New Venture Strategy: How to Judge Ideas and Build Great Companies
This course is for students who want to become expert decision-makers in the uncertain, high-stakes world of entrepreneurship and growth-stage company building. Whether you plan to participate in Booth's New Venture Challenge, launch a startup, join and lead an early-stage company, become a venture capitalist, investment banker, or consultant, or just want to sharpen your strategic thinking skills, this course will change how you see new ideas—and yourself.
At the heart of the class are nine battle-tested and tried-and-true strategy models and the Four Basic Questions that help you quickly and confidently assess whether any new venture is worth pursuing. You'll learn how to tell the difference between a business that sounds good and one that actually works, and how to go about building the latter.
We'll dive into historical and contemporary case studies, debate what went wrong (or brilliantly right), and apply our frameworks through written memos, in-class exercises, and a final venture proposal you'll build with a team of your peers. Along the way, we'll dissect startups, carve-outs, roll-ups, and venture-backed plays with the same critical lens.
This class isn't about evangelizing entrepreneurship. It's about mastering the judgment, discipline, and creative clarity that help great entrepreneurs succeed.
By the end of the course, you'll be able to:
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Evaluate any new venture idea with clear strategic insight
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Design a business with a defensible and compelling value proposition
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Assess the risk and return of a venture for founders and investors
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Present and defend your ideas like a strategist, not a salesperson
