Program in Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs, however smart they are and whatever ventures they pursue, are - above all - doers. They apply their ideas and learning to try to create value for their customers, investors, colleagues, themselves and hopefully our society. They challenge the status quo.

This practicum is intended to give you the opportunity to do your version of that endeavor – a significant firsthand practical experience in seeing what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur in whatever context is most meaningful to you. Whether you are interested in challenging yourself in a for-profit startup, a social-purpose venture, a nonprofit initiative or even an intrapreneurial setting inside an established organization, your practicum should give you the chance to apply some of the frameworks and concepts you’ve learned on campus.

It is not intended as a theoretical undertaking, but a hands-on exposure to the reality of the entrepreneurial odyssey, whether that unfolds in a Silicon Valley-type hi-tech setting or a rural village or underserved urban community someplace.  Accordingly, your practicum should expose you to key elements of that odyssey such as customer discovery, design thinking, solution prototyping, team assembly, or market validation – efforts that test and refine your hypotheses about what‘s required to create a financially viable, worthwhile venture.

OPTIONS: There are five primary options for your practicum, each designed with the above objectives in mind. Any of these can provide the experiential foundation for your required paper and presentation (described in the Expectations & Deliverables section below):

1. Entrepreneurial Engagement: If you’re considering eLab, TigerChallenge, PSIP (or comparable internship), joining a startup (whether as founder, co-founder, or another role) or playing a role in a corporate or nonprofit intrapreneurial project, that’s great. These can offer rewarding personal exposure with entrepreneurial leadership in various settings in the US and internationally.
2. Startup Launch: You have an idea for launching a venture, whether to change the world, exploit a gap in a market, offer a new product or service, earn a living, or something else. This practicum is your chance to put yourself to the test and see what it truly takes to convert that idea into a living enterprise, with the goal of actually getting your solution into its intended market. Several of your predecessors have done just that, often leveraging the contacts and resources available across the broader Princeton entrepreneurial network. As an entrepreneurial leader, you’ll experience what it takes to assemble a team, crystallize a go-to-market strategy, recruit financial backers and develop a basic product for target customers, among other things.
3. Solution Development: You have a specific idea for a product or service, but aren’t sure whether it’s ready to be the centerpiece of a venture itself or you just aren’t yet interested in being the primary entrepreneur to make that happen. In this case, your practicum is focused on the rigor of developing your idea through several cycles of practical prototyping, testing with prospective users and/or customers and refining your concept based on those results. You’ll experience the challenges of making your idea real.
4. Frontline Insights: You don’t have a venture or solution idea of your own right now, but you are curious about the whole entrepreneurial process in the real world – whether as part of the PSIP program or not. In this practicum, you will be the inquiring observer and reporter – personally interviewing at least a dozen entre/intrapreneurs to learn from them what their experience has been, and what key lessons they’ve learned along the way. Your job, however, is not merely in-depth reportage here; it is to show your own independent analysis of what their experiences reveal about the pluses and minuses of the entrepreneurial journey and its implications for your own thinking and career. Your Advisor can help you brainstorm how to identify and reach potential interviewees.
5. Wild Card: Entrepreneurs, like all innovators, challenge the status quo. They shake things up with ideas and strategies that test established wisdom and assumptions. In that spirit, if you have another idea for how you would like to structure a practicum that satisfies the fundamental expectations outlined here, be our guest. Design it, discuss it with your Keller Center Advisor and convince her or him that it’s as rigorous and valuable a leadership challenge as these other types; if they agree,

WHAT THIS PRACTICUM ISN’T: The entrepreneurship practicum is intended to be both experiential and analytical. Thus, a junior paper, senior thesis, or other independent coursework does not by itself satisfy the practicum requirement. However, these efforts may facilitate your designing a related experience and analytical agenda that does. If you have a proposal in that vein, please discuss it with your Advisor.

EXPECTATIONS & DELIVERABLES: Whichever form of practicum you select, you will be expected to devote substantial effort to it outside of your normal classroom efforts. It should demonstrate your own creative thinking, independent initiative and analytical rigor, applied to an entrepreneurial opportunity that resonates with your own interests and aspirations.

Juniors will explain their proposed practicum in the form of a poster presentation at the Keller Center’s Colloquium in the spring semester. Seniors have two final deliverables for their practica:

• a 10-page paper (due 2 weeks before the Colloquium); and
• a 5-minute formal oral presentation to a group of reviewers at the Colloquium itself.

Your practicum is fundamentally a theory-to-practice endeavor. Thus, your paper needs to demonstrate specifically how you tried to apply at least three of the frameworks, tools or concepts (resources) from across three different entrepreneurship courses you’ve taken thus far (one resource from each of three courses). What did you discover in seeing each concept in action? Did it work? If so, why? If not, why not? How would you modify it in the future based on your experience?

Your oral presentation at the Colloquium can be in the form of pithy slides (Powerpoint) or perhaps another creative format that allows others to learn from your learning experience and you to explain and defend your own conclusions in front of an audience of peers, faculty and outside observers. You can expect detailed feedback on your pass-fail “stand and deliver” summary from at least one Keller Center faculty member in addition to your Advisor.

The practicum is also intended to be a personal journey into the real world of entrepreneurship. Your final deliverables should identify what assumptions or hypotheses you tested in your practicum and how, what surprises – if any – you encountered and how this experience has affected your own plans for your future.