Farley Center for Entrepreneurship

farley.northwestern.edu

The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation evolves engineering beyond the application of the sciences to the creation of businesses that capitalize on innovations. We bring together faculty from an array of disciplines to develop a unique interdisciplinary curriculum in which students experience the entire entrepreneurial life cycle—from ideation to prototyping and business plan development.

Program of Study

ENTREP 225-0 Principles of Entrepreneurship (1 Unit)   This survey-style course serves as the foundational course for the undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship. It is also a good choice for students who simply wish to familiarize themselves with the world of entrepreneurship. Students will learn to think like entrepreneurs, and will be introduced to key topics relevant to entrepreneurship, including customer discovery, finance, and marketing. They will also learn how to understand and analyze a broad range of entrepreneurial activity, and will have the opportunity to locate their own goals and values within the field of entrepreneurship. Taught with IEMS 225-0; may not receive credit for both courses.

ENTREP 310-0 Personal Branding (1 Unit)  

This course meets a core requirement for the undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship. It is designed for freelancers, artists, and individual entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their careers. Students will learn how to use marketing and brand-building tactics in the service of their own goals and will be challenged to identify and pursue new professional opportunities. As part of their work in this course, students will create assets related to their developing brand, which may include social media content and a personal website.

ENTREP 325-0 Engineering Entrepreneurship (1 Unit)  

This experiential course is a capstone option for the undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship. It is also a valuable course for graduate students in engineering fields. The goal of the course is to introduce students to innovation-driven entrepreneurship, a process by which emergent technology serves as the catalyst for new venture formation. In partnership with Northwestern’s Innovation and New Ventures Office, this course challenges student teams to develop strategies for commercializing cutting-edge technologies. Each year, the course focuses on a significant innovation space. Taught with IEMS 325-0; may not receive credit for both courses.

Prerequisite: ENTREP 330-1.

ENTREP 330-1 Startup Accounting and Finance (1 Unit)  

This course meets a core requirement for the Farley undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship. It can also count toward the Farley graduate minor in entrepreneurship. The goal of the course is to teach students how to manage the finances of small and early-stage businesses using accounting software. Students also learn foundational accounting principles and work in teams on projects driven by case studies.

ENTREP 331-0 Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing (1 Unit)  

This course meets a core requirement for the undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship. The goal of the course is to teach students about the tools and strategies that startups use to generate revenue. It covers a broad range of topics related to sales and marketing including branding, positioning, lead generation, direct selling, social media, content marketing, influencer marketing, SEO, paid search, email marketing and other current trends. The class is a mixture of lecture, breakout groups and guest speakers.

ENTREP 332-0 Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures (1 Unit)   Topics selected from work of current interest in entrepreneurship and innovation. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisites: ENTREP 225-0 and ENTREP 325-0 recommended.

ENTREP 340-0 Innovate for Impact (1 Unit)  

This experiential course is focused on venture creation in the social impact space. Interdisciplinary teams of students use human-centered design and lean start-up principles to develop an impact-focused product or service and a plan to bring it to market.

ENTREP 360-0 Leadership, Ethics, and You (1 Unit)   This class satisfies a core requirement for the undergraduate minor in entrepreneurship. It can also be applied as an elective class for students in the graduate minor program. The class is designed for students who want to explore how ethics and integrity are tied to leadership, and how leadership skills can contribute to future success in both entrepreneurial endeavors and traditional career paths.

ENTREP 365-0 Tech Ethics and Business Integrity (1 Unit)   This course will explore the unique ethical challenges that face the technology industry, utilizing recent and historical case studies. Students will be challenged to think about what it means to run a business with integrity by examining common issues within the workplace as well as the responsibility that businesses have to customers. Data privacy abuses, sexual misconduct, and corporate greed, among many other topics, will be addressed.

ENTREP 380-1 Bay Area Experiential Seminar (1 Unit)   In this experiential class, students will gain exposure to work culture in the Bay Area. This will include externships at companies, from startups to Big Tech, in which students will shadow and/or interview employees to gain an understanding of the organization. The on-site externship – once a week for 6-8 weeks – will be supplemented by readings, reflection papers and weekly, hour-long discussions with the professor and classmates. Students will also submit a final paper summarizing broad class learnings, as well as observations specific to their host companies.

ENTREP 380-2 Bay Area Experiential Seminar (1 Unit)   In this experiential class, students will gain exposure to work culture in the Bay Area. This will include externships at companies, from startups to Big Tech, in which students will shadow and/or interview employees to gain an understanding of the organization. The on-site externship – once a week for 6-8 weeks – will be supplemented by readings, reflection papers and weekly, hour-long discussions with the professor and classmates. Students will also submit a final paper summarizing broad class learnings, as well as observations specific to their host companies.

ENTREP 395-0 Special Topics (1 Unit)   Topics selected from work of current interest in entrepreneurship and innovation. May be repeated for credit.

ENTREP 399-0 Independent Study with Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (1-3 Units)   Special projects under faculty direction. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor and department.