Courses

Currently, two courses are offered to complement the Wavemaker venture program. They provide mechanisms for UC San Diego students to further their understanding of entrepreneurship and novel technology commercialization and track current technology trends.

We will offer a new classroom-based graduate-level class housed at GPS on founding and launching a start-up that feeds into an internship-based class. It will pair teams of students with ventures to work on a specific business-related problem the respective founders are facing. The internship-based course will launch in the Winter of 2025.

Start-Ups: Founding to Launch (GPIM471)

This course uses a mix of lectures, guest speakers, and in-class discussions and assignments to offer students considering careers in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial financing, consulting, and innovation policy the opportunity to learn about forming, developing and launching new ventures. Topics covered include founding team formation, potential market evaluation, team and entrepreneur evaluation, new venture financing options and new venture go-to-market strategies. The course will focus primarily on technology ventures but will be useful for understanding new venture management in general. This course is taught by Liz Lyons.

Real World Projects with Start-Ups (GPGN490)

In this course, students will apply theories and empirical evidence on the managerial, market, and policy drivers of entrepreneurial success to real questions and priorities of start-up firms. Small teams will engage with senior start-up executives and founders to develop a scope of work, conduct analysis and report findings and recommendations to the client. Projects could include, for example: market entry analysis, supply chain analysis, mapping of technology landscape for R&D strategy, and evaluation of policy implications on the business. Lectures, class discussions and meetings with faculty early in the term will help prepare students to frame the problem and plan the substantive analysis. This course is co-taught by Jim Lambright and Liz Lyons.