Learn to turn breakthrough science into a company.
The biggest advances in human history started in a lab, from the energy that powers our lives to the medicines that cure disease. Billions of dollars fund new discoveries every year, yet most never leave the lab. Why? Building a science company takes a different playbook than building a software or AI company, and almost no one teaches it. This class does, by having you run that playbook on a real technology, with real scientists, guided by two leading science investors.
Why this class
- You learn the playbook, not just one project. Most lab technologies never reach the market, and learning to tell which ones can is a core part of the training. Whatever happens to your technology, you leave with skills you can use to build, fund, advise or lead science-based companies for the rest of your career.
- It's proven. Refined over more than a decade, building on its predecessor, the Energy & Cleantech Lab, with millions of dollars of research behind the technologies.
- Teams compete and win. Students and teams from the class have competed in the New Venture Challenge and Social New Venture Challenge, with top-place finishes at the NVC and more than $1 Million won. When a technology has legs, teams can enter the NVC, SNVC or I-Corps, and some have raised capital and kept building as founders and equity holders.
What you'll do
Teams of 3-4 build a new business around a technology from a leading research university or national lab.
- Choose your technology from a curated set spanning two worlds: critical industries, including energy and power, infrastructure, water, mobility, agriculture, critical minerals and materials, and advanced manufacturing and robotics; and life sciences, including therapeutics, diagnostics, medical devices and life science tools.
- Team up with a UChicago PhD Venture Fellow from Molecular Engineering, the Physical Sciences or the Biological Sciences, who sources and vets the technologies in the fall and joins your team as its technical lead.
- Work directly with the lab. Past partners include Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgia Tech, Oregon Health & Science University, Cincinnati Children's, the Wistar Institute, GTI Energy and the University of Chicago, plus national labs including Oak Ridge, Idaho and NLR (formerly NREL).
- Compare multiple commercial markets for your technology and pick the path with the best financial upside and lowest risk.
- Finish with a commercialization plan presented to your lab partner: what to build, for whom, and whether it's worth funding.
What you'll learn
- How to evaluate a technology: score a large set of lab technologies, spot the ones that won't work, and choose the one worth building, including how IP works and how research institutions operate.
- How to find the first market: market staircase, market sizing, customer and expert interviews and surveys, and a development roadmap.
- How to build the company: R&D roadmap, business plan, financial model and VC pitch, plus competitive strategy, financing, exit and team building.
- How science-based industries work: deep dives into cleantech and life sciences, how key markets are structured, and the major and emerging technologies reshaping them.
- How to lead a real engagement: many lab partners have never worked with MBA students, so you drive the process, from NDA to phase reviews to a final presentation your partner grades. Part of every class is spent working through your team's actual project issues.
Who teaches it
- Jason Blumberg: Co-founder and Managing Partner of Earth Foundry, an early-stage VC fund rebuilding the core systems of the economy, from energy and infrastructure to critical materials and robotics. A 3x entrepreneur who helped launch McKinsey's cleantech and climate change practices, holds two patents, and created Lab to Launch. Recognized as Climatetech VC of the Year.
- Keith Crandell: Co-founder of ARCH Venture Partners, one of the world's preeminent science-focused VCs, with dozens of IPOs and billions of dollars of value created. Recognized as VC of the Year by the NVCA.
- Plus external advisors from industry, research and investing, and guest speakers who have founded and scaled science companies.
Who it's for
Future founders, startup operators, venture investors, consultants and leaders in science-based industries. If you want to build businesses beyond digital and AI, this is the class. Come to learn the process, not to chase one technology.
How to apply
Admission is by application only. Apply using this link. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the class fills. The class is typically 2-4x oversubscribed, and no seats open once it's full, so apply early. We draw students from across the University, because real problems cut across disciplines.
Commitment
- Meets weekly, in person. See the course schedule for day and time.
- 7-10 hours a week outside class: research, interviews, team and lab partner meetings, and presentation prep.
- Team meetings with a professor every two weeks, or more often as needed.
- Part-time students are welcome but need real schedule flexibility, since lab partner meetings often fall during business hours.
- Signing up is a commitment. Dropping after you've signed up is highly discouraged, because your team and lab partner are counting on you.
