Academic Areas Entrepreneurship Faculty and Research
Booth is the destination for cutting-edge entrepreneurship education and research. Over 70 percent of our students choose a concentration in entrepreneurship.
Students learn in the classroom and apply that classroom learning to real-world situations through lab classes, competitions, and internships within the entrepreneurial community.
Through partnerships with the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, courses and competitions such as the Edward L. Kaplan, ’71, New Venture Challenge (NVC) and the John Edwardson, ’72, Social New Venture Challenge (SNVC), among others, Booth students gain firsthand experience as an entrepreneur and bring their startup ideas to fruition. GrubHub, Braintree-Venmo, Simple Mills, and Tovala are among the hundreds of companies that have been accelerated by the NVC.
In addition to its world-class accelerator, Booth offers courses and programming in Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA), including credit-bearing courses, the largest ETA conference in the world, and the Alumni Symposium series. This suite of resources provides students with the education, capital, and mentorship to acquire and grow a small business. Booth alumnus Shamus Hines, for instance, leveraged the knowledge he gained as an MBA entrepreneurship student to successfully acquire and run Applied Data Corporation, a software solution company.
Booth students also have the opportunity to apply their entrepreneurial acumen to engage with the sciences through innovative programming at the Polsky Center. Students can match directly with new ventures through the Collaboratorium series as well as the Innovation Fund Associates program, which tasks students to investigate and implement strategies for venture capital investments in existing startups, such as NanoPattern Technologies and ReAx.
On the research side, our entrepreneurship professors provide the world with insights into some of the most important topics impacting entrepreneurs today—for example, measuring the returns and risks of investing in startups and venture capital, as well as understanding what venture capitalists do and how they choose investments.
Entrepreneurship Faculty
For our MBA students, entrepreneurship classes have become some of the most popular among our deep selection of course offerings. This is due in large part to our industry-leading faculty, who bring their entrepreneurial experiences and expertise to the Booth classroom to teach future leaders how to launch a successful business.
One-of-a-kind classes such as professor Scott Meadow’s Commercializing Innovation: Tools to Research and Analyze Private Enterprises incorporate Meadow’s experience as an investor and advisor into real-world case studies. Other classes such as Special Topics in Entrepreneurship: Developing a New Venture (New Venture Challenge) bring in venture capitalists, private investors, and entrepreneurs to help critique and improve students’ business ideas.
Discover more about our entrepreneurship faculty, including the classes they teach, below.
Raghu Betina
Clinical Associate Professor of Operations Management and Entrepreneurship
Raghu Betina
Robert H. Gertner
Joel F. Gemunder Professor of Strategy and Finance; John Edwardson Faculty Director Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
Robert H. Gertner
Todd Henderson
Michael J. Marks Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School
Todd Henderson
Steven Neil Kaplan
Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance and Kessenich E.P. Faculty Director at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Steven Neil Kaplan
Starr Marcello
Deputy Dean for MBA and Masters Programs; Special Advisor to the Provost; Adjunct Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship
Starr Marcello
Luigi Zingales
Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance
Luigi Zingales
Featured Research in Chicago Booth Review
Discover some of the latest research from our entrepreneurship professors.
The Right Questions to Ask for Startup Success
Booth’s Steve Kaplan outlines the framework he developed to help investors and entrepreneurs evaluate startup companies.
The Right Questions to Ask for Startup Success
COVID-19 Is Changing Key Business Relationships
Booth’s Waverly Deutsch explains why this crisis is different from past ones.
COVID-19 Is Changing Key Business Relationships
Startups, Forget about the Technology
New ventures should focus all their efforts on problem-solving, says Booth’s Michael D. Alter.
Startups, Forget about the Technology
Research with Impact
“If you’re a saint, you’re probably not going to become CEO. You have to make tough decisions that are going to ruffle some feathers.”
Research from Booth’s Steve Kaplan reveals the four most important traits of America’s CEOs and who succeeds.
Research with ImpactOur MBA Concentrations in This Area
Entrepreneurship
Build the practical tools and experiences you need to start your own business or embark on a career in private equity or venture capital.
Entrepreneurship
Choose Your Path to Success
Tell us about yourself, and we will show you the value of a Booth education.
Entrepreneurship Faculty in the News
How Citizens and Companies Can Support Antiracism in Chicago
July 02, 2020 | Inside Hook
One way companies can combat systemic racism is to employ blind hiring practices, suggests Booth’s Christina Hachikian. She says that blind hiring helps with intersectionality and promotes an actually diverse workplace.
The Pandemic Prompted a Record Decline in GDP. A Large Part of Private Equity Portfolios Had No Symptoms
October 07, 2020 | Institutional Investor
A large portion of private equity portfolios seemed asymptomatic following the sharp economic downturn from COVID-19, according to research by Booth’s Steven Kaplan, Harvard’s Paul Gompers, and Georgetown’s Vladimir Mukharlyamov.
Some US Cities Lure Remote Workers with Money, Promise of Friendly Communities
October 14, 2020 | Voice of America
The arrival of COVID-19 has forced businesses—and cities—to adapt. That’s what communities have always done, says Booth’s James Schrager.
Partnering across the University of Chicago and Beyond
The faculty in our entrepreneurship academic area are instrumental in helping lead some of the University of Chicago’s most impactful initiatives.
Booth’s Steve Kaplan helps lead the university’s Polsky Center, which provides entrepreneurs and innovators with the knowledge, skills, and experience they need to turn their ideas into successful companies, products, and services.
As academic director of university-wide entrepreneurship content, Booth’s Waverly Deutsch works to ensure that classes and extracurricular content about entrepreneurship meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff across the university.
Apply to Faculty Positions
Learn more about applying to our open faculty positions and joining the world-renowned faculty at Booth.
Apply to Faculty PositionsResearch Spotlight
Discover some of the latest working papers and published papers from our entrepreneurship faculty.
“Are CEOs Different?”
Steve Kaplan, with coauthor Morten Sorensen (Dartmouth)
Research Centers in This Area
Research centers across Booth and the University of Chicago are hubs for innovation and world-changing research. The centers provide our faculty with research support, and our faculty members lend their expertise to the centers, enriching the student experience and the broader academic community at Booth.
Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
The Polsky Center bridges the gap between knowledge and practice, idea and action, and research and impact through education, partnerships, and new venture creation.
Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
As Booth’s social impact hub, the Rustandy Center offers hands-on learning opportunities, supports innovative courses, and pursues research—all with the goal of developing people and practices with the potential to solve the world’s biggest problems.
Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation
James M. Kilts Center for Marketing
The Kilts Center for Marketing advances marketing at Booth by facilitating faculty research, supporting innovation in Booth’s marketing curriculum, funding scholarships, and creating engaging programs.
James M. Kilts Center for Marketing