"To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world sparkles with light." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is the New Entrepreneurs Program?

The University of Chicago's New Entrepreneurs Program^SM is a rigorous, four-month program of study for professionals who wish to start a new venture. The program has three components:

• Frequent, in-person meetings with your mentor to write a business plan and launch a new venture within the four-month period. Your mentor is a seasoned business and operating expert who provides discipline, structure, and a deliverable focus.
• Instruction in entrepreneurship, e-business, and business strategy from top business school professors via recorded lectures, readings, cases, and online discussion.
• "Institutionalized networking." The program may include periodic interactions with a network of fellow entrepreneurs, alumni, venture capitalists, attorneys, and business executives.

What is the New Entrepreneurs Program's Mission?

The New Entrepreneurs Program's mission is to teach first-time entrepreneurs how to design, implement, and manage a new business.

To accomplish this, we teach you frameworks and models for:

• Evaluating opportunities
• Developing a clear and viable business concept
• Designing the enterprise
• Writing a business plan
• Launching an effective and sustainable new venture

Beyond the instruction and mentorship, the New Entrepreneurs Program also introduces entrepreneurs to classic texts in literature and philosophy, and incorporates concepts from domains outside business such as music and anthropology.

How do we do it?

Participants in the New Entrepreneurs Program commit to a four-month journey culminating in the creation and launch of a new venture. The journey consists of eight two-week modules on the various aspects of new-venture creation. During each module, participants will 1) Review lectures from leading professors, 2) Read articles and cases on the topic at hand, 3) work on the business plan and on the process of launching the business under the supervision of a mentor. We will keep a journal of our journey which you can (optionally) present to your mentor. There will also be a number of "side journeys" in which you will listen to provocative music and go on a train ride. Our approach can be summarized as follows:

• The New Entrepreneurs Program exposes entrepreneurs to an unmatched team of business school faculty members who teach entrepreneurship, e-commerce, strategy, and finance at preeminent institutions, as well as mentors who are seasoned business executives with significant startup experience. This group has advised many successful startup ventures and has helped craft innovative new venture strategies for Fortune 500 companies such as ExxonMobil and Lockheed Martin.
• The Academy¹s Directors believe that to succeed, companies must execute rapidly by tapping the knowledge capital, creative capital, and financial capital of individuals that have expansive experience in advising new ventures and an extensive contact network.

• The New Entrepreneurs Program compresses the time-to-market via mentoring, visioning, creating, inspiring, and learning.

Why did we create the New Entrepreneurs Program?

Promising startups have an enormous need for mentoring at the earliest stages of their development. But there are few places for professionals to turn: MBA programs on the one extreme; books and seminars at the other. The New Entrepreneurs Program provides the rigor of an MBA program, but focuses like a laser on two specific deliverables: a business plan, and the successful launching of the new venture.

The New Entrepreneurs Program is more than a tutorial on how to launch a new company. The New Entrepreneurs Program emphasizes strategy, product development, financing, marketing and a solid business plan, and gives you plenty of opportunity to experience each. But in addition to the academic lectures and articles, there is a more pragmatic side to the academy: a focus on discipline, timelines, and outputs.

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