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Entrepreneurship

Learn how ventures identify opportunities, develop business models, test assumptions and plan for operation.

For: Learners at any starting point, including people exploring an idea and people studying venture creation.

After this page you can: Explain a venture’s customer, value, evidence and operating assumptions, and choose a useful next learning step.

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Part of: Business

About Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the work of exploring whether an idea can become a viable venture, then organizing people and resources to create and deliver value. It can take place in a new venture or within an established organization, and includes questions about customers, innovation, business models and execution.

Study the subject by moving from a broad idea toward specific evidence: identify a customer and need, describe how the venture could create and capture value, and test important assumptions. Courses, market research, interviews, and planning exercises offer different ways to examine those questions; the right route depends on what you want to learn next.

Start here

route

I’m new to entrepreneurship

Use MIT’s course sequence to move from idea generation and customer research toward business models and planning.

Start with: New Enterprises

route

I have an idea to investigate

Start with the SBA’s guide to market research and business planning, then use its questions to sharpen your next step.

Start with: Plan your business

route

I’m returning to innovation and venture design

Follow MIT’s course on organizing innovation in entrepreneurial and established firms.

Start with: Managing Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Learn the foundations

1.Find an opportunity and understand customersMarket research helps find customers, while competitive analysis helps make a business unique.

Market research helps find customers, while competitive analysis helps make a business unique.

Market research

Gathering information about consumer behavior and economic trends to examine and improve a business idea.

Customer segment

A defined group of customers a venture intends to serve.

Try it

Choose a simple service idea. Name one potential customer group and write one question that could help you learn whether the group has the need you imagine.

For a bicycle repair service: potential customers are people who commute by bicycle; ask, “Where do you currently go when your bicycle needs repair?”

2.Describe how a venture worksA business model links the people a venture serves, the value it offers, how it delivers that value, and its costs and revenue.

A business model links the people a venture serves, the value it offers, how it delivers that value, and its costs and revenue.

  • The Business Model Canvas

    The page describes a one-page canvas for describing how a business creates, delivers and captures value.

Business model

A description of how a business creates, delivers and captures value.

Try it

Describe a neighborhood tool library using one sentence for who it serves, one for its offer and one for how it might earn revenue.

It serves residents who occasionally need tools; it offers access to shared tools; it might earn revenue through membership fees.

3.Test assumptions about the offerIdentify what you believe about the customer and offer, then seek relevant evidence through direct research and small, focused tests.

Identify what you believe about the customer and offer, then seek relevant evidence through direct research and small, focused tests.

  • Plan your business

    The guide describes surveys, focus groups and interviews as direct research methods.

Primary customer research

Research gathered directly from potential or current customers, such as through interviews or surveys.

Try it

For a meal-planning service for busy students, write one assumption and a small research activity that could examine it.

Assumption: students want meals planned around their schedules. Activity: ask a few students how they currently decide what to eat during a busy week.

4.Plan the work and organize the ventureA venture plan can organize its customer, offer, team, operations and next steps; the format can vary with the venture’s needs.

A venture plan can organize its customer, offer, team, operations and next steps; the format can vary with the venture’s needs.

Business plan

A document that sets out key elements and guides decisions about starting, managing or growing a business.

Lean startup plan

A concise, high-level plan that summarizes key elements of a business.

Try it

Draft three headings for a one-page plan for a weekend plant-care service, and write one question each heading should answer.

Customers and need: who needs plant care while away? Offer and delivery: what care will be provided and how? Operations: what tasks and resources are needed for each visit?

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Books

Glossary

Every free Entrepreneurship course and book on RedLectern

Free Entrepreneurship online courses

  1. Early Stage CapitalMIT 15.391 · Browse materials
  2. Entrepreneurial MarketingMIT 15.835 · Browse materials
  3. Entrepreneurial SalesMIT 15.387 · Browse materials
  4. Entrepreneurship Without BordersMIT 15.395 · Browse materials
  5. Executing Strategy for ResultsMIT 15.361 · Browse materials
  6. Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Asia-PacificMIT 15.389A · Browse materials
  7. Global Entrepreneurship Lab: Latin America, the Middle East, and AfricaMIT 15.389B · Browse materials
  8. How to Develop Breakthrough Products and ServicesMIT 15.356 · Browse materials · Video
Show all 22 coursesShow fewer courses
  1. Management in EngineeringMIT 2.96 · Browse materials
  2. Managing Innovation and EntrepreneurshipMIT 15.351 · Browse materials
  3. New EnterprisesMIT 15.390 · Browse materials · Video
  4. New Executive Thinking Social-Impact Technology ProjectsMIT 15.960 · Browse materials · Video
  5. Nuts and Bolts of New VenturesMIT 15.393 · Browse materials · Video
  6. Seminar in Corporate EntrepreneurshipMIT 15.369 · Browse materials
  7. The Structure of Engineering RevolutionsMIT 6.933J · Browse materials
  8. Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial OrganizationMIT 15.394 · Open on OCW
  9. Developmental EntrepreneurshipMIT MAS.666 · Open on OCW
  10. Entrepreneurial FinanceMIT 15.431 · Open on OCW
  11. Lead User Innovation HandbookMIT RES.15-009 · Open on OCW
  12. MBA Study Tour: Innovation Islands - How New Zealand Became A Global Player in the Race to InnovateMIT 15.228 · Open on OCW
  13. Scaling Entrepreneurial VenturesMIT 15.392 · Open on OCW · Video
  14. Substance Use Disorder Ventures ProgramMIT RES.SUD-01 · Open on OCW · Video
How these courses are chosen

Listed as Entrepreneurship courses:

  • those whose title contains “Entrepreneurship” or “entrepreneurial”, or
  • those tagged “Entrepreneurship” or “entrepreneurial” as one of at most 2 topic tags, or as the first of 3.

Free Entrepreneurship textbooks and books

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