Entrepreneurial Marketing & Finance

Entrepreneurial Marketing & Finance

MASTER ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE WORLD’S INNOVATION HUB

Every summer, Boston University provides an extraordinary experience for young executives and graduate students from around the globe: a custom-designed, high-intensity entrepreneurship accelerator. Join faculty experts from Innovate@BU and the BUild Lab and dive into marketing and finance for entrepreneurs. Experiment and practice in the city’s ecosystem. Study and live at Boston University—the world-renowned, urban research university in the heart of Boston.

Upcoming Program Dates

ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING & FINANCE (EMF)

AUGUST 5-9, 2019

Tuition: $2,450 per student

Join a Culture of Innovation.

The interactive, workshop-driven curriculum integrates theoretical frameworks, case-based discussions, real-life examples, site visits, and practical tools and techniques, underpinned by the proven Lean Start-up Approach. It focuses particularly on the two most challenging areas of entrepreneurship:

  • Marketing: Customer discovery, idea validation, building personas, growth hacking, and unit economics.
  • Finance: The reinforcing loop of selecting a business model, a revenue model, and a financing strategy in order to obtain early-stage capital – and how to make that loop evolve in tandem with changes in the product/service and the market.

Yet Entrepreneurial Marketing & Finance is more than a class. It’s also a workshop-based, project-oriented course that builds throughout the week and that ends with students presenting new ventures to experienced founders and entrepreneurs.

BU BUildLab
BU BUildLab Mobile

Learn & Network with Global Talent

Learn and network with entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts. Join exceptional classmates from the finest institutions worldwide—some will be starting their own businesses while others already have one or are preparing to help run family businesses or grow innovation in an established firm. Develop lifelong relationships with your fellow students, who can introduce you to industries and countries throughout the world. Gain an understanding of US best practices and an expanded global network.

The Innovate@BU and EMF course faculty are widely recognized experts, successful entrepreneurs and academic leaders who have a passion for teaching and a commitment to developing entrepreneurship throughout the world. Participants benefit from our faculty’s deep expertise and strong industry ties within the Boston entrepreneurial community.

  • Ian Mashiter is managing director of entrepreneurship activities and senior lecturer on entrepreneurship and strategy at BU Questrom School of Business. He is also an experienced operational executive and active angel investor who has raised $100 million in venture funding since 1996.
  • Peter Marton is director of Entrepreneurial Partnerships and an Executive in Residence at BU Questrom School of Business and the BUzz Lab Venture Center lecturing on entrepreneurship, strategy, and innovation. He is a successful entrepreneur with over 25 years experience founding or leading numerous high-tech start-ups, turnarounds, and high-profile ventures, including Cambridge Technology Partners, Fidelity Investments, and IBM.
Who Entrepreneurial Marketing & Finance Program Is Designed For

Master’s degree students and young executives who desire an intensive, hands-on experience in entrepreneurial marketing and finance. Past participants have ranged in age from 25 to 40 years old.

Agenda

Day 1

IDEATION & THE LEAN START-UP METHOD

9 am – 12 pm

Marketing and Finance in a Startup Environment
Focus on the roles – and expectations – of marketing and finance in entrepreneurial ventures, to recognize how choices in these two areas drive overall strategy rather than merely serving it. You’ll then turn to market and customer discovery: exploring what you can learn from early customers that will inform marketing strategy, then practicing aligning value propositions to customer pain points.

1-4 pm

Workshop and Team Projects: Ideation
Bring the morning’s concepts to life through an exercise in developing a viable business idea. You’ll begin by forming multi-school teams and creating, testing, and selecting venture ideas. You’ll then define the customer and practice developing intimate knowledge of not only what this customer will buy, but why and how – the value (marketing) and the payment model (finance).


Day 2

ENTREPRENEURIAL FINANCE

9 am – 12 pm

Designing Revenue and Business Models
Examine the typical sources of capital companies can pursue, delving into a core issue of new ventures: how much should we earn, and how much should we raise? You’ll then delve into the new digital business models and their impact on the design and strategy of new ventures. You will learn how to create value for customers and extract value for stakeholders using financial transactions, and will investigate the interrelationships and consequences of business model approaches, priorities, and related choices.

1-4 pm

Team Projects
Turn the morning lessons into practical reality. Working in your team and extending the Lean Canvas method, you will design a business and revenue model for your venture.


Day 3

ENTREPRENEURIAL MARKETING

9 am – 12 pm

Knowing Your Customer
Emphasize what customers find interesting, which means identifying the sub-sets of customers within one’s market. For each customer persona you will build unique value propositions—the cornerstone of a new venture concept.

1-4 pm

Site Visit: Boston/Cambridge Startup Incubator
Visit Boston-based entrepreneurs in one of the city’s extraordinarily vibrant incubators, such as MassChallenge or the Cambridge Innovation Center. You’ll learn what it takes to get a new venture off the ground and make connections with the Boston startup community.


Day 4

GROWTH & FINANCING

9 am – 12 pm

Growing your Business & Start-Up Financing
Raising money for a startup requires an in-depth understanding of financing and what investors expect to see. This session explores the various ways a new venture can generate revenue. Students will explore the art versus science of high-growth financing, the theory and practice of “Managing By the Numbers,” and review company valuation techniques. Students will be encouraged to relate this learning to the particular ideas that they each have been developing over the course of the program.

1-4 pm

Workshop and Team Projects
Synthesize your learning into a solid pitch to potential funders. In addition to building strong public speaking and presentation skills, your pitch will demonstrate the ability to identify key opportunities and challenges for the startup and articulate why an investor would choose your firm from the vast pool of potential ventures.


Day 5

THE ART OF THE PITCH; GRADUATION

9 am – 12 pm

Pitching Your Idea, Persuading Your Investors
Deliver your prepared pitch to an audience of experienced advisors and funders. Using everything you’ve learned in the EMF course, you’ll have the opportunity to persuade sophisticated investors to fund your growth.

1-4 pm

Graduation Ceremony
Enjoy a congratulatory ceremony where you will be presented with your Boston University Certificate.

Faculty
Ian Mashiter Iamage

Ian Mashiter

Director, BUild Lab; Senior Lecturer, Strategy & Innovation
Show Bio

Ian Mashiter is currently managing director of entrepreneurship activities and senior lecturer at Boston University where he teaches entrepreneurship and strategy to MBA and undergraduate students in the Questrom School of Business. He is also responsible for many of the entrepreneurship programs that the school runs including incubator and start-up accelerator programs.
Previously, Ian Mashiter was an entrepreneurial executive with more than 28 years of high-technology experience. Mr. Mashiter has raised $100 million in venture funding since 1996. Over his career, Mr. Mashiter has served as a board member, chief executive officer, and cofounder of such innovative telecommunications companies as Quarry Technologies, Ennovate Networks, Dymec, BMS, Nimbit, and Kenetic.
As an experienced operational executive and active angel investor, Mr. Mashiter provides advisory services to a number of high-tech start-ups. He is a member of the Hub Angel Group and the Launchpad Venture Group, as well as a Mass Challenge mentor and judge.
Mr. Mashiter is also on the board of the Capital Network. The Capital Network is a nonprofit (501c3) organization that provides extensive financial education to help early-stage entrepreneurs in Boston. Before founding Ennovate Networks, Mr. Mashiter was a principal of the Orbit Group, a consultancy specializing in international market penetration strategies for networking companies. Mr. Mashiter began his career with General DataComm (GDC), where he held numerous senior marketing positions leading up to his role as director of international marketing.


Peter Margton Image

Peter Marton

Director of Entrepreneurial Partnerships; Executive in Residence at Boston University Questrom School of Business and the BUzz Lab Venture Center
Show Bio

Peter Marton is director of Entrepreneurial Partnerships and an Executive in Residence at Boston University Questrom School of Business and the BUzz Lab Venture Center. Marton also lectures in entrepreneurship, strategy, and innovation at Questrom. Prior to joining BU he was a successful entrepreneur for 25 years, having been a founder and/or senior executive in a number of high-tech start-ups, turnarounds, and high-profile ventures, including Cambridge Technology Partners, Zamba Solutions, Primix Solutions, Fidelity Investments, Computervision and IBM. He has a strong track record of achievement through his hands-on leadership style in markets as diverse as software, information systems, healthcare, education, and distance learning.
He graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Tufts University with a degree in nuclear physics and computational mathematics, and earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Program Dates and Cost

August 5-9, 2019

$2,450 USD per student

This fee includes comprehensive course fees and materials, five nights housing, and a daily meal stipend. BU offers a range of modern, dormitory-style accommodations with both on-campus dining options and proximity to a range of neighborhood restaurants.

Housing

Registration Deadline: June 1, 2019 to secure BU housing
BU opens its on-campus residence halls to EMF participants for their program stay. BU offers a range of modern, dormitory-style accommodations with both on-campus dining options and proximity to a range of neighborhood restaurants.
Registration is possible from June 1 – July 20, 2019 but BU campus housing will not be guaranteed, and program fees may change due to housing restrictions 60 days prior to the course.

Boston: Where It Happens

photo-questrom-sign

The Entrepreneurial Marketing & Finance program is held at Questrom’s Executive Leadership Center, in Boston—a world-class center for innovation and technology. At Questrom, you’ll learn from our dedicated, world-renowned faculty who are recognized for translating research into practice.

Boston is the world’s epicenter of education and a global capital of innovation and innovative thinking. Whatever your area of focus, Boston is fertile ground for growth because it’s the hub of nearly every key industry: technology, healthcare, finance and entrepreneurship, just to name a few. Plus, Boston is dense with corporations and successful business leaders you’ll want to learn from.

The Executive Leadership Center puts you at the center of it all. Questrom is located on the MBTA Green Line, minutes from Kenmore Square, Fenway Park and the neighborhoods of Back Bay and Beacon Hill. The city with all its arts, culture, food, entertainment and sports is at your fingertips. There are plenty of dining options ranging from Asian cuisine to classic American just steps from BU.

Entrepreneurial Marketing & Finance
To Guarantee BU Housing

"I had many gratifying experiences, but visiting the Mass Challenge start up accelerator, having the chance to talk with entrepreneurs, was something unique."
Anna Alcarez
Tec de Monterrey/EGADE

Get News & Updates

Stay connected with email about our Executive Education programs, early bird specials, and research at Questrom School of Business.