ECON 327 – Track Courses

Students are able to select one of several ‘track’ courses to complete this requirement of the program.

The track courses are designed to provide students with the opportunity to delve deeper into a particular application of entrepreneurship. In these courses, students will work in teams to develop their own projects around the topics of the track.

Students may choose from one of the following ECON 327 sections to satisfy this portion of the program:

• ECON 327.002 – Scientific Ventures

• ECON 327.003 – Arts and Entrepreneurship

• ECON 327.004 – Commercial Ventures: The Art of Creating a Plan and a Pitch

• ECON 327.005 – Sports Ventures

• ECON 327.006 – Branding for Social Impact

Courses in other departments may also satisfy the track course requirement:

• ECON 490 – Compensation in Organizations

• COMP 325 – How to Build a Software Startup

• EDUC 590 – The Educational Innovation Marketplace: Launching & Marketing EduVentures (new for Fall 2024!)

• ENEC 473 – Business and Finance Fundamentals for Change Makers

• MEJO 592 – Workroom FashionMash Product Design

• PLCY/ECON/PLAN 326/326H – Social Entrepreneurship

• PLCY 435 – Designing for Impact: Social Enterprise Lab

• SOCI 302 – Field Work in Entrepreneurship

• SOCI/MGMT 427 – Labor Force Issues

• SPHG 428H – Public Health Entrepreneurship

We periodically add courses to this list. Please check with the Shuford Team if you have questions about courses.

ECON 327-001 Startup Ecosystems and Communities

Professor Jed Simmons

In the class, we’ll look at what makes strong startup ecosystems and communities (and explore what’s missing in some). The basis for our learning comes from the work of Brad Feld, Chris Heivly, and Techstars. We’ll introduce the “5 Ecosystem Drivers” and look at leading, emerging, and developing Cities, including

• Leading – NYC, Los Angeles, and London

• Emerging – Atlanta, Austin, and Miami (and Boulder)

• Developing – Birmingham and Cleveland

We’ll look at what makes these communities thrive & grow and what holds them back. We’ll explore what makes a good startup community & what are the gaps and challenges. We will use the Ecosystem Drivers framework and look at the startup ecosystems based on

• Culture

• Density

• Talent

• Capital

• Institutional Support

Over the three weeks, we will dive deep into and meet members of these communities. Each week, we will meet founders, investors, institution leaders, community champions, and others. We’ll also learn about important issues impacting communities, such as mental health. And meet programs like Venture for America that are helping bring talent to emerging and developing Cities. Additionally, by introducing you to these Cities, we hope you’ll consider new places to live, work, or visit. Lastly, we want to keep building the foundation for your journey and mindset.

ECON 327-003 Arts and Entrepreneurship

Professor Ken Weiss

Would you like to pull the stage curtain back, hang out behind the scenes, enter a world most never have? Did you know that the overwhelming majority of those working in the arts are not performers? The goal of this course is to provide you with the tools necessary to become an effective leader in the arts. You will be given the opportunity to conceptualize and prepare formal business plans for your self-created entrepreneurial ventures in the arts.

We examine the challenges and changing nature of entrepreneurship, innovation, and intellectual property rights unique to the arts. We invite successful artists and executives to join our classes and provide you with candid insights into their professional lives as we explore topics from the music, film, television, theatre, live performance industries and others.

ECON 327-004 Commercial Ventures: The Art of Creating a Plan and a Pitch

Professor Tom Collopy

This hands-on learning lab course will provide Shuford students with the practical skills needed to be competitive in the 21st century. You will get exposed to how economic principles come into play in the context of a start-up, the many variables in the financing of a start-up, identifying and measuring market opportunity, and most importantly understand strategic principles around the formulations of companies. The ultimate goal is to give you the confidence and skills–both practical and emotional to have a great career, whether it be a start-up or a corporation, and ultimately have a great life. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology products and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life.

ECON 327-005 Sports Ventures

Professor Chris Mumford

ECON 327-006 Branding for Social Impact

Professor Kenyetta Hall

This course starts with the premise that individuals want to make a difference in the world and have a passion for social impact. In today’s rapidly changing environment, one of the most valuable and often underutilized assets in a business is the element of having a strong brand presence in the marketplace. As a change agent who will challenge the status quo, having a compelling brand is more important than ever. This course is designed for students who want to explore how to develop a brand that will stand out. This course is applicable to multiple aspects of social enterprise including – for profit companies and start-ups, non-profit or self-funding organizations and people who want to act more entrepreneurially from within larger non-profits or socially oriented businesses.

ECON 490 Compensation In Organizations

Professor Jacob Kohlhepp

This course is both a 400-level elective for the Economics major and a track course for the Shuford Minor in Entrepreneurship. Prerequisites: ECON 400 & ECON 410

How people are paid can make or break an organization. This course studies organizational economics, with a focus on how compensation shapes work within organizations. Using a workhorse game theoretic model, case studies and recent empirical work in economics and management, students will learn how pay can help or hurt effort, teamwork, multitasking, and much more. This course will be useful for students interested in consulting, human resource analytics or starting their own company. A background in game theory is not required.

ECON 101: Introduction to Economics

This course is an introduction to fundamental issues in economics is a co-requisite of the Shuford Program that must be completed before the student’s graduation date. It focuses on economic issues including competition, scarcity, opportunity cost, and resource allocation.

ECON 111: The Economics of Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Professor Robert McDonough

This course presents the principles of microeconomics from the viewpoint of the entrepreneur. We introduce the fundamental concepts of economics through the lens of fascinating case studies of entrepreneurs who did (or unfortunately didn’t) use economic principles to create transformational disruptions to existing businesses and markets. We will learn economics by studying choices made by Lyft, Netflix, Partners in Health, Adidas, Tesla, Facebook and AIG. We will identify the economics principles that those businesses recognized and exploited in their successes and will use those principles to solve the firms’ current economic challenges.

ECON 125: Introduction to Entrepreneurship

Professors Susie Greene & Vickie Gibbs

This class will expose students to building the foundational skills to identify and develop innovative entrepreneurial venture ideas.

Students will learn about innovating, marshaling limited resources, inspiring teams, and persisting through challenges and uncertainty, often by trying, learning from what happens, and trying something better. Inherent in the process, students will be exposed to the skills, joys, and frustrations of being an entrepreneur.

The class employs experiential methods of teaching so students will be learning by doing as they develop the skills, tools, and mindsets that will help them in their entrepreneurial path both in organizations they start or join, as well as in their personal life.

ECON 325: THEORIES AND PRACTICES OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Professors Chris Mumford & Abhi Moulick

This course is designed to help you prepare for the 21st Century. You will learn the building blocks of innovation while preparing for your career and network. In this course we cover the creative mindset, opportunity recognition and design thinking processes, and high resolution prototyping skills. The course is organized in three sections: In Person/Digital Reputation Skills, Market Research Report and Design Thinking Sprint. The latter two sections are group projects to reflect how a modern workforce is organized. Class success will be determined by In class participation and strong group work. These projects are designed to get you out of your comfort zone and adapt to real constraints. The course is about changing life trajectories and thinking critically about the successes and failures of different start-ups and entrepreneurial ventures.

Examples of student deliverables:

• Personal Website, Resume, and LinkedIn Profile
• Market Research Report
• Design Thinking Sprint

The Internship Component

• We believe that learning in the classroom is only one part of the learning process in entrepreneurship.

• The internship component allows students to experience real-life scenarios outside the comfort of our courses to implement what they have learned. Includes traditional businesses and mission-driven social ventures

• Students are able to identify their own internships through their networks or work with our Internship Manager — Camelia Walker — to connect with internship opportunities that would be a good fit.

• Internships must be 320 hours and provide students with experiences that allow them to apply what they have learned in the classroom to their projects or jobs.

• We recommend students complete internships over the summer, as it gives students the appropriate amount of time to complete this requirement.

• For the internship to be approved for the program students must complete a learning contract that can be found here. Learning contracts are due by mid-April before the internship begins.

ECON 393: The Practicum in Entrepreneurship

• The final course of the program is our capstone course. This course has been designed to enlighten students on the tools and skills required to be an outstanding entrepreneur, founder, investor, or employee. We believe that life skills coupled with consumer-facing skills are the perfect elixir needed to be successful after graduation.

• We introduce students to the experiences of founders, start-up executives, and seasoned corporate professionals across a range of disciplines that allow them to better understand the entrepreneurial and business ecosystem. We add professional development and networking activities. Our goal is in this class is to provide students with a curriculum that takes the design-thinking model and challenges them to apply it to their own life.

• We believe this practicum course is best taken in a students’ senior year as it sets them up for success in choosing the next steps after graduation.

• Enrollment into ECON 393 is contingent upon the completion of an internship & attendant internship-journal after the completion of ECON 325 but BEFORE taking ECON 393; you can submit your journal HERE.