirety or to access related materials, go to Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner

Other Materials

Business Plans that Work - Timmons, Zacharakis, & Spinelli Plans That Work arms entrepreneurs and small business owners with an easy-to-follow template for writing persuasive business plans, along with proven models that can be used to analyze potential business opportunities from initial idea to viable venture. This value-packed book will show both entrepreneurs and current business owners how to:

• Determine what to include in each plan, why, and for whom
• Recognize and avoid common pitfalls in the process
• Use the renowned "Timmons Model" to analyze potential business opportunities

How to Write a Great Business Plan A great business plan is one that focuses on a series of questions which relate to the four critical factors critical to the success of every new venture: the people, the opportunity, the context, and the possibilities for both risk and reward. This is a condensed version of Sahlman's longer article in book 'The Entrepreneurial Venture'

Frank Moyes - Colorado Leeds School of Business Professor Frank Moyes has a number of useful business plans templates and references available on his web site. There also many complete business plans from a breadth of different industries that can be leveraged as additional examples or case readings.

Financial Modeling for Startup Companies

Peter Kent of Insight Business Tools provides a slide deck on how and why financial models can help entrepreneurs in the business planning process.

Introduction

Book Contents

• Table of Contents
• ...................................
• Part I: Venture Opportunity, Concept, and Strategy
• Ch 6: Risk and Return
• Ch 7: The Business Plan
• Ch 8: Types of Ventures
• Ch 9: Knowledge, Learning, and Design
• Ch 10: Legal Formation and Intellectual Property
• Part III: Detailed Functional Planning for the Venture
• Part IV: Financing and Building the Venture
• Chapter Video Clips

Additional Resources

• Sample Syllabi
• Authors Blog
• Entrepreneurship Blogs
• Testimonials
• Schools Using this Textbook
• Entrepreneurship Corner

A new student’s guide to Stanford’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, part 2

This article is the second of two installments in a series on Stanford’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Read part 1 here .

Stanford’s vast entrepreneurial ecosystem, a network of courses, programs, accelerators and student groups, deliver hands-on entrepreneurial education and support the creation, growth and funding of startups and ventures — brand new companies or businesses.

As a guide for the uninitiated, The Stanford Daily interviewed Stanford undergraduate and graduate students who have experienced the most popular of these resources for their insight and perspective.

While this series of articles aims to present the most popular and well-known resources that Stanford offers, more exhaustive lists are maintained by the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network and Cardinal Ventures . Course offering lists include those maintained by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and Graduate School of Business .

In addition to quarter-long courses, Stanford’s entrepreneurial ecosystem includes cohort-based, structured programs designed to significantly deepen students’ skills in entrepreneurship. Three leading programs are the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), Stanford Ignite and Design for Extreme Affordability . Each respectively come from one the three main entrepreneurially involved schools: management science (the Department of Management Science and Engineering), business (the Graduate School of Business) and design (the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, or “d.school”).

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering and is run by the Department of Management Science and Engineering (MS&E). It encompasses courses, programs and speaker series, and runs four selective year-long fellowship programs : Mayfield Fellows, Threshold Venture Fellows, Accel Leadership and Peak Fellows — ranging from 12 to 24 student admits each. These programs seek to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in students within a tight-knit, motivated cohort. It also hosts a popular one-unit course that is also open to the public: Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders’ Seminar (ETL). Its weekly line-up of speakers frequently includes C-level executives from Silicon Valley, startup founders, vice presidents of organizations and venture capitalists. Venture capitalists are investors in startups that provide funding after critically appraising them, which includes hearing the founders “pitch” their plans and ideas and interviewing them.

As a 2020 Threshold Venture Fellow (TVF), Mallika Khullar M.S. ’21 thoroughly enjoyed the program, from the people, discussions and doors it opened. The program is run by professor Tina Seelig and Threshold Ventures Partner Heidi Roizen. “People in the cohort are generally extremely driven and motivated; everybody comes with a rich background in something different and the cohort usually features a healthy mix of students from all over the world,” she wrote as part of an interview with The Stanford Daily. “So the discussions throughout the year are fueled with very diverse and usually informed opinions,” she added.

The fellows are connected to a strong mentorship network. “Everybody is paired up with an [ex-TVF] mentor [and] an industry mentor, like a [venture capitalist] or an entrepreneur, or somebody who is from a bigger organization. We [had] events where all of these people were present,” Khullar said. Her industry mentor was a board member at several startups in Silicon Valley, and whose advice she found “extremely valuable … detailed and concrete.”

The cohort of 12 met twice a week — once on Tuesdays at Selig or Roizen’s houses, involving brainstorming sessions and team building activities over meals, and once on Wednesdays after watching the ETL seminar to dig deep into their entrepreneurial themes. “We bonded a lot over poignant discussions; some of us opened up and were extremely vulnerable with each other. We are all still in touch and help each other out through times of need — till date!” she said. For her, one of the most valuable parts of the program is the network she now has, with industry experts, TVF alumni, mentors and classmates.

However, TVF, along with the three fellowship programs in STVP, is selective. The application process has two rounds: a written application and a group discussion, with the latter stage having about a 40% acceptance rate. “For the written application, since it’s an entrepreneurial leadership fellowship, it’s important to show them that you’ve got an entrepreneurial spirit and/or experience building your own impactful solutions to the world’s problems,” she said. “For the group discussion, Heidi and Tina are the very best. They’re great conversationalists and the group discussions are fun and open-ended. Just be yourself, be authentic, tell all the compelling stories you have and try and build a connection with the other people in your group discussion as well as with Heidi and Tina.”

Additionally, though the TVF program is focused on developing entrepreneurial leaders, the application doesn’t require having a startup idea in mind. Rather, “the application form is very heavily focused on you as a person, what kind of background you come from and what kind of stories you have to tell, so you don’t necessarily have to have an idea in mind, nor do you have to have startup experience as such,” she said. “You just need to know what it means to want to start something which might have impact.”

The Stanford Ignite Executive Education program is another cohort-based program, but with a focus on creating ventures and developing new products. Run by the Graduate School of Business (GSB), it takes place over eight weeks (part-time) or four weeks (full-time). Each cohort has 60 to 80 people, with half from the student body and half being working professionals. The program teaches participants how to formulate, develop and commercialize new ideas, touches on all areas of business operations and has an experiential learning component where teams collaborate on a venture project. As a course taught by the M.B.A. faculty, it is aimed at professionals with a bachelor’s degree and prior experience with advanced degrees preferred, or graduate students in non-business fields, rather than undergraduates without experience or business majors.

Ryanne Ramadan M.S. ’21, a member of the January 2020 cohort, who worked on an education-sector project to prepare students for careers of the future, described it as a “mini M.B.A. experience.” She pointed to the content, connections and experience as highlights. “We formed teams and worked on projects throughout the course of the eight weeks. As we’re learning these fundamentals, we had to build a pitch, and at the end of it, we got to pitch to venture capitalists and get feedback on our presentation,” she said. “So it’s kind of like you’re learning the books, but at the same time you’re applying the material.”

Each session covered a different aspect of entrepreneurship, as well as primers on core business school classes such as marketing, finance, accounting, strategy and operations. “All the class courses were taught by GSB faculty, and they were the best — they were super highly specialized in their field, and you could go up to them after and ask them questions,” she said of the teaching team. “They would lecture super interesting stuff and give you resources if you wanted to dive in more.” Ramadan said that they also did a lot of case studies — a popular business school teaching method which typically summarizes real business scenarios to illustrate the application of business theory and help students develop business acumen.

Participants can have a venture idea beforehand, but don’t have to. “On the first day, everybody pitches their idea, and people vote, and then based on that, you’re paired into groups, and either your idea is selected or it’s not,” Ramadan explained. “The project I worked on was totally from scratch. Another [participant] had a biotech company — she already had it running — but they helped her grow it and think outside the box and really develop a more solidified business plan over a period of time.”

A year on, her cohort, made up of masters, Ph.D. and postdoctoral participants as well as highly accomplished industry professionals, has a camaraderie that is still going strong. “All of us are still in the [same] group chat,” she said.

As with all other Executive Education programs from the GSB, Ignite continues to be offered during the pandemic with virtual instruction, but maintains its immersive and comprehensive nature, generous access to the teaching team and ability to facilitate strong connections through activities like team building and organized coffee chats.

The Design for Extreme Affordability program from the d.school, unlike other startup courses and entrepreneurial programs, partners with organizations based in developing countries for immediate impact, and may lead to student startup ventures. It is a two-quarter program (across winter and spring) where students learn to design products and services that will impact the lives of the world’s poorest citizens, working with international partnering organizations to implement their designs. The program admits 10 teams of four students each, and has a 40% acceptance rate. Partner organizations come from developing countries across the world, including Ghana, Tanzania, Costa Rica, the Philippines and Nepal. Over the spring break, two students from each team also travel to the project sites to meet with their partner organizations and conduct needfinding on the ground. Following the course, teams can continue at the Social Entrepreneurship Lab, a center associated with the program, which provides funding, space and mentorship over the summer, after which teams that continue typically become revenue-generating startups and apply for venture capital funding.

Aishwarya Venkatramani M.S. ’21 was part of the 2020 cohort and worked with a Ghana-based organization to design a healthcare wristband and app. The program was a “game changer” for her time at Stanford. “What I intended to do at Stanford and what I ended up doing changed because of Design for Extreme Affordability, in a good way,” she said. “I came in as a Ph.D. student wanting to do research [but] in the back of my mind I always wanted to do something [that could] be taken into a real-world setting.” During the course, she said, “you go out to the community that you’re designing for … I was particularly interested in taking healthcare ideas into a developing country, and it was a great opportunity for that.”

The beginning of the program starts with learning and applying the design thinking methodology while getting to know partner organizations and classmates. After the first two weeks, students list their preferences of what projects they want to work on, the team members they want to work with and whether they are interested in traveling to their partner sites abroad. The first quarter is more content-focused, while the second quarter sees teams more independently directing their activities as they continue to work with their partner organizations. For the most part, it’s also up to the teams to determine the pace of interactions with their organization. “We usually reach out to them after we realize we want to do interviews with people on the ground or doctors that we want to work with,” Venkatramani said. “They [the teaching team] also do a session in class on how to work with your partner [organization], how to work with them across time zones and what is a professional way of talking to them.”

The program, being selective, involves a written application followed by a group activity interview. For Venkatramani, in the group activity which spanned an evening, students were put in teams of four to five and provided a set of materials to build something the teaching team specified. According to the website, students are then selected based on “passion for the class, proclivity to make things and prior experience in addition to their discipline.”

Venkatramani says that this course is relevant for anyone interested in design and its real-world applications. “A lot of companies have come out of it, they’ve incorporated, [some] with a couple of hundred employees,” she adds. There is also a large community of designers, investors, legal counselors and industry experts to help with student ventures for program alumni. Other similar programs which can also lead to startups and institutional funding, albeit without partnerships with developing world organizations, include one- and two-quarter project course sequences from The Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign .

One year on, Venkatramani is still in touch with their partner organization in Ghana. “We still talk to them once every other week, and exchange emails pretty often,” she said. “They are our customer, so they’re paying for what we’ve developed, and they’re funding us to travel to Ghana.”

Accelerators/hubs

Accelerators are fixed-term, cohort-based programs led by seasoned entrepreneurs that help startups establish a strong business foundation and fast-track their growth. Hubs loosely refer to networks of aspiring and experienced entrepreneurs and resources. Of these, the Stanford Venture Studio (SVS), StartX and Cardinal Ventures are the most widely utilized on campus.

Stanford Venture Studio , from the Graduate School of Business, is an entrepreneurship hub that supports students exploring venture ideas with an extensive network, discounts and free resources like for coding credits used for computer science projects, 24/7 access to coworking space and advice and mentoring from industry experts. They also have mixers to help people form founding teams. Admission is non-competitive — it is guaranteed for any Stanford-affiliated students that submit an application form.

For Chelikavada, the Stanford Venture Studio’s community through its email chain and office hours have been invaluable for making progress on his own venture. “People who are subscribed to [the email chain] are current students, alums, founders, investors, VCs,” he said. Any time someone posts in the group, everyone that’s subscribed to the group receives that message. “It’s very powerful,” he said. “When I posted about an idea that I was working on, I had a bunch of [venture capitalists] email me [back]. And they’re like, ‘Wait, this sounds interesting. Do you want to talk?’ I [also] had a YC [Y Combinator, an accelerator] interview, and I found people to mock interview [with] me through Venture Studios.”

Ramadan, who also signed up with the Stanford Venture Studio, agrees. “I think the biggest thing is that it connects you to a bunch of other entrepreneurs … [with the] email chain, if I have any questions, I literally just pop it in this chain and I get like four or five responses back and vice versa. People just kind of ask for help, and this extends beyond graduation,” she said.

The venture studio also offers frequent office hours with industry experts. “For example,” Chelikavada said, “there are people that have done it before, [such as] someone that started a massive company, and that they’re an expert in the [business-to-business] space.” He added, “they’re always helpful, not just to get advice on product or marketing, but also to build relationships with these people.” With very specialized experts, he would sign up for the office hours on the topics he needed help with. “I’d talk through any challenges that I’m facing and how I’m attempting to solve them and see if there’s a better way to solve them,” he said. “Also, if you [build a strong rapport] with them, it’s a good professional relationship to have — then you can go to them even outside of office hours,” he added.

Two other popular, albeit selective, forums to engage with the entrepreneurial crowd at Stanford are StartX and Cardinal Ventures . Both have accelerator programs that are equity-free, meaning that they do not take any shares of startup companies that they work with, an otherwise common practice for accelerators.

StartX is a non-profit Stanford-affiliated entrepreneurial network that is well-known for its Student in Residence (SIR) accelerator program, specifically for Stanford students, which includes a $9,000 scholarship and six months of support. More broadly, according to its website, its network encompasses “1200+ serial entrepreneurs, industry experts, tenured Stanford professors and 700+ well-funded growth stage startups,” to which access by application is open to Stanford-affiliated teams, including alumni and professors. Both of these programs are competitive, with an acceptance rate of around 8%.

Cardinal Ventures is an equity-free student-run accelerator for Stanford students. It runs a 10-week long program twice a year, in the fall and spring quarters, for 12 to 20 admitted teams who may be anywhere from the idea stage up to seriously seeking institutional funding. They provide an extensive entrepreneurship curriculum as well as a community of founders, mentors, angel investors and legal and financial expertise.

When Mackanic was launching Anthro Energy, he took part in StartX’s Student in Residence program in 2020, its full-time program in winter 2021 and also Cardinal Venture’s 2020 cohort. For him, the demo days, path to funding and mentorship in both programs were stand-out points. Demo days, or “demonstration days,” are common finales to accelerator programs, where the startups pitch their idea, progress and business plan to a room full of investors with the hopes of getting funding from them.

“Both have demo days that allowed us to connect with investors, which was crucial for fundraising,” he said. “My Cardinal Ventures mentor was actually one of the investors in my company, which is awesome, and my StartX mentor helped me get one of the big grants that I got.” Mackanic successfully raised a pre-seed round from these investors. “Pre-seed” and “seed” refer to the very first stages of funding in which investors provide funds to support the startup until it can generate profits on its own or is ready for further investments.

As for the experience, Mackanic notes that it’s more self-driven than a structured program. “Cardinal Ventures and StartX are a little bit more of taking it at your own speed and taking advantage of a pool of resources. So there’s not as many requirements or one-on-one meetings — it’s mostly about accessing a really powerful network and attending different seminars and workshops and things like that,” he said. “For all of these programs, you get out what you put in, which can be transformative for a company that puts in the effort.”

While both StartX and Cardinal Ventures have accelerator programs and strong founder communities, Cardinal Ventures is a community of student founders, while StartX skews slightly later stage, meaning that it accepts more mature, bigger startups than those just starting out. As a result, StartX has a significant intake of graduated founders, professors and professionals.

“Cardinal Ventures is more built for people who are excited about something but maybe not decided on it yet, and just helping them get further down that journey on deciding,” Cardinal Ventures co-founder Olivia Moore M.B.A. ’21 explained. “We thought there was a bit of a gap between all of the amazing classes that help you find a team and settle on an idea, and then actually having the conviction to drop out and raise money and forgo your summer internship at [any number of prestigious firms] to work on your company instead,” she said. “The goal is to provide an educational experience for student founders that would get them closer to going out to market if they actually wanted to go full steam ahead on the company,” she added.

In contrast, StartX is targeted to founders who have a clear goal. “For applying to StartX, I recommend having a compelling reason for why you are pursuing a startup and a clear vision for how you will build or already have a world class team,” Mackanic said. StartX companies also tend to raise funds anywhere from the seed stage to more mature stages commonly called series A or B rounds, while Cardinal Ventures companies mostly raise funds for pre-seed and seed rounds.

For Mackanic, both communities were helpful. “StartX is impressive because it has a network of full-time founders and people that are out of school, whereas for Cardinal Ventures, everyone in the cohort is currently in school,” he explained. “I really liked being able to interact with other kinds of students that were going through similar challenges and similar experiences as me, but then StartX with the more experienced network was also very valuable to help me solve pretty complex issues.”

As for what makes a successful team, Moore points to those that were really passionate, dedicated and excited about the problem space they were building in. “They all had a unique, elegant insight in how to make a compelling product there,” she said. Of Cardinal Ventures’ best alumni companies, she notes that “they started with a core vision or mission of the impact they wanted to see in the world. Maybe the specifics of how they went about building that changed even over the course of the program — but even now, three, four, five years later, the company is still working toward the same goal.”

Student groups

Stanford has over a dozen student groups for entrepreneurship, from broad-based groups such as BASES and ASES , to groups catering to many different causes (social, healthcare, space, venture capital), diversity groups (Latin American or women) and majors (computer science, business, law, energy) according to the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network website. The largest and oldest of which is BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students), which encompasses all causes, diversity groups and majors.

BASES has over 70 directors and over 5,000 general members on their weekly mailing list . While its leadership is only open to undergraduates, all events are open to the public, including graduate students who often participate in them. Events are hosted on average once or twice a week. According to co-president of BASES Renee Li B.S. ’21, three of their flagship programs are the Frosh Battalion, 100K Challenge and Startup Career Fair.

“The Frosh Battalion [is] aimed at giving freshmen the opportunity to learn about the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Stanford and beyond,” Li explained of the competitive program, which accepted 16 out of about 130 applicants this year. “Mostly we focus on the ecosystem in the Valley: during non-Covid times, we offer treks where we take the freshmen to visit startups and VCs around here and offer them the opportunity to learn about how investors make their decisions and how startups operate, with first-hand experience.”

The 100K challenge is a signature business plan pitch competition where teams with at least one Stanford affiliate can apply, across four categories: consumer, enterprise, health/medical and social impact, with a total prize pool of $100,000. The support that teams can expect comes directly from Silicon Valley. “We have a list of hundreds of VCs that have been very supportive of our Challenge competition over the past years, and we reach out to them every year for their expertise and during the judging process. And a lot of them have been nice enough to offer office hours and workshops for our competing teams as well,” Li said. The challenge has also proved popular with the graduate student body, so much so that part of the prize pool is set aside for the best performing undergraduate team.

Another key event is their startup career fair. “It usually attracts a lot of startups and also a lot of students looking for jobs. A lot of the freshmen told us that they found their first internship at the startup career fair,” Li said.

Li has had the unique perspective of being at all levels of the organization, from a Frosh Battalion member to vice president of the 100K challenge and currently co-president. She feels that it has been a valuable complement to the entrepreneurial classes she has taken at Stanford. “BASES offered me the opportunity to learn about the other sides of entrepreneurship. I could participate in Challenge and listen to the VCs judge the competition and see how they think; and during our treks [to Silicon Valley], I was able to visit some companies and VCs and really see their working experience first-hand.” She also enjoys the community – “it’s really cool to be surrounded by like-minded people in a way that’s not for a class specifically.”

Chloe Pae B.S. ’24 joined BASES in this year’s Frosh Battalion and is an incoming co-VP of Growth. She feels similarly about the community. “In my experience, the best resource available has been other club members,” she said. “I felt so fortunate to have upperclassmen that were willing to talk on the phone, truly whenever I needed, to share their wisdom and advice.” Only joining this year, Pae had a fully virtual experience but one in which she could still experience the strength of the organization. “My favorite experience was participating in the Frosh Battalion pitch competition, where I teamed up with three other Battalion members to design a product for the post-COVID world,” she said. “We got to pitch to venture capital sponsors and receive feedback. I don’t think a lot of frosh can say that they have had such a unique experience!”

As for what BASES will lead to, Pae notes that there are many opportunities to learn about the different parts of entrepreneurship. “BASES has exposed me to the world of entrepreneurship and the varying ways I can participate in it. I still have not decided where I fit best, whether that is in venture capital, startup accelerators or even starting my own company,” she said. “I am confident that further participation in BASES will allow me to explore these avenues, and more, and figure out if entrepreneurship is the right fit for me.”

Other entrepreneurship courses

Stanford’s Management Science and Engineering department, and other engineering departments to some degree, offer a host of entrepreneurship classes that complement the iterative Lean Launchpad-style startup courses. These cover many entrepreneurial topics, including a venture capitalist’s perspective on startups ( MS&E 275 ), entrepreneurial marketing (MS&E 271), entrepreneurial management and finance (MS&E 276) and product management (CEE 250).

“You literally have so many classes that are tailor made to sandbox your idea,” Khullar, who took many of these classes, said. Some, like MS&E 271 and CEE 250, include working in teams to build out a product from an early-stage idea, while others like MS&E 275 and MS&E 276 have less of a project focus but are also strong in bringing real-world perspectives from Silicon Valley venture capitalist practitioners.

“Not only are there a lot of different resources, but it’s a lot of resources that work great together because they cover completely different areas,” said Matthew Hernandez M.S. ’20, who also took most of the classes. “[MS&E] 275 was one of the classes I liked the most, but it was on the opposite side [to MS&E 271] – the venture capital side – but I do think it’s very valuable for entrepreneurship because it’s such a big part of the ecosystem. Knowing how both sides operate is very helpful,” he said, of the entrepreneur vs venture capital roles. He also enjoyed MS&E 276, adding, “that was also a completely separate aspect of entrepreneurship.”

Unlike the Lean Launchpad-style courses, a class like MS&E 271, which still has a team project component to develop an idea or product, the focus is not on rapid iteration or extensive customer discovery. “We did interview probably close to 10 different people over the course of the quarter, but they were more in-depth,” Hernandez said, in contrast to the 100+ required in the Lean Launchpad. MS&E 271 has a greater emphasis on working through content in a syllabus and supplementing it with the project, than Lean Launchpad, where greater focus is placed on the project and interviews.

Khullar also found that taking these courses was a great way to connect with professors. “They can help you connect to the right people to experiment with your startup idea,” she said. Many of these courses have a teaching team of adjunct professors or lecturers that come directly from the industry rather than academia, and so remain heavily connected. “I actually would suggest taking their class if you can,” she said. “Once you take the class, it’s easy to build relationships with them,” she added.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, these classes are also a great way to find co-founders, Khullar said. “Actually, finding co-founders is a very difficult thing otherwise, because it’s hard to find people who really align with your opinions,” she said. “When you have classes 60-people strong, it’s slightly easier to just have open-ended discussions and find people who share your vision.”

Most of these classes are selective by application. The MS&E ones also give preference to MS&E students, especially those in their final year, but all are open to students from any department. However, Hernandez says that the odds of getting in are better than they look. “A lot of people end up dropping or switching classes — so there’s usually more space than it sounds like. And if you don’t make it the first time, you can always try again another year,” he said.

Jonathan Ling is a graduate student in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford. Contact him at grind ‘at’ stanforddaily.com.

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5th Edition

Chapter 6: The Business Story and Plan

Entrepreneurs respond to attractive opportunities by forming new firms. In this chapter, we consider the five-step process for establishing a new enterprise. One particularly noteworthy step in the process is the development of a story and a business plan, including a compelling business model. The story is a compelling synopsis of why this venture is needed at this moment in time and how it can achieve success. We then detail the task of writing a business plan, which is an effort to better prepare the venture for testing its assumptions and hypotheses. An example of a well-prepared business model is provided in appendix A.

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Business model innovation.

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Teaching Team

Haim Mendelson

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Professor

• Graduate School of Business

Haim Mendelson is the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Professor of Electronic Business and Commerce, and Management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has been full professor at Stanford since 1989, following ten years of service at the Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester. He has been elected Distinguished Fellow of the Information Systems Society in recognition of outstanding intellectual contributions to the Information Systems discipline. He has published more than a hundred research papers and more than forty company case studies. His work was published in leading journals in the areas of information systems, management science, finance, economics and statistics. He coauthored the book Survival of the Smartest that introduced the concept of Organizational IQ to quantify the ability of a company or organization to use information to make quick and effective decisions.

At the University of Rochester, he received a University Mentor award in recognition of outstanding service to the University, managed a large-scale research center studying the management of information systems, and was the Computer and Information Systems Area Coordinator. At Stanford he serves or served as codirector of the Value Chain Innovation Initiative; codirector of the Global Supply Chain Management Forum; codirector of the Center for Electronic Business and Commerce; the Operations, Information and Technology Area Coordinator; director of the executive programs on Building Innovative Leaders, Electronic Commerce, and Information Strategy for Competitive Advantage; codirector of the executive programs on Strategic Uses of Information Technology and Strategy and Entrepreneurship in the Information Technology Industry; member of the Editorial Board of the Stanford University Press; and Chair of the University’s faculty committee overseeing distributed computing and administrative information systems. He teaches electronic business and commerce and leads the School’s efforts in incorporating their implications into its curriculum and research. He is or has been Associate Editor or member of the Editorial Board of Management Science, MIS Quarterly, Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, and Information Systems Research.

Professor Mendelson has been a consultant to leading high-technology companies, stock exchanges, financial services companies, management consulting companies, and industrial companies. Prior to joining academia, he served as Chief Systems Analyst of the Logistics Information Systems Center of the Israel Defense Forces. He teaches in a number of executive education programs in the areas of electronic commerce, innovation, business models, information technology strategy, organizational change, entrepreneurship, financial modeling, and general management.

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Learn together with your colleagues

Participants report that enrolling in a program with colleagues fosters collaborative learning and amplifies their impact.

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Based on the information you provided, your team is eligible for a special discount, for Launching a Startup starting on August 29, 2024 .

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August 29, 2024

6 weeks, online 4-6 hours/week

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A Prototype for Startup Success

If there was a proven system for mitigating one’s risk in starting a new venture, what would it look like?

Startups by the Numbers

Why do so many startups fail?

no market need

Source: CB Insights August 3, 2021

got outcompeted

SOURCE: CB INSIGHTS August 3, 2021

pricing/cost issues

Key Takeaways

• Analyze various techniques to develop a product prototype.
• Conduct effective interviews with potential customers to develop your customer personas.
• Create and describe a value proposition for a specific product.
• Develop a go-to-market (GTM) plan, and determine key metrics, such as customer acquisition costs (CACs).
• Present a viable profit model for a specific product.
• Apply the four-step entrepreneurship framework to a final capstone project.
• Learn entrepreneurship best practices, and avoid common pitfalls.
• Use strategies based in neuroscience to influence the decisions of stakeholders.

This program is ideal for aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators who want to:

Test an idea before the investment stage to increase their odds of success in the market.

Get proven, research-driven frameworks that translate into having the inner confidence to move forward with their vision.

Learn from the same faculty and thought leaders who contribute to Silicon Valley’s revered startup ethos.

Program modules.

• Realize the importance of open-ended questions and how to develop effective interview questions.
• Analyze techniques for an effective interview, and synthesize interview information into customer personas.
• Explore what prototyping is and the significance of low-resolution prototyping.
• Learn prototype development, and assess user needs by gathering feedback on a prototype.
• Craft an ideal positioning statement, including each of the key components.
• Understand the importance of tying the value proposition to specific pain points, and develop a hypothesis for testing your value proposition.
• Understand the importance of direct and indirect GTM strategies.
• Examine a sample GTM strategy.
• Determine the CAC for a product and its implications.
• Examine the factors and considerations that determine the price of a product.
• Evaluate the viability of a product based on customer lifetime value (LTV) and total addressable market (TAM).
• Reevaluate your reasons for pursuing entrepreneurial endeavors.
• Explain the basic neurobiology of acute and chronic stress and how stress impacts decision making.
• Create a plan for your capstone project using the entrepreneurship road map.

Program Walkthrough

Access to Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) proprietary strategy tools and frameworks

Live session with faculty

Manageable time investment (4-6 hours/week)

Assignments for you to apply learnings to your own product, organization, or idea

Real-world case studies and industry examples

Feedback on select assignments to ensure understanding of the program material

Certificate of completion from Stanford Graduate School of Business

Featured Program Elements

Original strategic frameworks and tools from Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty

Featured case studies and examples, including Mon Ami, Calyx Flowers, Lumo Bodytech, Aqualisa, Proper Good, and more

Capstone project designed to focus and advance your entrepreneurial vision

Meet the faculty.

James M. Lattin

The Robert A. Magowan Professor of Marketing

The Sanwa Bank, Limited; Professor of Marketing

Stefanos Zenios

The Investment Group of Santa Barbara Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Operations, Information & Technology; Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

James M. Lattin The Robert A. Magowan Professor of Marketing Professor Lattin is the former faculty director of the Stanford Ignite–Bangalore program on innovation and entrepreneurship, and former curriculum director of the Stanford Seed Program. His research has examined consumer purchase behavior, customer relationship management, and loyalty/reward programs, with a more recent focus on customer acquisition, go-to-market strategy, and salesforce productivity. In the Stanford MBA program, he teaches elective courses on customer acquisition, building and managing sales organizations, and the fundamentals of effective selling.

Baba Shiv The Sanwa Bank, Limited; Professor of Marketing Professor Shiv has done extensive work on the emotional brain, documenting its powerful role in shaping decisions and experiences. His work includes the application of neuroeconomics to the study and practice of innovation and entrepreneurial leadership in companies, from Silicon Valley startups to Fortune 500 companies, as well as countries including India, Malaysia, and New Zealand. He frequently consults with and is on the advisory boards of several startups.

Stefanos Zenios The Investment Group of Santa Barbara Professor of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Operations, Information & Technology; Director, Center for Entrepreneurial Studies Professor Zenios is the faculty co-director of Stanford GSBʼs Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. He is an innovative teacher and researcher, and the main architect of Startup Garage, a popular GSB course that helps hundreds of Stanford GSB students and executives learn and apply the innovation processes that are at the center of the Silicon Valley ecosystem. He also oversees the Stanford GSB Venture Studio: a vibrant learning facility for Stanford graduate students across all disciplines who want to learn about designing and creating sustainable, high-impact ventures.

Guest Speakers

Mudit Garg CEO and Co-Founder, Qventus

Gayatri Datar Co-founder, EarthEnable

Tony Xu CEO and co-founder, DoorDash

Beth Gerstein Co-Founder, Brilliant Earth

Certificate

Upon completion of this program, you will receive a certificate of completion from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Is Launching a Startup a suitable program on how to start a business?

Absolutely. The Launching a Startup program is not just a program on how to start a business, but is also an effective way to study entrepreneurship online. Through this program, you will learn about extensively researched strategies and methodologies proven by successful startup founders to help you transform your ideas into practical business models.

What opportunities does the Launching a Startup program provide to learn entrepreneurship?

The Launching a Startup program provides an opportunity to learn entrepreneurship and study this field online. It is an ideal program on how to start a business. Participants will not only delve into developing a product prototype, interviewing potential customers, crafting a value proposition, creating a go-to-market strategy, but also master how to sidestep common entrepreneurial pitfalls. The hands-on learning this program provides is invaluable when starting a business.

How do I know if this program is right for me?

After reviewing the information on the program landing page, we recommend you submit the short form above to gain access to the program brochure, which includes more in-depth information. If you still have questions on whether this program is a good fit for you, please email [email protected] , and a dedicated program advisor will follow up with you very shortly.

Are there any prerequisites for this program?

Participants must be 18 years old or above to apply to this program. Some programs do have prerequisites, particularly the more technical ones. This information will be noted on the program landing page and in the program brochure. If you are uncertain about program prerequisites and your capabilities, please email us at [email protected] for assistance.

Note that, unless otherwise stated on the program web page, all programs are taught in English and proficiency in English, is required.

What is the typical class profile?

More than 50 percent of our participants are from outside the United States. Class profiles vary from one cohort to the next, but, generally, our online certificates draw a highly diverse audience in terms of professional experience, industry, and geography—leading to a very rich peer learning and networking experience.

What other dates will this program be offered in the future?

Check back to this program web page or email us at [email protected] to inquire if future program dates or the timeline for future offerings have been confirmed.

How much time is required each week?

Each program includes an estimated learner effort per week. This is referenced at the top of the program landing page under the Duration section, as well as in the program brochure, which you can obtain by submitting the short form at the top of this web page.

How will my time be spent?

We have designed this program to fit into your current working life as efficiently as possible. Time will be spent among a variety of activities including:

• Engaging with recorded video lectures from faculty
• Attending webinars and office hours, as per the specific program schedule
• Reading or engaging with examples of core topics
• Completing knowledge checks/quizzes and required activities
• Engaging in moderated discussion groups with your peers
• Completing your final project, if required

The program is designed to be highly interactive while also allowing time for self-reflection and demonstrating an understanding of the core topics through various active learning exercises. Please contact us at [email protected] if you need further clarification on program activities.

A dedicated program support team is available 24/5 (Monday to Friday) to answer questions about the learning platform, technical issues, or anything else that may affect your learning experience.

How do I interact with other program participants?

Peer learning adds substantially to the overall learning experience and is an important part of the program. You can connect and communicate with other participants through our learning platform.

What are the requirements to earn the certificate?

Each program includes an estimated learner effort per week, so you can gauge what will be required before you enroll. This is referenced at the top of the program landing page under the Duration section, as well as in the program brochure, which you can obtain by submitting the short form at the top of this web page. All programs are designed to fit into your working life. This program is scored as a pass or no pass; participants must complete the required activities to pass and obtain the certificate of completion. Some programs include a final project submission or other assignments to obtain passing status. This information will be noted in the program brochure. Please contact us at [email protected] if you need further clarification on any specific program requirements.

What type of certificate will I receive?

Upon successful completion of the program, you will receive a smart digital certificate. The smart digital certificate can be shared with friends, family, schools, or potential employers. You can use it on your cover letter or resume or display it on your LinkedIn profile. The digital certificate will be sent approximately two weeks after the program, once grading is complete.

Can I get the hard copy of the certificate?

No, only verified digital certificates will be issued upon successful completion. This allows you to share your credentials on social platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Do I receive alumni status after completing this program?

No, there is no alumni status granted for this program. In some cases, there are credits that count toward a higher level of certification. This information will be clearly noted in the program brochure.

How long will I have access to the learning materials?

You will have access to the online learning platform and all the videos and program materials for 12 months following the program start date . Access to the learning platform is restricted to registered participants per the terms of agreement.

What equipment or technical requirements are there for this program?

Participants will need the latest version of their preferred browser to access the learning platform. In addition, Microsoft Office and a PDF viewer are required to access documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDF files, and transcripts.

Do I need to be online to access the program content?

Yes, the learning platform is accessed via the internet, and video content is not available for download. However, you can download files of video transcripts, assignment templates, readings, etc. For maximum flexibility, you can access program content from a desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device. Video lectures must be streamed via the internet, and any livestream webinars and office hours will require an internet connection. However, these sessions are always recorded, so you may view them later.

Can I still register if the registration deadline has passed?

Yes, you can register up to seven days after the published start date of the program without missing any of the core program material or learnings.

What is the program fee, and what forms of payment do you accept?

The program fee is noted at the top of this program web page and usually referenced in the program brochure as well. Flexible payment options are available (see details below as well as at the top of this program web page next to FEE).

What if I don’t have a credit card? Is there another method of payment accepted?

Yes, you can do the bank remittance in the program currency via wire transfer or debit card. Please contact your program advisor, or email us at [email protected] for details.

I was not able to use the discount code provided. Can you help?

Yes! Please email us at [email protected] with the details of the program you are interested in, and we will assist you.

How can I obtain an invoice for payment?

Please email [email protected] with your invoicing requirements and the specific program you’re interested in enrolling in.

Is there an option to make flexible payments for this program?

Yes, the flexible payment option allows a participant to pay the program fee in installments. This option is made available on the payment page and should be selected before submitting the payment.

How can I obtain a W9 form?

Please email us at [email protected] for assistance.

Who will be collecting the payment for the program?

Emeritus collects all program payments, provides learner enrollment and program support, and manages learning platform services.

Are there any restrictions on the types of funding that can be used to pay for the program?

Program fees for Emeritus programs with Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Education may not be paid for with (a) funds from the GI Bill, the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act of 2008, or similar types of military education funding benefits or (b) Title IV financial aid funds.

What is the program refund and deferral policy?

For the program refund and deferral policy, please click the link here .

Still Not Sure?

Continue exploring available programs.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Write to us at [email protected] or Schedule a call with one of our Program Advisors or call us at +1 401 443 9709  (US) / +44 127 959 8043  (UK) / +65 3129 4367 (SG)

Early registrations are encouraged. Seats fill up quickly!

Flexible payment options available. Learn more.

Get ready for a new eCorner experience! Later this summer, eCorner will become part of the website for STVP, the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center. You'll be able to access all eCorner content at stvp.stanford.edu . Existing links and bookmarks will redirect. Sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop!

Ideas and Inspiration from STVP, the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center

Business Plan Beliefs

Founder Brent Constantz says his firm, Calera, has never had a written business plan. As a serial entrepreneur, Constantz has developed a few ideas about business plans: 1) Only competitors read business plans, and 2) A business plan is the only thing that is never going to happen.

Video clips from: Following Your Startup Vision [Entire Talk]

Starting avalanches and building fires, big visions are right visions, advisory boards and operating plans, be your only board member, make cleaning the environment a prosperous opportunity, tension between goals and roi.

The Ethics of Innovation [Entire Talk]

Video clips.

Leadership in a Digital World

The duty of digital leaders, ethics in emerging technologies, disproportionate job displacement.

A Brainy Approach to Innovation [Entire Talk]

Embodying Innovation

Mind control of machines, pivoting toward impact, automating legal consulting, confessions of a ‘cyber-optimist'.

Taking a Lead From Tech [Entire Talk]

‘What Would Different Look Like?'

Realities of startup life, essential but unsung skills, a blank invitation, choose your peers wisely.

Go ahead, have it all.

Join the stanford innovation and entrepreneurship all-access plan..

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Who likes restrictions? Not us.

Give yourself the freedom to learn and grow in 2021. The Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship certificate teaches you how to think and act differently so that you can solve your biggest business challenges. With topics spanning from design thinking and entrepreneurship to operations and leadership, you can customize your learning track to meet your personal and professional goals.

Within months, you will learn to:

• Negotiate with power and confidence
• Unleash your creativity
• Lead with vision and passion

Say hello to a year of unlimited access.

With the Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship All-Access Plan, you pay once and get access to all 14 courses in the certificate program. You can take courses in any order, sequentially or simultaneously, and move freely in and out of all courses. You’ll have access to a teaching team that will help answer any questions on your coursework and assignments for the entire time.

Pay for eight courses, get six free, and access them all for an entire year. Total cost is $7,960.

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Get 14 courses for the price of 8.

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You have 1 year to complete courses at your own pace, in any order you choose.

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Featured Courses

Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Mindset Discover the key ingredients that drive success in entrepreneurial companies.

Leading Innovation Learn the differences between leading innovation and managing routine work and how to stay in tune with the people you lead.

Innovation Strategy: How to Find Inspiration This course will teach you how to provoke new ways of thinking and get inspired when you need it the most.

Building Company Culture Learn how to attract and hire top talent, manage teams, mitigate friction, and grow your company's culture.

Empathize and Prototype: A Hands on Dive into the Key Tools of Design Thinking Master techniques for gaining empathy with customers through hands-on exercises.

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Interested in Artificial Intelligence? Check out these online certificate programs:

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Take online courses in marketing innovation from Stanford University. Hone your ability to generate and implement new ideas and lead innovative teams and organizations. Taught by world-class Stanford faculty, these courses are engaging, interactive, and full of useful practices and strategies that you can apply immediately:

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Episode 13. Application Timeline for MBA Program Applicants

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In this episode, Katie and Rebecca discuss the timeline for MBA program applicants.

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Transcript for Hidden Curricula Episode 13

Application timeline for mba program applicants.

Rebecca: Welcome to Hidden Curricula, a podcast exploring aspects of preparation for professional schools that may not be obvious or common knowledge. We will delve into topics of concern for undergraduates and discuss questions that relate to professional school applications. My name is Rebecca Curtin. 

Katie: And I'm Katie Wang. 

Rebecca: We are two of four preprofessional advisors at Stanford University. Our group works with students who are interested in professional fields such as law, education, business, and medicine.  

Katie: This podcast is not meant to be advice, like we might give to our students, but rather to shed some light on how an advisor might approach various situations and level the playing field for all applicants.   

Rebecca: Recently we have been discussing some typical timelines for applications to professional school, including medical and law school. Today on Hidden Curricula, we are continuing our timeline series by tackling MBA program application timelines.

Katie: I'm looking forward to this.  

Rebecca: Me too. Now, many of you out there listening will know that an MBA is a Master's of Business Administration. An MBA prepares individuals for advanced positions within the world of business and or can allow working folks an opportunity to pivot in their career paths. For this reason, it is often undertaken two or more years after graduation from college and after significant work experience. It could be for this reason that pre MBA advising for undergraduates is found less frequently within preprofessional advising spaces at colleges and universities. However, many undergraduate schools are starting to provide advice in this area.  Particularly because applicants seem to be interested in these programs earlier than they were in the past and thus may still feel connected to their undergraduate school and advisors. Business schools themselves also seem eager for applicants earlier on in their careers, appreciating the perspective they bring to the classroom, that is, as long as they have robust work experience.   

Katie: Now, even though here at Stanford we do not have an undergraduate business college or major, we have still seen a lot of interest from students wanting to know more about how to prepare for a future MBA application. 

Rebecca: Totally, Katie. We've seen a lot of students coming in for advice in this space in recent years. I'm pretty excited to be laying out the application timeline today. Because it's a little different from what you might expect if you're only familiar with applications to undergraduate schools or other types of graduate programs. 

Katie: So should we lay out some of these differences, Rebecca? 

Rebecca: Yeah, well, so the first difference is that business schools do not have a centralized application. You apply to each school individually, and this means you have to pay close attention and adhere to individual school guidelines, application components, and deadlines. 

Katie: I think it's worth emphasizing what you just said. It's very important for applicants to look at individual school websites and applications because of variances in applications. It also may mean applicants may choose to apply to fewer schools. Since there isn't an centralized component and each application is so individual, it's not as simple as clicking a box to apply to one more school. 

Rebecca: Exactly. 100%.  

Katie: Another difference has to do with the timeline itself. Generally speaking, the MBA application cycle is different, in that it is actually a few small admission cycles within one year. And this is the case for many, many MBA programs. 

Rebecca: Yes, that's a good way of putting it. Many, though not all, MBA programs have admissions rounds or application deadlines three times a year. There is usually an application deadline in September for round one, December or January for round two, and March or April for round three. A few months after each deadline, the MBA program will notify applicants of admissions decisions. There may also be an interview component before they release decisions. MBA programs start to fill their class for the next year after their first round deadline. Therefore, in each round that follows there are fewer and fewer spots available for next autumn's entering class. And, applicants need to know that they must choose one round in which to apply in an application year. 

Katie: So, say I'm an applicant wanting to start business school in autumn of 2026. The application opens in the early summer of 2025, and there would be a first round deadline in September of 2025. The second round applications would have a December or January deadline. And then the third round application after that has a March or April deadline. 

So, it sounds like I have a choice of applying in round one, two, or three, and if admitted in the round I apply, I would start business school the following autumn. 

Rebecca: That's it, generally speaking. 

Katie: Great. So, let's talk more about application components within this timeline. When should applicants begin to organize application materials like essays, standardized tests, and letters of recommendation? 

Rebecca: Well, applicants who plan to apply in round one should start pulling pieces together when the application opens, if not earlier. As we saw in the medical and law applications, giving yourself time to get feedback on your essays is paramount to a successful application. Also, you will want to give your recommendation writers plenty of time to write and submit their letters. I'd say at least two months' lead time is ideal. Standardized tests are another important component of an MBA application, and they require substantial preparatory time. For most MBA programs, applicants have a choice of two exams, the GRE, Graduate Record Examination, or the GMAT, the Graduate Management Admissions Test. And schools that accept both do not usually have a preference between them.  

Katie: So, Rebecca, let me go back and ask you a question about the letters of recommendation as it has to do with the fact that business school applications are not centralized. So, does that mean then that if I have a recommender and I'm applying to say five programs would that recommender then I need to submit five separate letters on my behalf to different schools I'm applying to. 

Rebecca: Yes, that would be correct. So your writer would submit letters to the different applications. Um, it's possible that you could use an external online dossier service to collect the letters, but generally speaking, you would send instructions directly from within each application and to each recommender. 

Katie: All right. Sounds like a reason to give them a little bit more time. 

Rebecca: Reason for both of you to be pretty organized, so you could help them with the organization by giving them a list of programs that you intend to apply to so they know where to maybe expect links from or how to submit letters. 

Katie: Got it. Yeah, organization does sound like an important piece of this. So, let's talk a little bit more about the standardized tests. I think we'll probably go into more depth in future episodes on these standardized tests, the GRE and the GMAT, but can you tell us a little bit more?  

Rebecca: Yeah, there's so much to  say on standardized testing. For our purposes today, that is regarding timing, it can take often about three to six months to prepare for a standardized test, depending on the test format and how much time you have in the day and the week to prepare.  You want to plan in this case of MBA programs to have the test completed around the deadline date for your application round. You can often report the unofficial score on the application and send in the official score once it becomes available. I say you want to have this done around the deadline date because this is one of the policies that may be school specific. So make sure you check schools for individual guidelines. You also may want to build in time for a retake of a standardized test if possible. 

Katie: I can see now how these components are similar to what applicants for other professional programs submit. But three deadlines an application year is definitely unique. How do applicants decide what round is the right one for them to apply in? 

Rebecca: Yeah, it is a great question. And as I mentioned earlier, applicants need to choose one round in which to apply. So you cannot, for instance, apply in round one and then reapply In a later round, if you're not admitted in round one,  applicants must make a considered decision about which round is best for them. Obviously, all things being equal, round one gives you the best shot, as the most seats in the class are available at that time. However, there may be reasons to choose a later round, such as needing more time with standardized tests or a big accomplishment happening at work. Or maybe if you're a working professional, you find yourself laid off in the middle of a cycle and decide it's a good time to pivot or take a break from work to go to business school and gain additional skills. If you have access to advising, this is a great question to chat about with an advisor or someone in the admissions office at a business school of interest who can address your unique situation. 

Katie: Okay, Rebecca, I know that here at Stanford there's been a huge interest, especially in recent years, in what are called deferred enrollment programs at business schools. 

Rebecca: Yeah, absolutely. Do you want to say a bit about deferred enrollment programs, Katie? I feel like I've been talking a lot.  

Katie: Sure, happy to. So deferred enrollment programs are designed for applicants who are seniors in college or who are in their last year of a master's degree program that they entered immediately from undergraduate studies. So no gap in an academic plan.  A well known version of this is the Harvard Business Schools 2 + 2 program, but there are versions of these programs at many business schools across the country, including right here at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. The idea with deferred enrollment is you apply to a program before leaving school, and if admitted, you then have a spot in a business school class that you will join after working for about two to four years. You and I will likely chat more about Deferred Enrollment Programs or Early Assurance Programs, Rebecca, in a future episode, since they are found across pre professional areas. However, what's most relevant to our discussion today is for listeners to know that the deadline for these programs is often the Round 3 deadline at a given business school. This means that applicants to deferred enrollment MBA programs are likely working on their applications in winter and submitting them in March or April. They're interviewed shortly thereafter and then receive a decision in June or July.  

Rebecca: Thanks Katie, for going over all that. And you're absolutely right that there's a huge amount of interest in these programs in recent years, especially from our perspective as advisors. This is partially because there's been a big increase in the number of business schools offering these programs, but also in undergraduate students who are interested in them. The word has gotten out. I think that they offer in terms of engaging in more risk-taking during your working years and feeling less pressure on your work experiences for them to be impressive to business schools is a huge draw. And we are also noticing that students seem to really like the certainty they feel these early commitments offer them. Many have also shared with me that they like the idea of applying during college since they are in that school mindset.  

Katie: Yes, though always a good idea to discuss with an advisor or admissions officer whether these programs are a good fit for you. A wonderful thing about MBA admissions is that there are information sessions and opportunities to meet with admissions staff. We strongly recommend applicants take advantage of these opportunities and learn more about programs of interest.   

Rebecca: Yeah, business schools are wonderful about putting on information sessions, both virtual and in person, or having opportunities for applicants to visit their programs. So one of the best things you can do as an applicant, if you would like to learn more about a program and have a conversation with the admissions office, would be to take a look at the business schools   admissions office events page, which usually will list upcoming programming. And there are opportunities often for both regular admission cycles as well as deferred enrollment in terms of admission sessions. 

Katie: Great. So a person interested in either the regular MBA admissions or the deferred admissions process at a particular business school could go to a program that was specific for that interest. 

Rebecca: Yes, so the sessions may be separate - they may run a session for deferred enrollment admission specifically or a session for the regular round. But yes, they would offer often both opportunities for interested applicants. So somebody who wasn't sure could potentially go to both sessions and learn about the different pathways.

Katie: Fantastic. 

Rebecca: So, should we bust a myth today before we wrap up?  

Katie: Let's do it. Okay, MBA programs usually have three application rounds. Today's myth is, I should apply in round one, no matter what, to give myself an edge. 

Rebecca: Now this is a good one and I know we touched on it earlier in this episode, but I think it's an important one to emphasize, because while we say round one would generally give you an advantage, there are obviously exceptions. So while it's true that applying in round one gives that advantage because more seats are available at that time. If you are going to be a stronger applicant for some reason by applying in a later round, then waiting to apply may be the best and most strategic call. And for Deferred Enrollment, you may not be eligible to apply in Round 1. This is different for different Deferred Enrollment programs, but for most of the ones I'm familiar with, their deadlines are often more around the Round 3 deadline. So always, always check school and program specific policies. And that wraps up our overview of the timeline for MBA applications. We hope you learned something and that this adds clarity to what can be a confusing process. Tune in again when we will unravel another aspect of the hidden curricula.   

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