Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Minor

The entrepreneurship minor, a joint offering with the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing and the Virani Undergraduate School of Business, allows Rice students to pursue rigorous and interdisciplinary study in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. The minor is administered by the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie).

What to Expect:

The entrepreneurship minor provides students at Rice University with a pathway to pursue a rigorous and interdisciplinary study in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship. The minor enables students to understand the theory and frameworks behind different disciplinary aspects of entrepreneurship and how to apply these theories to develop and scale innovative solutions to societal problems. Furthermore, the program helps students develop professional skills that are valuable beyond the confines of entrepreneurship, such as the ability to:

• Identify critical problems or market opportunities and to develop validated solutions to meet these needs
• Design solutions that are sustainable, inclusive and equitable
• Embrace empathy to better understand customers, users, clients and team members
• Excel in interdisciplinary teams and in communicating messaging across departments, organizations and industries

If you have any questions, please reach out to entrepreneurship@rice.edu for support.

Minor Course Requirements:

We recommend you consult the General Announcements (GA) for the most up-to-date requirements.  The GA is the official Rice curriculum. In the event that there is a discrepancy between the GA and any other websites or publications, the GA shall prevail as the authoritative source.

Students will complete 18 units to successfully complete the minor.  All students must take four core classes. These classes are:

• BUSI 220, “Intro to Design and Innovation” (3 credit hours)
• BUSI 369, “New Enterprises,” (3 credit hours)
• BUSI 223, “Business Modeling for Entrepreneurs,” (3 credit hours)
• BUSI 463, “Entrepreneurial Strategy,” (3 credit hours)

Students will then select 6.0 credits from the following list of courses:

• BUSI 461, “Financing the Startup Venture” (3 credit hours)
• BUSI 221,“New Enterprises: Discovery (DISCO)” (3 credit hours)
• BUSI 360, “Founders Journey” (1 credit hour)
• BUSI 224/BIOE 123, “Bias in Medical Device Design” (1 credit hour)
• BUSI 222, “Tech Product Design & Dev” (3 credit hours)
• RCEL 450, “Project Management & Leadership (2 credit hours)
• BUSI 361 “Entrepreneurial Communication” (1 credit hours)
• BUSI 469, “Lilie New Venture Challenge,” (3 credit hours)
• BUSI 465, “Student Venture Fund: Evaluating the Startup Venture” (3 credit hours – prerequisite: BUSI 461)

You can find more information about our courses on the undergraduate course page. Please note that ENGI 525 is not counted towards the Entrepreneurship Minor.

Experiential Learning Opportunities:

In addition to an outstanding classroom experience, students in the undergraduate entrepreneurship minor have the opportunity to participate in a broad range of Lilie events, such as:

• Partaking as a student founder in our Founders Dinner Series, which is an opportunity for entrepreneurially-minded Rice University students to build a network of peers and a community of support through monthly dinners
• Attending a variety of lectures from founders and leaders in innovation
• Participating in the Napier Rice Launch Challenge, Rice’s internal pitch competition
• Applying for grant funding to support prototyping and market research

About Entrepreneurship at Rice:

As a global powerhouse in entrepreneurship education, Rice University has a world-class community of alumni who are engaged in entrepreneurial and innovative pursuits. Our alumni have transformed industries through the creation and funding of game-changing startups as well as established first-in-class entrepreneurial ecosystems around the globe.

Specifically, Rice Business has been consistently ranked among the top 10 graduate entrepreneurship programs in the nation, reflective of the depth and breadth of resources for entrepreneurs during their time at Rice and beyond. We are proud to be ranked the No. 1 Graduate Entrepreneurship Program by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine for the sixth year in a row.