Business, Tech & Entrepreneurs (BTEP-UB)

As Business, Technology, and Entrepreneurship students begin their journey at NYU Stern, this course will immerse students into the world of entrepreneurship and technology through three interrelated modules. The first module (Entrepreneurial Mindset) will help students distinguish the myths and realities of entrepreneurship, introduce them to evidenced based approaches to navigating uncertain and ambiguous problems, and practice approaches to starting new opportunities. The second module (Design Thinking) is woven throughout the semester and will help students make observations, insights, and ideate and refine solutions. Through the design thinking cycle students will gain a user perspective to entrepreneurship and develop their capacity for iterative learning. The third module (Technology Ecosystem Immersion) will help students understand the interrelated nature of technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation as an Ecosystem. Through regular seminars, workshops, and visits around New York City, students will see the role that entrepreneurs, startups, technology firms, and venture capital play in the thriving NYC Tech Ecosystem. Finally, students will also explore and debate some of the key issues related to entrepreneurship, technology, and society.

This course is the immersive component of the introductory BTE class (BTEP-UB 1), which will include site visits of startups and large tech companies.

The role of information technology is central to businesses and has had a broad impact on society. This course introduces how information technology is used to support business processes and enterprise-wide initiatives to fulfill the strategic, tactical and operational requirements of business organizations such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), and e-Business. The course also looks at the role of emerging technologies such as Mobile Computing, Cloud Computing and Social Networking. The social, ethical, and security issues that arise with the adoption of information technology is discussed in class as well. Various business scenarios/problems are presented to teach students how to use IT to formulate, analyze, and solve problems and to enhance their analytical skills. The last several lectures will consist of workshops that will introduce students to SQL, Tableau and other relevant skill sets when working with information.

This spring immersion is a required colloquium for first-year BTE students. The program will consist of workshops in Entrepreneurship and Technology and include site visits to NYC companies.

This course provides real world, hands-on learning on what it’s like to start a new venture. This is a practical class — essentially a lab. The goal is to create a simulated entrepreneurial experience for students with all the pressures and demands of a real world early stage startup within the constraints of the classroom setting. In this class, students will start with a problem area, conduct extensive primary research, and learn to follow the evidence. While the end result is not a slide deck for a VC presentation, experience has shown that presenting investors with evidence in the form of the results of hundreds of customer interviews will definitely pique their interest.

The BTE Capstone is a course that allows students to focus independently on a product that integrates the core concepts and competencies of business, technology and entrepreneurship, learned throughout the BTE program. A Capstone course is not simply an advanced course in a particular sub-area, nor is it an unstructured project course. A Capstone is designed to be a culmination of your learning, and a chance to develop and express many skills at once through the development of a significant work product/artifact. Students develop, test, and refine their product with the guidance and supervision of faculty and alumni advisors. The BTE Capstone takes place over one semester, however has a significant pre-work expectation that should be worked on during the prior semester. A successful BTE Capstone prepares students for further development of their product or service, including resources to help launch their idea. The course requires the completion of three main assignments: (1) an extensive project documentation portfolio, (2) a product prototype, and (3) a product presentation.

With sponsorship of a faculty member, this course allows students to pursue independent learning through a research or experiential project. The course must meet the academic learning objectives of the BTE disciplinary fields.