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A world-class entrepreneurship curriculum

From the world-renowned Department of Management & Entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business, the entrepreneurship curriculum bridges classroom theory with the real business world.

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  • Have a Venture Idea?

The Entrepreneurship Program emphasizes the development of an entrepreneurial perspective in each student by incorporating the fundamentals of business creation and innovation along with interaction and networking with entrepreneurial community. These lessons can be applied to entrepreneurial start-ups or corporate entrepreneurship, the innovative divisions of larger organizations.

Take a brief tour of an entrepreneurship and corporate innovation course

The Kelley School of Business is a leader in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship education. The Kelley Direct Online MBA provides students with exciting opportunities to gain deep entrepreneurial skills and to apply those skills in real time. In this video, Dr. Donald F. Kuratko (known as Dr. K) and Kelley Direct students talk about the Silicon Valley Venture Challenge. This elective course challenges students to develop a venture plan to present to a board of professional experts in the field of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.

Description of the video:

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This unique course is the Silicon

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Valley Venture Challenge.

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Its nickname is the Ultimate Spine Sweat Experience.

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Now, before you get too scared, let me just explain this

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to you, why it's such a great challenge.

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You're gonna work online like every other course,

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to develop a business plan, a venture plan

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that you're going to actually then present.

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But you're gonna get on a plane, fly to Silicon Valley

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and present this plan to a 20 member advisory board.

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So you leave the academic environment,

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you go into the practical world, you take everything

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that you've learned from the book knowledge,

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and now you apply it for real

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because they're gonna decide you're grade

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and afterwards you're gonna learn who they are

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and why they're really there to help you.

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So while there is the challenge

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of presenting when it's over, you get to meet all of them

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and discuss things with them.

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You build up a network of some very, very powerful people.

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We all get to go out to Silicon Valley at the end

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of the course, and you really start to kind of dig deep

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and understand the fact that this could be life altering,

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life changing moment for you as a founder, to be able

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to present a plug and play was amazing.

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So Plug and Play is a world renowned accelerator

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for startups that have helped out companies like a PayPal.

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The ability to be there with Dr.

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K and the venture capitalists

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and the IU alumni was absolutely amazing.

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Once you're done pitching to the VCs

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and you get your grade, literally about two minutes

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after you're done pitching to the VCs, they,

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they tell you how they graded you.

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You pass or failed, is you have a happy hour

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with all the venture capitalists that that came there.

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And then after that, you have a big celebration

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with your classmates with some

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of the VCs at dinner that night too.

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And to me, that is a complete difference, uh,

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between any other class I've ever taken.

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Not only you're going to create a life-changing moment

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for yourself or for your company, for your career,

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but you're also able then to have

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that congratulation moment at the end of it too,

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where you have a kind of, all the pressure relaxes

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for a moment, you're able to have those conversations

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and create those deeper relationships.

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The Silicon Valley Venture Challenge is what you make it.

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Dr. K fosters your business ideas

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and opens up his own network to allow you

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to create a real business.

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After I got the feedback from the VCs, I'm now meeting

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with about three of them here over the next few months,

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continue pursuing what this idea can look like.

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I recently graduated with Silicon Valley Challenge was one

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of the last courses

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that I did at the Kelley School of Business.

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It brought together all the concepts

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that I learned throughout my MBA.

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I've been implementing it in bits

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and pieces in my day to Bday work,

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but this course gave me the opportunity to present my idea,

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my dream to the venture capitalist and get their validation.

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This is real. This is the real

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application of all the courses.

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So this was a proof that what you learned during the MBA,

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it's not just some concepts lying here and there,

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and it has true value.

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You know, overall, the Kelly Direct experience really

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delivers because you're taking the very knowledge

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that you're learning and applying it into your own work

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settings, into your own leadership abilities,

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into your own team.

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Really, you're seeing a direct application

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of your knowledge from the Kelly Online MBA in the KD

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program, right to your careers now

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and in future things

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that you're gonna develop in your career.

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