Our Entrepreneurship Minor Helps You Develop Innovative Solutions to Societal Problems
The entrepreneurship minor, a joint offering with the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing and the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, allows Rice students to pursue rigorous and interdisciplinary study in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. The minor is administered by the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie).
What to Expect
The Entrepreneurship Minor at Rice University provides students with a rigorous, interdisciplinary pathway to explore innovation and venture creation. The premise is straightforward: entrepreneurial skills and the entrepreneurial mindset matter no matter what you end up doing — startup, large company, government, nonprofit.
Through a combination of coursework and hands-on experiences, students gain a strong foundation in the core theories, frameworks, and tools that power entrepreneurship, learning how to translate ideas into scalable, real-world solutions that address meaningful challenges. Students talk to real users, test ideas in the field, build prototypes, and pitch to actual audiences. Core courses walk through the full arc from discovery to strategy: figuring out what problems are worth solving, understanding the people affected, validating solutions, and making the case for what you've built.
Beyond venture creation, the program equips students with professional skills that are valuable across industries, including the ability to:
- Identify critical problems and market opportunities and develop validated solutions that address real needs
- Apply empathy-driven thinking to better understand customers, users, clients, and collaborators
- Collaborate effectively in interdisciplinary teams and communicate ideas clearly across departments, organizations, and industries
Students leave the program not only prepared to launch ventures, but also equipped with the strategic thinking, creativity, and leadership skills needed to drive innovation in any career path.
Minor Course Requirements
We recommend you consult the General Announcements (GA) for the most up-to-date requirements. The GA is the official Rice curriculum. In the event that there is a discrepancy between the GA and any other websites or publications, the GA shall prevail as the authoritative source.
Students must complete 18 units to successfully complete the minor.
All students must take four core classes:
- BUSI 220, “Intro to Design and Innovation” (3 credit hours)
- BUSI 369, “New Enterprises,” (3 credit hours)
- BUSI 223, “Business Modeling for Entrepreneurs,” (3 credit hours)
- BUSI 463, “Entrepreneurial Strategy,” (3 credit hours)
Students will then select 6.0 credits from the following list of courses:
- BUSI 221: New Enterprises: Discovery (3 credit hours)
- BUSI 224/BIOE 123: Bias in Medical Device Design (1 credit hour)
- BUSI 222: Tech Product Design & Dev (3 credit hours)
- BUSI 360: Founders Journey (1 credit hour)
- BUSI 361: Entrepreneurial Communication (1 credit hour)
- BUSI 365, Design Build Ship: Rapidly Building Startup Ideas (3 credit hours) – application based – prerequisite: BUSI 220, BUSI 222, or BUSI 369
- BUSI 461: Financing the Startup Venture (3 credit hours)
- BUSI 465: Student Venture Fund: Evaluating Startup Investment Opportunities (3 credit hours) – prerequisite: BUSI 461
- BUSI 469: Lilie New Venture Challenge (3 credit hours) – application based – prerequisite: BUSI 369
- RCEL 450: Project Management & Leadership (2 credit hours)
You can find more information about our courses on the undergraduate course page. Please note that ENGI 525 is not counted towards the Entrepreneurship Minor.
Experiential Learning Opportunities
Beyond the classroom, students pursuing the undergraduate entrepreneurship minor gain hands-on experience through Lilie’s dynamic portfolio of programs, designed to help them build, test, and launch ideas in real time. Opportunities include::
- Founder Community Experiences – Connect with fellow student builders and experienced founders through curated networking events, founder dinners, and peer-learning gatherings that strengthen your entrepreneurial community.
- Founder Talks & Innovation Events – Learn directly from leading entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators through speaker series, workshops, and campus-wide innovation programming.
- Pitch Competitions – Put your ideas to the test in Rice’s internal pitch competitions, including the Napier Rice Launch Challenge, where students present ventures for feedback, recognition, and funding.
- Student Venture Funding – Apply for early-stage funding opportunities, including the Summer Venture Studio accelerator and grants that support customer discovery, prototyping, and early market validation.
About Entrepreneurship at Rice
As a global powerhouse in entrepreneurship education, Rice University has a world-class community of alumni who are engaged in entrepreneurial and innovative pursuits. Our alumni have transformed industries through the creation and funding of game-changing startups as well as established first-in-class entrepreneurial ecosystems around the globe.
Specifically, Rice Business has been consistently ranked among the top 10 graduate entrepreneurship programs in the nation, reflective of the depth and breadth of resources for entrepreneurs during their time at Rice and beyond. We are proud to be ranked the No. 1 Graduate Entrepreneurship Program by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine for the sixth year in a row.
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Director of Strategic Initiatives and Programs, Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship