Photo by Flickr user DustyReagan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has always been associated with major scientific and technological breakthroughs. But the breakthroughs alone do not explain the impact that MIT has had on the world. For that we have to look at entrepreneurship, which starts with the "Mens et Manus" (Mind and Hand) slogan on the Great Seal of MIT. For faculty, students, and alumni, MIT is all about making discoveries and inventions and then applying these discoveries and inventions to solve real problems. In a very tangible way, MIT faculty and graduates invent the future, and entrepreneurship—the building of new businesses—is often the road to that future.
Watch this video introduction to entrepreneurship at MIT.
The report “Entrepreneurship and Innovation at MIT” examines the impact of MIT graduates who have founded and built for-profit companies. The report estimates that, as of 2014, living MIT alumni have launched more than 30,000 active companies, creating some 4.6 million jobs and generating $1.9 trillion in annual revenue. The cumulative result is the equivalent of the 10th largest economy in the world. This rich legacy of high-impact companies spans a wide range of industries; recent examples include A123 Systems, Akamai, iRobot, InVivo Therapeutics and Dropbox.
The following courses represent a selection of the entrepreneurship-related courses offered at MIT. The courses are organized in two ways:
- Core and Supplemental: Core courses, the starting points for entrepreneurs and Supplemental courses, important once the basics have been mastered, are listed below.
- Courses Arranged by Topic:
- Finance
- Law
- Leadership
- Marketing and Planning
- Operations
- Strategy
Those interested in a general introduction to entrepreneurship as taught at MIT should visit 15.390 New Enterprises and 15.S21 Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans. Both courses have video resources.
A list of MIT-hosted videos relating to entrepreneurship is also available.
