MIT Sloan: 2nd Best Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, $100K Competition & Best Entrepreneurship Clubs

MIT Sloan’s offers arguably the world’s 2nd best entrepreneur ecosystem after Stanford’s GSB. And just as GSB benefits from the Stanford University’s environment, the Sloan gains from being next door to MIT.

MIT nurtures 200+ companies every year. Students, alumni and faculty have founded 25,000+ firms that employ 3.3 million people. They include HP, Intel and Bose. Recent ventures include A123 Systems, Dropbox and Zipcar. The impact of entrepreneurs from this environment is said to be almost $2 trillion a year in revenues. MIT fosters cross-school collaboration with a wide range of courses, a varied class profile and team projects, all supported by some of the best infrastructure and support systems in the world.


Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship

The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship was founded in 1958 and is one of 12 entrepreneurship centers. It provides immense support for budding entrepreneurs. Besides research support by faculty, here are some of the center’s features.

Entrepreneurs in Residence

The Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) program gives students the chance to be mentored by select serial entrepreneurs during working hours all through the semester.

MIT Founders' Skills Accelerator 2012

This is a joint project of all five MIT schools and gives $20,000 (without any equity taken), office space, a monthly fellowship, and a mentor team to startup teams.

MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition

This competition is held over the year to push students and researchers develop ideas that can create leading firms of the future.

MIT Clean Energy Prize

The MIT Clean Energy Prize is the venture creation and innovation competition that motivates innovation for clean energy.

Venture Mentor Service

Alumni and other local professionals guide students as they start their business. The VMS does not allow mentors to take equity.    

MIT Technology Licensing Office

To help students with the patent and licensing process for their ideas and inventions.

Student Clubs & Activities

MIT Entrepreneurship Review - A web publication aimed at leading entrepreneurship and innovation.

MIT Global Startup Workshop - Brings entrepreneurial leaders, funds, students, faculty, federal agents and private companies that provide an international support network for entrepreneurs.

MIT Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development - Connects students to current entrepreneurs for actual short-term projects during a semester.

MIT Sloan Entrepreneurship & Innovation Club - Fosters the entrepreneurial attitude with personal support for students at Sloan.

MIT Venture Capital & Private Equity Club - Offers hands-on lessons about the VC and private equity industries so that entrepreneurs can interact with top investors and executives, while also connecting with other MIT students.

MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (MIT-CHIEF) – An interface that combines the latest technology with radical new business models. It also brings experienced industry hands for expert mentoring and resources.

StartLabs - conducts the Startup Bootcamp as well as other significant events all through the year to jumpstart entrepreneurial ventures.

VentureShips – ensures practical training for new generation entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Students work on early-stage startups to resolve actual business issues ranging from market analysis to regulatory approval.

Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab)

The G-Lab is MIT-Sloan’s flagship international internship. MBA student teams join entrepreneurs in emerging economies all over the world like India, Uruguay and Ghana to help tackle current challenges. The issues may be internationalization of the business, commercialization of the venture, financing the business or marketing a new product. The program combines the benefits of classwork, a high-potential entrepreneurial venture, a live consulting project and a close faculty mentoring the team to create lasting impact.

China Lab

Chinese and MIT Sloan MBA students form 4-strong teams for project internships that last 3 months. They conduct a consulting project for one of the leading Chinese firm. Two weeks are spent on-site.

India lab

4-person student teams work with an Indian business on a 3-month consulting project to resolve pertinent issues. Two weeks are spent on-site.

Entrepreneurial Coursework

MIT Sloan is known for innovation but it is not just with the projects that are developed in the campus but also with the courses that are introduced every year. The lessons learned from successful entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists are incorporated in each course.  For Example, New Enterprises teach the basics of business plan creation. The Innovation Teams (I-Teams) allow student-teams to discover the ideal way to bring select technologies developed at MIT into the market. The highly-specialized Entrepreneurship & Innovation (E&I) Track involves immersion in a series of required and elective courses, and specific out-of-classroom courses.

Other courses include Designing and Leading the Entrepreneurial Organization, Early Stage Capital, Entrepreneurship Without Borders, Technology and Entrepreneurial Strategy and Special Seminars in Entrepreneurship.

MIT Open Courseware

MIT Open Course Ware (OCW) is a free online resource that covers almost all MIT course content. The site is constantly updated and permanently active. It allows entrepreneurs from all over the world to learn from MIT’s expertise. Over 2150 courses are hosted in OCW and the course ware has benefited more than 125 million visitors so far.

Events and Conferences

Numerous educational and networking events at MIT Sloan include:

• The MIT Sloan BioInnovations Conference: More than 850 people including CEOs, founders, board members, entrepreneurs, students, and VCs meet here.

• Current CEOs of various Entrepreneurship Lab (E-Lab) companies are celebrated at a reception held each semester. This provides current students with immense networking and placement opportunities as well as funding options with the VCs.

• E-Lab Bash showcases the Adolf F. Monosson (MIT ’48) Prize for Entrepreneurship Mentoring. This event rewards those who have fostered entrepreneurs.

• A formal networking event is held in London with the University of Cambridge which presents opportunities to make entrepreneurial ties across the world.

Startup Treks

Every year MIT Sloan MBA students are part of various student treks that take place around the world. But the trek that is most popular is the Silicon Valley trek – a three-day immersion program for students with entrepreneurial focus. 20+ companies are visited, VC and entrepreneur guest speakers are listened to, and receptions with other universities like Stanford and Berkeley are held. A variety of incubators is also taken in. Students also get the chance to meet current alumni in the region.