Supervised experiences involving the application of concepts and skills in an employment situation. Approval Required. Repeatable.

Grading Basis: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.

Restriction: Graduate level students.

Typically Offered: Fall, Spring, Summer.

This course familiarizes students with the key steps for preparing an effective business plan for a new (or existing) business venture. Utilizing strategies based on research, students learn how to create an effective pitch, a superb slide deck, and a cutting-edge business plan. Real-world feedback from seasoned entrepreneurs is synergistically interwoven with coursework, and THE CLIMB | Startup Pitch Competition events are used to further enhance the quality of one’s business concept. Several past students have won prizes at THE CLIMB and launched successful businesses from concepts developed in the course.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Spring.

Whether you want a career change or an additional source of income, Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) can be an attractive path to business ownership given today’s low startup success rate and the trillions of dollars being passed down from older generations. This course will empower you to strategically identify, evaluate, and acquire existing businesses. You'll learn the entire acquisition process: deal sourcing, due diligence, valuation, negotiation, and post-acquisition integration. By the end, you'll know how to leverage acquisitions to scale operations, enter new markets, and build competitive advantages.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Typically Offered: Spring.

Did you know that over 99 percent of business concepts never see the light of day? Why? Because execution of an idea is possibly the most important aspect of a successful business startup. This course takes students through the process of launching a venture after a business concept has been validated. This course pairs practical lessons with a robust theoretical framework to help students understand why businesses fail or succeed based on how they began. Throughout the course, students meet many exciting entrepreneurs, hear their stories, and learn from their journey. Groups then write an execution plan for a viable business concept.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

This course is reserved for CU Denver faculty-led study abroad experiences. The course topic will vary based on the location and course content. Students register through the Office of Global Education. Cross-listed with ENTP 4028, INTB 4028, and INTB 6028. Repeatable.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 6.

Additional Information: Global Education Study Abroad.

Typically Offered: Spring, Summer.

If you want to do business online, you need to understand the complexities of online retail platforms, fintech, and e-commerce strategy. This course integrates case studies and practical applications to analyze how entrepreneurs leverage e-commerce to reach new markets and drive innovation. Topics include common e-commerce platforms (Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, eBay, etc.), digital payments, performance metrics, customer experiences, inventory management, and regulatory frameworks.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Spring.

The course is designed to teach students how traditional profit-driven models for innovation are being challenged by those seeking to create positive social impact. Beyond just the nonprofit sector, businesses of all kinds are integrating environmental and societal change into their core operations. Students will explore how organizations can embrace social entrepreneurship while generating sustainable financial returns.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Spring.

This course will introduce you to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application in various fields relevant to entrepreneurial ventures across different sectors. When used judiciously, AI can help accelerate and improve many aspects of critical business functions, including concept evaluation, business planning, financial forecasting, data-driven marketing, customer personalization, and more. With course content, interactive discussions, and expert guest speakers you'll gain a comprehensive understanding of the ethical considerations and potential risks inherent in AI adoption within entrepreneurial settings, as well as the best AI tools that can help aspiring entrepreneurs get started today.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Prereq: Graduate standing (Grad or Non-Degree Grad)

Typically Offered: Fall.

This course teaches how to strategically plan, implement, and manage information systems to gain competitive advantages in today’s industries. It covers aligning IT resources with business goals, enhancing decision-making, driving innovation, and building tech-based solutions to address common strategic and operational challenges in startups—all tailored for non-technical entrepreneurs. Throughout the course, students will meet with the instructor one-on-one to get personalized guidance on their specific startups, ideas, and projects.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Summer.

Many viable businesses have failed due to cash flow problems, poor management, and poor execution. Utilizing both academic fundamentals and practical knowledge imparted by an experienced instructor, this course provides the project management knowledge and skills needed to build strong operation plans.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students

Typically Offered: Fall.

A variety of topics in entrepreneurship are offered. Consult the current 'schedule Planner' for semester offerings. Repeatable.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 15.

Restriction: Graduate level students.

This course addresses the legal issues most frequently encountered by entrepreneurs and others involved in startups and small businesses (closely held or family owned). The focus is on how to avoid legal problems and how best to cope when they arise. Topics include choice of business form, legal aspects of raising capital, taxation, intellectual property law, employment law, product liability, e-commerce, and the problems of managing lawyers and litigation. Note: Cannot receive credit for both BUSN 6540 and this course.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Summer.

This course provides a foundation for the financial management of an entrepreneurial business. Topics covered include differentiation from traditional corporate financial management assumptions, financial aspects of setting up a business, and how to create, evaluate, forecast, and analyze future financial statements. Students will examine theoretical and practical valuation techniques, considerations for buying versus starting a business and franchising. The course also discusses different choices for financing a new business, venture capital, angel financing, crowd funding, private equity and security laws, harvesting alternatives, and financial distress turnaround considerations. Cannot receive credit for both FNCE 6460 and this course.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Graduate level students.

This course focuses on the intersection of international business and entrepreneurship. Topics addressed include international entrepreneurship theory and practice (opportunity identification, processes and route to market). This course also highlights new topics in international entrepreneurship such as digital globalization and new technologies driving international entrepreneurship (blockchain and the global supply chain). Leading practitioners and entrepreneurs will be facilitating these modules. Cross-listed with ENTP 4826.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Graduate level students.

This course teaches students how to create successful marketing strategies in entrepreneurial environments where resources are often limited and negative outcomes can be unforgiving. Students will understand the imperative link between the fundamental marketing principles and entrepreneurial lean marketing guiding principles through real-life case studies, projects, videos, podcasts, and reading materials. Students will leave this course knowing how to develop an effective and pragmatic marketing plan for an entrepreneurial venture.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Spring.

Entrepreneurial activity based on sound data analytics greatly reduces the probability of new concept failure and increases the odds of continued venture success. This quantitative analytics course covers various aspects of data collection, assimilation, and analysis. Topics include questionnaire design, measurement, advanced multivariate analysis, and interpretive report writing. Both primary and secondary approaches, including making sense of big data, are covered.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Spring.

Repeatable.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Repeatable. Max Credits: 9.

Restriction: Graduate level students.

This course explores the data-driven tools and insights entrepreneurs can use to assess the viability of their ideas. Before drafting a full business plan, an entrepreneur must first determine if a new business concept is truly worthy of development. Students will learn how to identify market gaps and problem-solving products/services while maintaining a healthy level of skepticism regarding their ideas. Throughout this course, students will complete various experiential and theoretical learning exercises to investigate relevant topics, such as market and industry attractiveness; competitive and economic sustainability; and financial per-unit modeling.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Fall.

This course provides students with an overview of key leadership principles for creating strategy and managing teams in a startup environment. It introduces leadership concepts critical to gaining true organizational commitment and focuses on case studies relevant to common business issues. By exploring what entrepreneurial leaders do and how visionary leadership is required to develop an organization, students will learn how to execute these concepts through measurable goals.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restriction: Restricted to graduate students and graduate non-degree seeking students.

Typically Offered: Fall.

This course provides a foundational overview of the key aspects of blockchain technology, how it works, why it was created, and its possibilities and limitations in entrepreneurship. Learn how blockchain technology can bootstrap and transform a business or marketplace by boosting its efficiency, sustainability, and digital privacy. This course is not technical but rather explores the potential applications of blockchain in business, its long-term implications, and its relationship with other emerging technologies such as AI and IoT.

Grading Basis: Letter Grade

Restrictions: Restricted to non-degree majors and graduate majors within UC Denver.

Typically Offered: Summer.