Business and Entrepreneurship
Program's Goal: Building Business Builders, Founders, and Early-Stage CEOs.
This program is not designed to produce employees; it is designed to produce business builders. The curriculum assumes that successful businesses are built by people who understand value creation end-to-end: market \(\rightarrow\) customer \(\rightarrow\) product \(\rightarrow\) operations \(\rightarrow\) growth.
A bachelor's program is usually four years long. This duration exists to give you time to build foundations before you specialize, and to revisit ideas often enough that they actually stick. The program is usually divided into 8 terms, each designed to teach one important way of thinking and give you enough practice to see where it breaks.
The aim isn't to rush toward expertise, but to build something solid enough for lifetime!
TERM 1: Foundations
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 101 | Introduction to Business Thinking | Transition from "I have an idea" to "I can create value and capture some of it." Learn to think in terms of customer problems, value propositions, and sustainable models. |
| LAW 101 | Business Law & Ethics | Contracts, liability, intellectual property basics, ethical frameworks. Legal ignorance kills businesses. Learn enough to know when you need a lawyer. |
| ECON 101 | Fundamental Principles of Economics | Learn how markets work, supply and demand, price signals, and resource allocation. This is the operating system of business. |
| FIN 103 | Financial Accounting | Learn to read the language of business: balance sheets, income statements, cash flow. If you can't read financials, you're building blind. |
| HUM 104 | Human Psychology & Decision Making | People don't act rationally. Learn the psychology behind how customers choose, employees perform, and markets react. Behavioral insights are competitive advantages. |
| HUM 105 | Business Communication | Writing emails, memos, proposals, presentations. Clarity is power. The best strategy dies if you can't articulate it clearly to customers, investors, and employees. |
TERM 2: Customer Discovery + First Dollar
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 102 | Business Model Design | Revenue models, cost structures, key partnerships, channels. Learn frameworks like Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas. Strategy without a viable model is just wishful thinking. |
| BUS 103 | Fundamentals of Sales | Ideas don't sell themselves. Learn how to pitch, handle objections, close deals, and understand that sales is a learnable skill, not magic. |
| MKT 101 | Fundamentals of Marketing | Marketing isn't advertising. It's understanding what people want, why they want it, and how to reach them. Learn to think like a customer before you think like a seller. |
| MKT 102 | Customer Development & Research | Learn to talk to customers properly. Most businesses fail because founders build what they want, not what customers need. Master the art of discovery before you build anything. |
| FIN 104 | Managerial Accounting | Internal financial management: budgeting, cost analysis, break-even, contribution margins. Learn to make decisions with numbers, not just intuition. |
| VENTURE 101 | Launch Venture - 1 | Find a real customer problem. Validate it. Create a minimal offering and make your first dollar. Document the entire journey. |
TERM 3: Operations + Scale Foundations
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 201 | Business Statistics & Analytics | Correlation, regression, hypothesis testing, experimental design. Learn to distinguish signal from noise and make data-informed decisions. |
| FIN 201 | Corporate Finance | Time value of money, capital budgeting, investment decisions, risk and return. Learn to think about money over time and make capital allocation decisions. |
| FIN 202 | Financial Modeling & Forecasting | Build three-statement models, scenario planning, sensitivity analysis. Learn to project futures and communicate financial narratives to stakeholders. |
| OPS 201 | Operations Management | Learn how work flows through systems. Process design, capacity planning, quality control, bottleneck analysis. Execution beats strategy if strategy can't execute. |
| OPS 202 | Supply Chain & Logistics | Sourcing, inventory, distribution, fulfillment. Every physical product business lives or dies on operations excellence. Learn how value moves from creation to customer. |
| VENTURE 201 | Launch Venture - 2 | Scale your existing venture or start fresh. Acquire 50+ paying customers. Build repeatable processes for delivery. Track unit economics religiously. Learn what breaks at scale. |
TERM 4: Growth Engines + Teams
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 202 | Negotiation & Deal Making | Every business outcome is negotiated. Learn principled negotiation, BATNA, value creation vs. capture. Practice until uncomfortable conversations become comfortable. |
| MKT 201 | Brand Building & Positioning | Identity, differentiation, perception management. A strong brand is a moat. Learn how category leaders shape customer perception and command premium pricing. |
| MKT 202 | Growth Marketing & Acquisition | Funnels, channels, CAC, LTV, cohort analysis, viral loops. Modern marketing is measurement. Learn how to acquire customers systematically and optimize relentlessly. |
| HR 201 | Talent & Organization Design | Recruiting, culture, compensation, performance management. Companies are people. Learn to attract, retain, and organize talent before you need to scale. |
| STRAT 201 | Competitive Strategy | Porter's forces, moats, network effects, switching costs. Learn why some companies dominate while others struggle, and how to build defensible positions. |
| VENTURE 301 | Launch Venture - 3 | Build a venture with clear growth metrics. Implement one primary growth channel effectively. Hire your first employee or contractor. Navigate your first difficult negotiation or partnership. |
TERM 5: Market Strategy + Investment
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 301 | Business Intelligence & Dashboards | KPIs, metrics hierarchies, visualization, decision support systems. Build systems that surface truth rather than vanity metrics. |
| OPS 301 | Process Optimization & Lean Thinking | Waste elimination, continuous improvement, systems thinking. Learn Toyota's approach to operational excellence and why it compounds over time. |
| LAW 301 | Intellectual Property & Licensing | Patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, licensing agreements. IP strategy can be your biggest asset or your biggest blindspot. |
| ECON 301 | Macroeconomics & Business Cycles | Interest rates, inflation, business cycles, policy impacts. Learn to position your business for macro conditions you can't control but can anticipate. |
| ECON 302 | Industrial Organization & Market Power | Market structures, monopolies, oligopolies, entry barriers, regulation. Understand the macro forces that shape whether your industry is attractive or hostile. |
| VENTURE 302 | Launch Venture - 4 | Demonstrate product-market fit: strong retention, organic growth, clear value proposition. Build a financial model showing path to profitability. Prepare investor-ready metrics. |
TERM 6: Advanced Operations + Risk
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 302 | Pricing & Revenue Optimization | Pricing is strategy. Value-based pricing, price discrimination, bundling, psychological pricing. Learn that what you charge signals who you are. |
| BUS 303 | Crisis Management & Turnarounds | How businesses fail and how they recover. Learn to spot warning signs early and execute under pressure when things go wrong. |
| FIN 301 | Risk Management & Insurance | Identify, quantify, and mitigate business risks. Hedging, insurance, contingency planning. Learn that risk management isn't paranoia, it's survival. |
| HR 301 | Leadership & Team Dynamics | Motivation theories, conflict resolution, feedback systems, team building. Technical skills get you started. People skills determine how far you go. |
| STRAT 301 | International Business Strategy | Cross-border operations, currency risk, cultural adaptation, global supply chains. Learn what changes and what stays the same when you go global. |
| VENTURE 303 | Launch Venture - 5 | Navigate a real operational crisis (supply shock, customer churn, team conflict). Document how you identified, responded, and recovered. Build resilience systems. |
TERM 7: Platform Strategy + Fundraising
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 401 | Predictive Analytics for Business | Forecasting, churn prediction, recommendation systems. Move from descriptive to predictive. Learn to anticipate rather than react. |
| OPS 401 | Automation & Business Systems | Workflow automation, CRM, ERP, process documentation. Learn to systematize yourself out of daily operations so the business runs without you. |
| FIN 401 | Advanced Fundraising & Investor Relations | Pitch deck mastery, due diligence, investor psychology, post-investment board management. Fundraising is sales to a sophisticated buyer. |
| FIN 402 | Valuation & Exit Planning | DCF, comparable analysis, precedent transactions, IPO vs acquisition. Learn how businesses are valued and how founders successfully exit. |
| LAW 401 | M&A and Corporate Restructuring | Acquisitions, divestitures, corporate governance, exit strategies. Understand how businesses combine, split, and transition ownership. |
| VENTURE 401 | Build Your Business - 1 | Launch a substantial venture. Aim for $100K+ ARR or equivalent traction metric. Build a team of 3-5 people. Practice fundraising even if you bootstrap. |
TERM 8: Scaling + Exit Strategy
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| MKT 401 | Partnership & Ecosystem Development | Strategic alliances, channel partnerships, co-marketing, API strategies. Learn to grow through others, not just direct sales. |
| HR 401 | Scaling Culture & Operating Rhythms | How culture evolves (or breaks) from 10 to 100 to 1000 people. Meeting cadences, communication systems, decision frameworks that scale. |
| STRAT 401 | Platform Business Models | Network effects, multi-sided markets, ecosystem orchestration. Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon aren't just businesses—they're platforms. Learn the playbook. |
| STRAT 402 | Corporate Strategy & Portfolio Management | How conglomerates decide what to build, buy, or divest. Resource allocation across multiple bets. Think like a CEO managing a portfolio, not just one product. |
| FIN 403 | Venture Finance & Cap Tables | Equity, dilution, valuation, term sheets, fundraising mechanics. Learn how startup financing works so you don't give away your company out of ignorance. |
| VENTURE 402 | Build Your Business - 2 | Scale your business to significant traction. Prepare comprehensive investor pitch. Present to real angel investors or VCs. Graduate with a running business or validated failure worth learning from. |
Program's Goal: Building Business Builders with specialized expertise in scaling, financing, or operating specific business models.
Just like the Bachelor's program, this program is not designed to produce employees; it is designed to produce specialized business operators and investors. Assuming that one knows and has covered the content from the Bachelor's program, one can opt for one of the four specialization tracks possible.
A master's program is usually two years long. In the first year, students learn the specialized discipline and complete two intensive projects. In the second year, we expect them to build a specialized business or investment vehicle. The entire second year is a residency program focused on execution!
TERM 1: Investment Fundamentals & Deal Sourcing
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 501 | Due Diligence & Data Analysis | Financial audits, technical assessments, market validation, reference checks. Learn what to look for and what founders hide. |
| BUS 502 | Network Building & Deal Flow | Sourcing isn't passive. Learn to build proprietary deal flow through communities, events, content, and reputation. |
| LAW 501 | VC Legal & Regulatory Issues | Securities law, SAFE vs. priced rounds, international investing, regulatory compliance, fund formation. Legal mistakes are expensive. |
| FIN 501 | Venture Capital Economics | Fund structures, LP/GP dynamics, carry, management fees, fund lifecycle. Learn how VC firms actually make money and what incentives drive their behavior. |
| FIN 502 | Startup Valuation & Term Sheets | Pre-money, post-money, liquidation preferences, anti-dilution, option pools. Learn to negotiate and structure deals that align interests. |
| PROJECT 601 | Investment Thesis - 1 | Develop a comprehensive investment thesis in an emerging sector. Source 20+ potential deals. Present detailed analysis on 3 companies. Practice pitch evaluation and pattern recognition. |
TERM 2: Portfolio Management & Value Creation
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| HR 501 | Board Governance & Founder Support | Effective board meetings, CEO coaching, founder conflicts, governance structures. Learn to add value without micromanaging. |
| STRAT 501 | Technology Trends & Market Timing | Learn to identify emerging waves before they're obvious. Study historical patterns of technology adoption and market creation. |
| STRAT 502 | Growth Strategy for Portfolio Companies | Help portfolio companies scale: GTM strategy, hiring, fundraising, partnerships. Become the investor founders want involved. |
| FIN 503 | Portfolio Construction & Fund Strategy | Diversification, stage strategy, sector focus, geographic allocation, follow-on reserves. Learn to manage a portfolio, not just pick winners. |
| FIN 504 | Exit Strategies & Liquidity Events | IPOs, M&A, secondary sales, timing exits, distribution strategies. Learn how to actually return capital to LPs. |
| PROJECT 602 | Investment Simulation - 2 | Simulate managing a $50M fund. Make 10+ investment decisions. Handle board situations, follow-on decisions, exit scenarios. Present fund performance and lessons learned. |
TERM 3 & 4: Build Investment Vehicle
Launch an angel syndicate, rolling fund, or micro-VC. Make 5-10 real investments. Build LP relationships. Practice the full cycle from fundraising to portfolio management to reporting.
TERM 1: Brand Foundation & Direct-to-Consumer
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 503 | Product Development & Merchandising | Product-market fit for physical goods, iteration cycle |
| BUS 504 | DTC Business Models & Economics | Unit economics for consumer businesses, repeat purchase rates, contribution margins, CAC payback. Learn the math behind brands that scale profitably. |
| BUS 505 | Retention & Lifecycle Marketing | Email, SMS, loyalty programs, subscription models, churn reduction. Acquisition gets attention, retention drives profits. |
| OPS 501 | E-commerce Operations & Fulfillment | Platform selection, payment processing, fulfillment models, returns management, international expansion. Execution details determine consumer experience. |
| FIN 505 | Consumer Finance & Inventory Management | Working capital, inventory financing, cash conversion cycles, demand forecasting. Consumer brands are capital-intensive. Learn to manage cash flow. |
| PROJECT 603 | Brand Launch - 1 | Launch a DTC brand with real products. Design brand identity, build website, acquire first 100 customers. Track every dollar spent and earned. Learn the brutal reality of consumer acquisition. |
TERM 2: Omnichannel Growth & Brand Equity
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| STRAT 503 | Partner & Channel Strategy | Wholesale partnerships, retail distribution, marketplace expansion, channel conflict management. Learn to grow beyond DTC without losing your brand. |
| MKT 501 | Brand Psychology & Consumer Behavior | Deep dive into how consumers form preferences, loyalty, and emotional connections. Learn why some brands become cultural movements. |
| MKT 502 | Content & Community Building | Organic reach, community management, user-generated content, influencer strategy. Learn to build audiences that want to engage, not just buy. |
| MKT 503 | Performance Marketing at Scale | Meta, Google, TikTok, affiliate networks, retargeting strategies, creative testing frameworks. Master paid acquisition at 7-figure monthly budgets. |
| MKT 504 | Brand Storytelling & PR | Earned media, press relationships, influencer campaigns, brand journalism, crisis communication. Learn to shape perception at scale. |
| PROJECT 604 | Brand Scale - 2 | Scale your brand or launch a new one. Reach $250K+ revenue. Expand to 2+ channels. Build a repeatable creative production system. Navigate a PR crisis (real or simulated). |
TERM 3 & 4: Build Consumer Business
Build a multi-million dollar consumer brand, a brand holding company, or an influencer-backed product line. Aim for acquisition or Series A readiness.
TERM 1: Enterprise Sales Fundamentals
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 506 | Enterprise Sales Process | Discovery, demo, proof of concept, procurement, legal review, implementation. Enterprise sales is complex choreography. Learn every step. |
| BUS 507 | Product-Led Growth & Freemium Models | Bottom-up adoption, product virality, conversion funnels, expansion revenue. Learn when and how to let the product sell itself. |
| BUS 508 | Customer Success & Account Management | Onboarding, adoption metrics, expansion, renewal, churn prevention. Logo acquisition is just the beginning. Revenue comes from expansion. |
| BUS 509 | SaaS Metrics & Analytics | MRR, ARR, churn, NRR, CAC payback, Rule of 40. Learn the language that SaaS investors speak. |
| OPS 502 | Revenue Operations & Systems | CRM architecture, sales tech stack, pipeline management, forecasting accuracy. RevOps is the nervous system of scaling SaaS. |
| PROJECT 605 | Enterprise Sale - 1 | Sell $50K+ contracts to 3+ enterprise customers. Document the full sales cycle. Build a repeatable sales playbook. Learn what actually works in B2B. |
TERM 2: Enterprise Scale & Go-to-Market
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 510 | Sales Team Building & Compensation | Hiring AEs and SDRs, quota setting, comp plans, ramp time, territory design. One founder can't sell forever. Learn to scale through others. |
| BUS 511 | Enterprise Product Management | Roadmaps, customer advisory boards, feature prioritization, technical debt. Learn to balance customer requests with product vision. |
| MKT 505 | B2B Marketing & Demand Generation | Content marketing, SEO, webinars, account-based marketing, lead scoring. Learn to generate qualified pipeline, not just traffic. |
| FIN 506 | SaaS Financial Modeling | Revenue recognition, deferred revenue, cash flow dynamics, Rule of 40 tradeoffs. SaaS accounting is counterintuitive. Master it. |
| STRAT 503 | Partner & Channel Strategy | System integrators, resellers, technology partnerships, co-selling. Learn to leverage other companies' sales forces. |
| PROJECT 606 | SaaS Scale - 2 | Build a repeatable enterprise sales motion. Hire and ramp 2+ salespeople. Reach $500K+ ARR. Demonstrate predictable revenue growth with healthy unit economics. |
TERM 3 & 4: Build Enterprise SaaS
Launch a vertical SaaS company, a dev tools business, or an enterprise platform. Aim for $1M+ ARR with strong net retention and efficient growth.
TERM 1: Diagnostic & Process Redesign
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| OPS 503 | Operational Diagnostics & Problem Solving | Root cause analysis, process mapping, bottleneck identification, data-driven diagnostics. Learn to see what's actually broken, not just symptoms. |
| OPS 504 | Manufacturing & Physical Operations | Production systems, quality management, lean manufacturing, capacity planning. Master physical operations where inefficiency has immediate costs. |
| OPS 505 | Technology & Automation Implementation | ERP, automation, process digitization, change management for systems. Operational excellence increasingly means technology integration. |
| OPS 506 | Supply Chain Resilience | Multi-sourcing, risk mitigation, contingency planning, supplier relationships. Learn to build operations that survive shocks. |
| FIN 507 | Financial Restructuring & Distressed Situations | Cash crisis management, renegotiating terms, creditor management, bankruptcy alternatives. Learn to operate when the runway is short. |
| PROJECT 607 | Operational Audit - 1 | Conduct deep operational audit of a real struggling business. Identify inefficiencies, quantify impact, propose detailed improvement plan. Present to leadership. |
TERM 2: Implementation & Value Realization
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 512 | Operational Analytics & Dashboards | Real-time metrics, variance analysis, predictive maintenance, exception reporting. Build systems that surface problems before they compound. |
| HR 502 | Change Management & Organizational Transformation | Resistance patterns, communication strategies, incentive realignment, cultural shifts. Operations changes fail when people don't change. |
| HR 503 | Performance Management & Accountability | KPIs, OKRs, performance reviews, difficult conversations, terminations. Operational excellence requires accountability. |
| STRAT 504 | Turnaround Strategy | Triage, focus, quick wins, strategic repositioning. Learn to stabilize bleeding companies and create paths to viability. |
| FIN 508 | Working Capital Optimization | Cash conversion cycle, inventory reduction, receivables management, payables strategy. Free up trapped capital. |
| PROJECT 608 | Turnaround Execution - 2 | Take a distressed business (real or simulated) and execute a turnaround. Achieve measurable improvement in 90 days: cost reduction, efficiency gains, revenue recovery. |
TERM 3 & 4: Execute Turnaround
Join a struggling company as COO, acquire a distressed business, or consult on operational transformations. Document before/after metrics and lessons learned.
Program's Goal: Train people to make them eligible for business operations and early-stage startup roles.
This program is designed to produce employees. The philosophy is to cover only the essential skills over a period of 9 months. The last 3 months are dedicated to placements and job hunting. Placements happen on our own job platform.
TERM 1: Business Fundamentals
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 101 | Introduction to Business Thinking | Transition from "I have an idea" to "I can create value and capture some of it." Learn to think in terms of customer problems, value propositions, and sustainable models. |
| ECON 101 | Fundamental Principles of Economics | Learn how markets work, supply and demand, price signals, and resource allocation. This is the operating system of business. |
| FIN 103 | Financial Accounting | Learn to read the language of business: balance sheets, income statements, cash flow. If you can't read financials, you're building blind. |
| MKT 101 | Fundamentals of Marketing | Marketing isn't advertising. It's understanding what people want, why they want it, and how to reach them. Learn to think like a customer before you think like a seller. |
| BUS 102 | Business Model Design | Revenue models, cost structures, key partnerships, channels. Learn frameworks like Business Model Canvas and Lean Canvas. Strategy without a viable model is just wishful thinking. |
| VENTURE 101 | Launch Venture - 1 | Find a real customer problem. Validate it through 20+ customer interviews. Create a minimal offering and make your first dollar. Document the entire journey. |
Note: Ideally, students should be able to secure roles in early-stage startups, growth associate positions, or operations roles with this foundation alone. Any further study is only required when looking for specialized or senior leadership roles.
TERM 2: Growth & Operations Skills
| Course Code | Course | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| BUS 103 | Fundamentals of Sales | Ideas don't sell themselves. Learn how to pitch, handle objections, close deals, and understand that sales is a learnable skill, not magic. |
| MKT 202 | Growth Marketing & Acquisition | Funnels, channels, CAC, LTV, cohort analysis, viral loops. Modern marketing is measurement. Learn how to acquire customers systematically and optimize relentlessly. |
| OPS 201 | Operations Management | Learn how work flows through systems. Process design, capacity planning, quality control, bottleneck analysis. Execution beats strategy if strategy can't execute. |
| BUS 301 | Business Intelligence & Dashboards | KPIs, metrics hierarchies, visualization, decision support systems. Build systems that surface truth rather than vanity metrics. |
| FIN 202 | Financial Modeling & Forecasting | Build three-statement models, scenario planning, sensitivity analysis. Learn to project futures and communicate financial narratives to stakeholders. |
| VENTURE 201 | Launch Venture - 2 | Scale your venture or start fresh. Acquire 50+ paying customers. Build repeatable processes. Track unit economics. Present results to potential employers/investors as portfolio piece. |
Note: Ideally, students should be able to crack Business Operations Manager, Growth Associate, or Account Manager roles after both terms, depending on their experience.