Entrepreneurship is more than a class at Rice Business — it’s a way of thinking that is central to all our teaching. Whether you’re starting a new enterprise or making something happen at the company where you work, the entrepreneurial mindset is a crucial part of your tool kit. Together, we’ll unlock new possibilities.
Robust Entrepreneurship Curriculum
Looking to turn your big idea into a successful business? Rice Business is one of the only MBA programs in the country with an entrepreneurship concentration. We’ll give you the guidance and support you need to launch your business and get it growing.
Interested in Rice Business?
Why An Entrepreneurial Mindset Matters
No matter what your career goals look like now, an entrepreneurial mindset is necessary for lifelong growth and career success. Rice Business and its community in Houston are here to help you build it and thrive.
Our Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
What makes an entrepreneurial ecosystem? A collaborative culture, a safe space for talent and inspiration, a willing network and access to financing. Rice Business has built that environment, along with an array of vibrant events, workshops, courses and competitions offered to students, alumni and the broader Rice community no matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey.
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Let events and programs inspire you to explore entrepreneurship and discover how you can bring your personal experience and passion to creating a new product, service or business that makes a positive impact on industry and society.
Description Students Alumni Public Ladies Who Launch: Monthly fireside chat with brilliant female founders sharing their entrepreneurial journeys and how they overcame the many unique challenges they've encountered X X FIESTA: Rice's festival of innovation, entrepreneurship, science, tech and art kicks off the school year with inspiration from leading entrepreneurs and innovators X Future Founders Summit: A weekend-long summit for incoming MBAs and other graduate students from around campus to catalyze your journey as entrepreneurs at Rice X Ignite Trek: An opportunity for entrepreneurial-minded students to meet successful entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley. X -
Entrepreneurship classes emphasize a combination of mindset and skillset to focus on multiple stages of the entrepreneurial process. Classes include The New Enterprise, Enterprise Acquisition, The Social Enterprise and more, tailored to a wide range of interests. We are one of the only MBA programs in the country with an entrepreneurship concentration. We’ll give you the guidance and support you need to launch your business and get it growing. Explore top electives and get to know our faculty here.
In addition, students can take advantage of our Rice Business Entrepreneurship Labs (e-Labs) where students put theory into practice through experiential learning opportunities. E-labs are similar to independent studies, designed for both individual students or small teams, where students can launch their entrepreneurial venture or work alongside industry professionals for credit. There are opportunities to explore venture creation, venture capital and acquisitions/mergers. The courses are directed by professors with founding experience themselves, as well as entrepreneurial alumni mentors. The exposure to Rice’s entrepreneurial alumni and the broader Houston entrepreneurial ecosystem is just one benefit from participation. Many of our students continue working on their venture or find funding with their venture post-graduation. Learn more here.
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Before you can accelerate a venture, you need the right fuel for the fire by coming up with and testing a number of different ideas, technologies and strategies. The Ideate programming helps founders develop the frameworks, mindset and skill set to identify valuable problems in need of solutions and get started down the path of idea to real world impact.
Description Students Alumni Public Events
First Pitch and Founder Finder: Your first chance to grab a mic, pitch your idea, hear from peers and connect with fellow students interested in launching a startup. X Future Founders Summit: A weekend-long summit for incoming MBAs and other graduate students from around campus to catalyze your journey as entrepreneurs at Rice. X Rice Business Plan Competition: The largest and richest intercollegiate graduate student startup competition with over $1 million in prizes and opportunities for mentorship and a platform to launch your startup. X X* Rice Business Plan Competition Qualifier: Rice University graduate students pitch their startups to judges for a chance to represent the school at RBPC and receive cash prizes. X Workshops
Venture Development Workshop: A series of workshops during the fall semester to help students ideate new venture ideas and begin building the foundational skill set to make real progress on their ventures. X X IdeaLaunch: This free virtual bootcamp helps startup teams examine their ideas, research and innovation for market fit. This program is part of the NSF I-Corps regional program. X X X Programs or Co-Curriculars
The Rice eXperiment Fund: This fund puts little checks behind your big ideas, providing no strings attached funding and mentorship to help you validate and launch new ventures. X Launchpad: A one-night-a-week bootcamp for six weeks to help students go from idea to validation on their venture idea, while receiving personalized mentorship from alumni founders. X The Napier Rice Launch Challenge (NRLC): The new venture competition just for the Rice campus provides student founders a chance to earn +$100,000 in equity-free funding. X X Ignite Trek: An opportunity for entrepreneurial-minded students to meet successful entrepreneurs and investors in Silicon Valley. X *Other MBA students from other universities
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Now that you've got an idea, it's time to get started running experiments and gathering data to help you understand if you're targeting the right problem, for the right customer and with the right solution.
Programs and Co-Curriculars Students Alumni Public Liu Idea Lab Launchpad: A one-night-a-week bootcamp for six weeks to help students go from idea to validation on their venture idea, while receiving personalized mentorship from alumni founders. X Napier Rice Launch Challenge: The new venture competition just for the Rice campus provides student founders a chance to earn +$100,000 in equity-free funding. X X BlueLaunch Small Business Accelerator: A 12-week program offering business training, mentoring, and exposure to resources to help entrepreneurs with customer development, brand refinement, product expansion and business strategy. Participants earn a cash stipend upon completion X X OwlSpark Tech Startup Accelerator: A 12-week program providing hands-on entrepreneurship experiences and a roadmap from innovation to commercialization for students, faculty, staff, and recent alumni. X X Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator: A 10-week accelerator program open to global early-stage ventures in the sustainable and energy transition space, helping startups achieve technical and commercial milestones and expand their reach for investment opportunities and network development. X X X NSF I-Corps: An immersive seven-week program and $50,000 grant opportunity for scientists and researchers (both graduate students and faculty)to evaluate the commercial potential of a technology-based startup using a structured hypothesis-driven methodology. X -
Validating a business is only just the start -- now it's time to accelerate your venture to hit escape velocity while transitioning from campus to the community as you build the next generation of pillar companies for Houston.
Programs and Co-Curriculars Students Alumni Public Summer Venture Studio: A full-time immersive summer accelerator program for the most promising high growth ventures from around the campus. X Napier Rice Launch Challenge: The new venture competition just for the Rice campus, providing student founders a chance to earn +$100,000 in equity-free funding. X X BlueLaunch Small Business Accelerator: A 12-week program offering business training, mentoring, and exposure to resources to help entrepreneurs with customer development, brand refinement, product expansion and business strategy. Participants earn a cash stipend upon completion X X OwlSpark Tech Startup Accelerator: A 12-week program providing hands-on entrepreneurship experiences and a roadmap from innovation to commercialization for students, faculty, staff, and recent alumni. X X Rice Alliance Clean Energy Accelerator: A 10-week accelerator program open to global early-stage ventures in the sustainable and energy transition space, helping startups achieve technical and commercial milestones and expand their reach for investment opportunities and network development. X X X Rice Business Plan Competition: The largest and richest intercollegiate graduate student startup competition with over $1 million in prizes and opportunities for mentorship and a platform to launch your startup. X X* *Other MBA students from other universities
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Startups aren’t the only path to entrepreneurship. Below are just a few ways you can learn how to invest or acquire new ventures.
Programs and Co-Curriculars Students Alumni Public The Rice Entrepreneurship Acquisitions Lab gives students the opportunity to assess existing business ventures, explore financing options and develop plans to scale the venture once you’re at the helm. By connecting you with mentors, investors and a sounding board of peers, the lab will help you jump-start the process while you’re enrolled and support you through acquisition and beyond. X Student Venture Fund: Evaluating Startup Investment Opportunities: Students will identify, screen and evaluate startups for investment by the Rice venture capital fund. Through this highly experiential course, students will learn tools for rigorously evaluating startup ventures for investment, valuing early-stage companies and structuring investments. X Global Venture Capital Investment Competition: students get to play the role of VCs who have around $100MM to invest in one of the startups presenting. It is the only place students get to be VCs for the day. You will participate in a highly interactive simulation of the VC process, real startups come to pitch to you and VC judges assess your performance. The selected Rice team will be coached by members of the previous VCIC team, the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship as well as our Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship X Rice Alliance Energy Venture Forum: The region’s largest energy and life science venture capital conference. The event brings together hundreds of active investors and 70+ startups to pitch their companies. X X X