Market Overview:

The city of Lexington, along with Central Kentucky, is producing a strong and vibrant entrepreneurial community. Lexington entrepreneurs set a record for capital raised in 2018 with more than $107 million, according to data provided by Commerce Lexington (an increase of 87% over 2017). Lexington is also home to the Bluegrass Angels, the most active angel investing group in Kentucky. The number of patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to Lexington innovators grew nearly 70% from 2005 to 2018. At the University of Kentucky’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC), 101 inventions were disclosed during Fiscal Year 2018, 23 patents were issued, and 29 licenses and options were executed (123% increase from 2017).

Concentration Objectives:

The Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation concentration offered to candidates enrolled in the University of Kentucky MBA program will deliver on the following core objectives:

• Understand business opportunity identification, concept development and validation in an ever-changing virtual world
• Practice hands-on development of a business concept, a business plan and perform a business pitch in a regional new venture competition
• Research in-depth financial principles to both familiarize and discover ways to fund, scale and manage a new venture/small business, including managing intellectual property
• Learn how and when to act, learn, and lead in the ever-changing, global business landscape
• Apply classroom knowledge and theory to real-world business problems in leading organizations of all types and sizes

Entrepreneurship Courses:

Candidates will have the option of taking all the entrepreneurship electives to complete the full concentration or can take any of the courses individually as an elective while enrolled in the UK MBA program. The four elective courses that comprise this concentration are:

• MBA 645 Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation I - This Fall elective course is a graduate-level overview of entrepreneurship and new venture creation. Students will examine key issues associated with the discovery and development of entrepreneurial opportunities. Community experts will present their stories and emphasize challenges and strategies to drive their companies through the entrepreneurial process.
   
• MBA 647 New Venture Finance - This Fall elective course focuses on the fundraising process for high-growth technology start-ups. Students will learn about the market participants, vocabulary, processes and risks that are unique to the start-up funding ecosystem. Substantive discussions of term sheets, valuation, cap tables, investor universe, modeling and the fundraising process will be complimented with case studies and guest lectures by local investors and CEOs. 
   
• MBA 648 Law & Business of IP Management - This Spring elective is a broad course covering (from the perspective of the in-house IP manager, engineering business unit leader or other executive) the critical areas of IP portfolio management in a variety of business settings in the global economy, including methodologies to evaluate, value and create value from that IP.  The class will explore IP management from preliminary asset development to stages of portfolio maturation and disposition, including business, legal, and policy considerations at each step. The class will also address the importance of valuation, and the critical component that valuation plays to lawyers in patent litigation damages, patent licensing and executing other IP transactions.
   
• MBA 646 Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation II (Capstone) - This Spring elective course is a continuation of MBA 645, and will give a more in-depth overview of entrepreneurship and the business start-up process. Students will experience the start-up process from idea generation to company formation, investment and commercialization as a case study. Project teams will develop a business model and plan through several commercialization steps. At the end of the semester, teams will present investor presentations and their recommendations to a panel of judges and experts. Students will work in teams to evaluate and develop marketing materials, investment presentations, due diligence evaluations, product demonstrations, financials and market survey material.

Please note: 

• Candidates enrolled in the One Year MBA, Professional MBA and the Professional MBA (For Leaders in Healthcare) are all eligible to enroll in any of these courses as individual electives or pursue the full concentration.
• In order to take the MBA 646 Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation II capstone course, students must have taken MBA 645, MBA 647 and be enrolled in MBA 648.

• Candidates enrolled in the Professional MBA or Professional MBA (For Leaders in Healthcare) and pursue the full concentration, will not take MGT 610.

Entrepreneurship Faculty:

Learn from distinguished faculty that have all been successful entrepreneurs who have obtained the required industry knowledge in their respective careers and are bringing that expertise into the classroom.

Adam Evans
Entrepreneurship Lecturer

Brian Mefford 
Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship

Ian McClure
Adjunct Faculty in Law & Business of IP Management

Shane Hadden
Lecturer in New Venture Finance

For more information on the Entrepreneurship and New Business Venture concentration, please contact:

Christopher Carney
Director of MBA Recruitment
Gatton College of Business and Economics
University of Kentucky | Lexington, KY 40506
(859) 257-7645 (office) | christopher.carney@uky.edu