Entrepreneurship@MIT

Version 011102 By Joost Bonsen, MIT 90 EE, jpbonsen@mit.edu, Copyright (c) 1996-2001

Keywords: MIT, Entrepreneurship, New Ventures, Venture Capital, Education, Technology, Exponential Wealth Creation

A Guide from a former MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition Lead Organizer

Highlighting Some of MIT's Curricular and Extracurricular Efforts to Educate and Inspire the Next Generation of Technology Inventor-Entrepreneurs, New Venture Founders, and Corporate Leaders.

MIT -- Fountainhead of Wealth Creation

MIT is an oasis of excellence in thought and action and attracts people who are -- or will become -- prolific creators of wealth. As technology inventors and founders, builders, and leaders of companies, MIT students, faculty, staff, and alumni/ae create and sell products and services which benefit themselves and the world at large.

MIT Alumni and Faculty Corporate Founders

The MIT family has a rich history of entrepreneurship. A study prepared by the Bank of Boston in 1989 found 636 firms in Massachusetts founded by MIT alumni employing more than 200,000 with aggregate world-wide sales of nearly $40 billion. In 1990, a study released by the Chase Manhattan Bank found 176 existing MIT-founded companies in the Silicon Valley area employing more than 100,000 with aggregate sales topping $20 billion.

For example, corporate titans such as Amgen, AMP, Campbell Soup, Genentech, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, McDonnell Douglas, National Semiconductor, Rockwell International, Tandem, Teledyne, Texas Instruments, Tyco International, and 3Com -- all multi-billion dollar (end-1994 market capitalization) public companies -- were each co-founded by MIT alumni.

Massachusetts-based concerns such as DEC, Gillette, Raytheon, ThermoElectron, EMC, EG&G, IDG, Lotus Development, Analog Devices, Teradyne, Bose, Computervision, Dynatech, M/A-Com, Arthur D. Little, PictureTel, Haemonetics, Ionics, and Avid -- all greater than $200 million/year (1994 revenue) companies -- were each co-founded by MIT alumni.

SatCon Technology, PerSeptive Biosystems, Molten Metal Technology, Powersoft, and Atria Software -- all young publicly traded Massachusetts-based companies with revenue growth rates of greater than 100%/year (1993 to 1994) -- were each co-founded by MIT alumni.

And these are only the most noticeable companies. Hundreds, if not thousands, of MIT alumni, faculty, staff, and current students have started and built their own firms and dozens, if not hundreds, more are in the labs and classrooms at MIT right now.

MIT Entrepreneurship and Leadership Goals

This Guide is for those who would like to match or exceed this historic record of achievement by members of the MIT family. Highlighted here are some of the MIT entrepreneurship, invention, leadership, and technology transfer activities geared towards educating and inspiring the next generation of inventors and corporate founders, builders, and leaders.

MIT Entrepreneurship-Support Organizations

In addition to academic programs organized under the five Schools at MIT -- Engineering, Science, Humanities, Architecture, and Sloan Management -- there are several MIT offices and student groups whose activities support invention and entrepreneurship:

MIT Curricular Entrepreneurship Programs

Both undergraduate and graduate students may take advantage of the farsighted MIT policy allowing anyone to take any subject, regardless of major, assuming appropriate prerequisites, instructor permission, and space. Thus Engineering and Science students might take targeted business subjects and Sloan students certain Engineering or Media Lab subjects.

It's very important to consult the latest MIT Bulletin and seek updates published by each School or department (especially by the MIT Sloan School of Management) since there are often dramatic last minute additions and changes to the subject offerings.

January Independent Activity Period (IAP) activities are particularly unique and useful parts of the MIT curriculum.

Here are a few subjects you should know of:

There are dozens of additional subjects worth considering from an entrepreneurship and leadership standpoint. These include communications, software project management, product development, design, leadership and business skills for engineers, negotiation, strategy, marketing, finance, intellectual property law, and more.

Since MIT undergraduates are required to take roughly 25% of their class load as "humanities" courses, it pays to pick them so they're also useful.

MIT Quasicurricular E-Programs

MIT Extracurricular Venture Activities

Potential Applicants

There are plenty of entrepreneurship-oriented schools, for example Babson College, founded by MIT alumnus Roger Babson, class of 1898. Upon careful appraisal, we hope you'll consider applying to MIT!

Please send comments on this Guide to the entrepreneurship@mitwebmasters. Thank you! FYI, the URL is: http://www.mit.edu/people/jpbonsen/emit.html