Entrepreneurship Courses

The Jake Jabs Center offers several courses each semester that cover a wide variety of entrepreneurial topics. From developing a marketable idea to creating a business plan to securing capital for your startup, we make sure our students graduate with the skills needed to run a business or contribute to an entrepreneurial organization successfully. Check out our upcoming ENTP courses below!

IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT COURSE SCHEDULING: Registering for an entrepreneurship (ENTP) course is a little different than other Business School courses. When selecting the campus in your class search, be sure to select the Extended Studies campus option instead of Denver.

LOOKING FOR SCHOLARSHIP ASSISTANCE? Visit our Tuition & Scholarship page to learn how the Jake Jabs Center can help you!

FALL 2024

Undergraduate

ENTP 3200 – The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship
Section 1: Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:30PM – 1:45PM
Section 2: Mondays 12:30PM – 1:45PM

Learn what it means to think like an entrepreneur and grow high-potential ideas in today’s ever-changing business landscape. Resilience, resourcefulness, and creative problem solving are not only essential skills for future founders but also for those looking to create change and drive growth in startups and large companies. By understanding the basic principles of entrepreneurship, students can learn how to find innovative solutions, sell their ideas, and create growth in any organization.

ENTP 3230 — Small Business Accounting and Finance
Tuesdays & Thursdays 11:00AM – 12:15PM

This course is an introduction to the financial life of an entrepreneur. Students will learn the basics of small business accounting and finance so that they can recognize the key financial challenges that come with owning a business; know the potential sources of capital for a small business; prepare basic financial statements; analyze a business’s liquidity, profitability, and capital structure; and understand a small business’s tax obligations. This course counts as a pre-req to ENTP 3299.

ENTP 3260 – High-Impact Sales for Entrepreneurs
ONLINE

Selling one’s own concept to prospective customers and investors is very different from selling products in a corporate environment. In this course, students will learn how to get their message heard, get their ideal clients to want to work with them, and use their authentic brand to sell their small-business concept successfully.

ENTP 3900 – Real-Life Entrepreneurship: The Founder’s Journey
Tuesdays 3:30PM – 6:15PM

Aspiring entrepreneurs need guidance, inspiration, networks, and practice to be successful. This course will help you cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset and provide opportunities to apply this mindset to in-class simulations. These skills will empower you to create your own businesses and/or stand out as desirable job candidates to Colorado’s many innovative companies. Learn from today’s leading founders as you hear their stories and visit their businesses, and engage in hands-on activities to gain real-world insights about the life of an entrepreneur.

Graduate

ENTP 6300 – AI-Driven Entrepreneurship
Second 8-Week Course
Thursdays 6:30PM – 9:15PM

This course will introduce you to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application in various fields relevant to entrepreneurial ventures across different sectors. When used judiciously, AI can help accelerate and improve many aspects of critical business functions, including concept evaluation, business planning, financial forecasting, data-driven marketing, customer personalization, and more. With course content, interactive discussions, and expert guest speakers you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the ethical considerations and potential risks inherent in AI adoption within entrepreneurial settings, as well as the best AI tools that can help aspiring entrepreneurs get started today.

ENTP 6620 – New Venture Operations and Project Management
First 8-Week Course
ONLINE

Many viable businesses have failed due to cash flow problems, poor management, and poor execution. Utilizing both academic fundamentals and practical knowledge imparted by an experienced instructor, this course provides the project management knowledge and skills needed to build strong operation plans.

ENTP 6824 – Entrepreneurial Financial Management
Second 8-Week Course
ONLINE

This course provides a foundation for the financial management of an entrepreneurial business. Topics covered include differentiation from traditional corporate financial management assumptions, financial aspects of setting up a business, and how to create, evaluate, forecast, and analyze future financial statements. Students will examine theoretical and practical valuation techniques, considerations for buying versus starting a business and franchising. The course also discusses different choices for financing a new business, venture capital, angel financing, crowd funding, private equity and security laws, harvesting alternatives, and financial distress turnaround considerations. Cannot receive credit for both FNCE 6460 and this course.

ENTP 6826 – International Entrepreneurship
First 8-Week Course
Mondays 6:30PM – 9:15PM

This course focuses on the intersection of international business and entrepreneurship. Topics addressed include international entrepreneurship theory and practice (opportunity identification, processes and route to market). This course also highlights new topics in international entrepreneurship such as digital globalization and new technologies driving international entrepreneurship (blockchain and the global supply chain). Leading practitioners and entrepreneurs will be facilitating these modules.

ENTP 6836 – High-Impact Sales for Entrepreneurs
First 8-Week Course
ONLINE

Selling one’s ideas, products, and services is critical to the success of any organization. This course explores the role and value of high impact selling in the success of the broader business and the many principles and methods of professional selling. Focus is given to sales methods, processes, best practices, and the frameworks used to organize sales efforts. By the end of this course, students will be able to effectively demonstrate their own sales process and go-to-market strategy.

ENTP 6842 – Idea Validation & Concept Development
First 8-Week Course
ONLINE

This course explores the data-driven tools and insights entrepreneurs can use to assess the viability of their ideas. Before drafting a full business plan, an entrepreneur must first determine if a new business concept is truly worthy of development. Students will learn how to identify market gaps and problem-solving products/services while maintaining a healthy level of skepticism regarding their ideas. Throughout this course, students will complete various experiential and theoretical learning exercises to investigate relevant topics, such as market and industry attractiveness; competitive and economic sustainability; and financial per-unit modeling.

ENTP 6848 – Leadership for New and Innovative Ventures
Second 8-Week Course
ONLINE

This course provides students with an overview of key leadership principles for creating strategy and managing teams in a startup environment. It introduces leadership concepts critical to gaining true organizational commitment and focuses on case studies relevant to common business issues. By exploring what entrepreneurial leaders do and how visionary leadership is required to develop an organization, students will learn how to execute these concepts through measurable goals.

SPRING 2025

Undergraduate

ENTP 3200 – The Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship
Tuesdays 11:00AM – 12:15PM

ENTP 3201 — The Power of The Lean Startup
First 8-Week Course
Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:30PM – 1:45PM

Get to know the Lean Startup methodology, a research-driven process to develop new products and businesses with efficiency and minimized risk. This leading framework focuses on experimentation, customer feedback, and iterative design to increase a venture’s competitive advantage and chances of success. Course topics include the methodology’s history and benefits, as well as how to test hypotheses, collect data, create a minimal viable product, accelerate growth, pivot, and more.

ENTP 3299 – Build Your Business: Plan, Pitch, Launch
Tuesdays & Thursdays 2:00PM – 3:15PM

Ever think about starting a business or want to know how? Take this class to find out why writing a thorough business plan and pitch is essential to transforming your idea into a reality. Students will learn how to use AI tools to evaluate the feasibility of their ideas and create an effective business plan through the process of “plan, pivot, plan, repeat.” Students will then develop a winning pitch and get experience presenting and receiving feedback from experts along the way. This course runs concurrently with THE CLIMB, an annual pitch competition and event series, giving students the chance to compete outside of the classroom and win real cash prizes for their business. By the end of this course, students will have created their own business plan for a viable idea and will develop an entrepreneurial mindset to aid their future startup ventures and/or careers.

ENTP 4200 – Creating Impact Through Social Entrepreneurship
ONLINE

This course is for anyone with aspirations to be a mission-driven entrepreneur, either within an existing organization or by starting their own. Learn about the evolving world of social entrepreneurship and how to create societal impact. By the end of this course, students will know how to advance an organization’s social mission and increase effectiveness, accountability, and efficiency through market-based techniques.

Graduate

ENTP 6020 – Business Model Development & Planning
First 8-Week Course
Thursdays 6:30PM – 9:15PM (ONLINE section available for fully online students)

This course familiarizes students with the key steps for preparing an effective business plan for a new (or existing) business venture. Utilizing strategies based on research, students learn how to create an effective pitch, a superb slide deck, and a cutting-edge business plan. Real-world feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs is synergistically interwoven with coursework, and THE CLIMB | Startup Pitch Competition events are used to further enhance the quality of one’s business concept. Several past students have won prizes at THE CLIMB and launched successful businesses from concepts developed in the course.

ENTP 6021 – Corporate Entrepreneurship
Second 8-Week Course
ONLINE

This course considers innovation and new-business creation strategies within an existing organization. It will explore various growth models intended to help organizations build their revenues in ways that are consistent with the business’s strategic orientation and constraints.

ENTP 6024 – The Startup Launch
Second 8-Week Course
Thursdays 6:30PM – 9:15PM

Did you know that over 99 percent of business concepts never see the light of day? Why? Because execution of an idea is possibly the most important aspect of a successful business startup. This course takes students through the process of launching a venture after a business concept has been validated. This course pairs practical lessons with a robust theoretical framework to help students understand why businesses fail or succeed based on how they began. Throughout the course, students meet many exciting entrepreneurs, hear their stories, and learn from their journey. Groups then write an execution plan for a viable business concept.

ENTP 6110 – Innovation in Fintech
Second 8-Week Course
ONLINE

Financial technology (fintech) describes products and opportunities that accrue when vast synergies between finance and technology can be effectively operationalized. It is rapidly changing the way we think about money and finance, and it profoundly impacts banks, global financial markets, transaction speeds, and government regulations. The global fintech market is predicted to reach around $250 billion by 2027. Topics in this course include peer-to-peer lending, digital wealth management, insurance, consumer finance, real estate, blockchain, automation, and payment systems.

ENTP 6200 – Purpose-Driven Innovation in Social Entrepreneurship
First 8-Week Course
Tuesdays 6:30PM – 9:15PM

The course is designed to teach students how traditional profit-driven models for innovation are being challenged by those seeking to create a positive social impact. Beyond just the nonprofit sector, businesses of all kinds are integrating environmental and societal change into their core operations. Students will explore how organizations can embrace social entrepreneurship while generating sustainable financial returns.

ENTP 6834 – Lean Marketing
First 8-Week Course
ONLINE

This course teaches students how to create successful marketing strategies in entrepreneurial environments where resources are often limited and negative outcomes can be unforgiving. Students will understand the imperative link between the fundamental marketing principles and entrepreneurial lean marketing guiding principles through real-life case studies, projects, videos, podcasts, and reading materials. Students will leave this course knowing how to develop an effective and pragmatic marketing plan for an entrepreneurial venture.

SUMMER 2025

Undergraduate

ENTP 3210 – Leadership for New and Innovative Ventures
ONLINE

This course provides students with an overview of key leadership principles for creating strategy and managing teams in a startup environment. It introduces leadership concepts critical to gaining true organizational commitment and focuses on case studies relevant to common business issues. By exploring what entrepreneurial leaders do and how visionary leadership is required to grow a venture, students will learn how to execute these concepts through measurable goals.

Graduate

ENTP 6021 – Corporate Entrepreneurship
TBD

Description to come…

ENTP 6822 – Legal and Ethical Issues of Entrepreneurship
ONLINE

This course addresses the legal issues most frequently encountered by entrepreneurs and others involved in startups and small businesses (closely held or family-owned). The focus is on how to avoid legal problems and how best to cope when they arise. Topics include choice of business form, legal aspects of raising capital, taxation, intellectual property law, employment law, product liability, e-commerce, and the problems of managing lawyers and litigation.