‘Geeks to Gazillionaires’ at GMU

Here's a great class on entrepreneurship offered at GMU. My roommate took it last year and absolutely loved it!

Student groups compete, split $5,000 prize for savvy business ideas

Teams take on a weekly task related to running a business and compete to see which one does the better job. Successful executives evaluate the teams’ skills and business savvy. The winning team claims a fabulous grand prize.

While this may sound like an episode of the hit reality TV show “The Apprentice,” teams of George Mason University graduate students are learning to build successful businesses from the ground up, thanks to their participation in a course entitled “Geeks to Gazillionaires,” ...

The course, which combines a semester’s study of marketing, entrepreneurship, finance and organizational planning, culminates with the students making formal presentations of their business plans to business leaders.

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Whether it is to change the way the real estate industry functions, offer virtual house tours, create the expedia of used cars or develop a high end bus service that could impact the severe overcrowding of our roads, students have been trying to crack some major business opportunities.

We randomly create the teams trying to balance skill sets and then the competition begins, with the winning team receiving $5,000 to start their business. This may be the only class at GMU where you can walk away with more money then it cost you to take the class!

From the class website:

Instructors are a team of prominent CEOs and venture capitalists:

Skip West, President, MAXSA Innovations
Sudhakar Shenoy, CEO of iMC Corporation, Member of the Mason Board of Visitors
Suresh Shenoy, Executive Vice President of iMC Corportation

Each class session will focus on specific topics associated with building a business: Team Creation, Business Planning, Market Research, Product Development, Financial Planning, Funding, People and Organizations, Competitive Strategies, Operations, Growth and Exit Strategies, and more. Students will have reading assignments and will participate in competitive team assignments.

The course is open to all Mason students with senior or graduate status; extended study students may apply.

Here in GMU's econ department, we often talk about the critical role entrepreneurs play in the economy. I wonder if some of us econ PhD students might benefit from taking a course like this to see how entrepreneurship is actually encouraged in the business world? If nothing else, the class sounds like it would be a ton of fun!