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Challenge yourself with a real college experience. Spend two weeks June 22 - July 3rd launching a company, taking fascinating classes with expert faculty, and prepping for college admissions.
"I can thank Mr. Steren for laying the groundwork for my entrepreneurship journey"
- Kirby Porter, Harvard Graduate and Sports Business Journal 30 under 30
Through Marc’s teachings, in just 2 short months we were able to learn and implement key foundational principles that directly impacted our product market fit and go to market strategies which led to the successful launch and scale of Kitu life Super Coffee.”
- Jordan DeCicco, Founder & COO
Our Students Come From NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, FL, CA, DC, SC:
Bullis School | Great Neck North High School | Holton-Arms School | Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School | Ramapo High School | Richard Montgomery High School | St. Andrews Episcopal School | Walt Whitman High School | Winston Churchill High School | Maret | National Cathedral School | Sidwell Friends School | Syosset High School | University High School (SFO) | DECA | Girls Who Run | McLean High School | Charles E Smith Jewish Day School | Packer Collegiate | Tenafly High School | Basis Independent | DW Daniel High School | Flintridge Preparatory School | Horace Mann School | Suffern High School
University Startups is a challenging college-level startup design course that teaches high school students how to start for-profit social impact companies over 2 weeks.
Marc Steren, Georgetown University Professor
Marc is the co-director of the Georgetown University Summer Launch program. He is the NFIB entrepreneur educator of the year 2015, the David S. Stone Excellence in Teaching award winner 2015 and the founder of the Young Innovators program. He has experience as the founder of multiple startups in technology, real estate and franchising. He is also the founder of BACCA methodology for student entrepreneurs that helps improve entrepreneurial self belief, build stronger teams with sustainable designs and creative ideas, conduct customer development, learn the business model canvas, and to utilize lean analytics. His book, The Student Guide to Entrepreneurship came out November 2015.
John Jabara, University of Maryland Professor
John started and ran international business units at GlaxoSmithkline, and teaches Technology Startups and Social Entrepreneurship at UMD and Georgetown. John is a 2-time Entrepreneurial Excellence Award Winner at Georgetown for Outstanding Mentorship as an Entrepreneur in Residence, and his student teams have won school and industry awards, government grants and investor funding. His book Mastering Customer Interviews for Entrepreneurs is used in new business design courses nationwide. A 3-time startup founder, John was named Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year by the Clean Energy Center, and his company was awarded Maryland Incubator Company of the Year and ‘Best For Environment’ by the non-profit B-Lab from 2015-2017.
"John and Marc helped transform our entrepreneurship program into a powerhouse"
- Jeff Reid, Founding Director of Georgetown Entrepreneurship
Daily Objectives & Schedule
1. Refine Problem Statement from Day
2. Define Value Proposition & Customer Segments for your startup
3. Conduct 5 customer interviews on Value Proposition & Customer Segments.
4. Prepare for Day customer interviews - outreach.
5. Prepare Day 2 Pitch Video - Value Proposition & Customer Segments.
10:00 am
Prepare. Day 2 learning videos, readings, objectives, work plan.
11:00 am
Team Zoom Meeting. Review daily objectives, allocate tasks, team work.
1:00 pm
Customer Interviews. 5 per day. Write up and submit responses.
3:00 pm
Mentor Meeting. Status report and next steps, questions. Write up reflections.
4:00 pm
Office Hours Call-In with Professors (optional)
Brainstorm new ideas, contact potential customers, meet mentors, iterate solutions and build your website.
This course is designed and taught by top tier University business professors, and uses the same methodology and materials found in leading business school courses worldwide. 50+ hours of learning.
Have a question? Contact us at info@university-startups.com
No. If students have a business idea, they are welcome to bring it along to discuss with their team to decide which idea to progress through the course. We will also have a list of problem statements the students can choose from.
Yes. If students would like to join the course as a team they are welcome to sign up and let us know during registration. For students not enrolled as a team, we will place them in teams of 4 to get the maximum benefit of the teamwork component in the course.
If students are unable to secure a seat in a course, please let us know and we will put you on a wait list for future courses.
Yes. Depending on the problem statement chosen and their ability to develop a solution / find customers, students should be able to build a simple website and start taking pre-orders, recruiting beta testers and in some cases generating sales. Learning is the key objective here, and students will learn the lean startup process that will be very useful in future innovation projects or new ventures.
This is a challenging college level course, so prospective students should be prepared to work hard, try new things and take personal responsibility to self-manage and keep up with daily assignments. Students will be reaching out to potential customers via email and phone, meeting with new teammates over video, and interacting with experienced business mentors and instructors. Please contact us for more information.
Young entrepreneurs want to change the world, and for-profit social entrepreneurship is a great way to introduce students to new concepts using business as a force for social good. Working on for-profit businesses to help a high risk group, improve some aspect of the environment or solving other problems with wider impacts gives students a well-rounded perspective of the challenges and opportunities, and builds character.
Entrepreneurial endeavors in high school can play an important role in framing student storylines for college applications. In this course we build in specific instruction from experts, including counselors and successful students on how to think about and plan potential pathways to highlight entrepreneurship in essays and other application components.
University Startups is a challenging college level course, using college curriculum, dedicated college instructors and experienced college mentors. Our team interacts with students, graduates and new business founders every day.
Our program aims to bring excellence to a topic that is too often standardized, and we’re confident that our backgrounds in entrepreneurship course design, teaching and mentoring can help students achieve their startup learning goals.
There are many components that are taken into consideration to increase the chances of team alignment and success, such as:
- Amount of passion team members feel towards the opportunity / problem to be solved
- Variety of experience and qualifications
- Complementary skill sets
- Balance of personalities
Refund Schedule
A percent of your program charge may be returned to you, depending on when you withdraw from your program.
Date of Official Withdrawal:
- Before May 22, 2020 - 80 percent of total charge
- Before May 29, 2020 - 60 percent of total charge
- Before June 5, 2020 - 40 percent of total charge
- Before June 12, 2020 - 20 percent of total charge
- After June 12, 2020 - 0 percent of total charge
Speak directly with our Professors to ask about any questions you may have about the program curriculum, dates, or registration process.
