Entrepreneurship

Male student in business attire presenting onstage.

MBA student Will Zacher presents during the finals of UB's 2018 Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition. Photo: Nancy J. Parisi

Take advantage of UB’s thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem — and bring your game-changing ideas to life.

Through innovative programs and strategic partnerships, we provide the tools to help you become a successful entrepreneur while you're an MBA and throughout your career.

Entrepreneurship in the MBA Core

Whether you dream of launching a startup or wish to take your entrepreneurial spirit to a corporate environment, discover the mindset that all entrepreneurs share in this foundational MBA course.

  • Experience what it takes to move from a "big idea" to a company launch
  • Understand the need for a relentless focus on customer buy-in
  • Explore the importance of teams, the process of risk mitigation and the concepts of "spiraling iteration" and "fail fast" 
  • Consider the importance of entrepreneurial development as a sustainable competitive advantage
  • Examine how individuals and companies use social entrepreneurship to create innovative solutions to societal problems

Set your ideas in motion. The Startup and Innovation Collaboratory powered by Blackstone LaunchPad is an on-campus startup incubator and idea-sharing center, where you can receive one-on-one mentoring to help get your business off the ground. Through innovation sprints, seminars and other opportunities, you will also gain skills in intrapreneurship, the ability to solve problems and develop innovative, profitable solutions within existing organizations.

Entrepreneurship Lab (eLab)

Go to boot camp — for entrepreneurs. In this hands-on, 3-credit course, you'll develop the skills to evaluate your entrepreneurial ideas and manage a new venture, as well as meet with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel investors. In the final pitch competition, you'll compete for startup funding, co-working space and other benefits for your business.

As a UB MBA, you can also choose from other startup-focused elective courses focused on technological entrepreneurship, small businesses, startup marketing strategies and more.

Admissions
150 Jacobs Management Center
Buffalo, NY 14260-4000
Tel:  716-645-3204
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Student Services
203 Alfiero Center
Buffalo, NY 14260-4000
Tel:  716-645-3200
mgtgsrv@buffalo.edu

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Compete for more than $50,000 in startup capital and in-kind services to move your idea to the next level. The Panasci Technology Entrepreneurship Competition was created by the School of Management and the UB Office of Business and Entrepreneur Partnerships and is funded with a $1 million endowment from the late Henry A. Panasci Jr.

The inaugural winners, Eric Reich, JD/MBA ’02, and Michael Weisman, MBA ’01, sold their company, Campus Labs, for more than $40 million. Ogechi Ogoke, a doctoral student in chemical and biological engineering took first place in the 2019 University at Buffalo’s Henry A. Panasci Jr. Technology Entrepreneurship Competition (Panasci TEC) for a patient-specific cell therapy that can be used as an alternative to a liver transplant.

Are you next?

Entrepreneurship is helping to fuel the renaissance of Buffalo, and you can be part of it by taking advantage of other resources on campus and around the city. 

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