An Inside View: MIT’s Intense, Week-long Entrepreneurship Development Program

#MITEDP … IYKYK

OK, enough with the acronyms! But MIT’s Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) is one of those experiences that has that aura of “if you know, you know.”

It’s a week-long intensive entrepreneurship program run by MIT Sloan Executive Education, and this year MIT EDP included 76 participants representing 19 countries and 6 continents – and the individuals who attend become raving fans. This program is designed for aspiring entrepreneurs, corporate venture officers, startups, and those who would like to develop or strengthen a climate of entrepreneurship in their corporations, universities, and regions.

The entrepreneurial spirit runs high during the week. The days (and nights) are long as the teams of five to eight people create a tight bond while working together to create, identify, and evaluate new venture opportunities. Participants regularly describe MIT EDP as inspiring, enlightening, and even life changing. Here are a few comments posted on LinkedIn by this year’s attendees:

• “An intense deep-dive into disciplined entrepreneurship and venture creation … Lots (!) of pivots, iterations and learnings from our primary market research led us to pitching a SaaS company focused on maximising athlete performance – not the idea we started with and far removed from my biotech day job, but I loved it! Lots of laughs along the way made for a great team spirit and an unforgettable experience. Now time to take the MIT mindset, energy and everything I’ve learned and apply it to mycoBiologics.” Fiona Rudkin , mycoBiologics Co-Founder and Managing Director
• “I am honoured to return to MIT Sloan Executive Education alongside a cohort of ambitious entrepreneurs and founders on a mission to improve the world by accelerating high-growth businesses and creating high-skill jobs for the future.” Luis Ibarra , Founder & CEO at eCERTO
• “When we arrived on day one, we were promised ‘the real thing.’ I nodded politely; it sounded an incredibly American thing to say. Having experienced it however, there's something quite indescribable about being there … You talk about energy amplification, my Scottish friends will think I've gone all American on them, but I struggle to think of a better way of describing it.” Andrew Smith , Technical Director, distilling and cask management
• “Let's have an impact and solve the big world's problems through entrepreneurship. Creativity is contagious! The world needs entrepreneurship!” David Desplaces , Director, VTLI at The Citadel

This year, my role at MIT EDP was as one of the judges, viewing the program from a different perspective than I have in the past. For three years, I was an instructor and facilitator for the Entrepreneurship Development Program, and it was always refreshing to work with seasoned professionals who are used to delivering results and can bring their life experiences to this program. (Here’s my post from 2020 which discusses some of the details of MIT EDP and its impact.)

My view as a judge was a bit different. Usually, I am involved in sausage making, this time, I was in a position to see how the finished sausage turned out.?To take the analogy further, as a connoisseur versus a chef, I appreciated the outcomes of the continual learning process even more.

My perspective as an MIT EDP judge was framed by my own recent entrepreneurial experience. For the past year, I have been running a coaching business focused on energy leadership coaching . Although my prior experience includes navigating two startups through to IPOs, teaching Eship classes at MIT, and serving as director of delta v (MIT’s capstone program for entrepreneurship), applying the lessons of MIT EDP to your own business brings it all into sharp focus.

This time, I pressed a bit deeper to see how the teams thought about their businesses. If they were going to start with an idea, did they apply the key concepts of Disciplined Entrepreneurship to that idea? For example: Who are the first 10 beachhead customers you are going to target? Have you considered the burdened salaries of the team of engineers you are planning to hire? Does this technical solution deliver enough added value for customers over existing approaches to solve the problem?

In the course, the process of learning a concept, applying it, and reinforcing it through coaching is designed to simulate the experience of a startup company seeking funding. As participants are taught in the course, the judges want to understand the assumptions the groups made, and these teams were well prepared by the end of the week. A key concept that I use in energy coaching is “how you show up matters,” and these teams showed up with their best energy.

The final day of MIT EDP culminates in a competition that reflects the MIT “mens et manus” (mind and hand) approach to learning by providing both the theory and reinforcing it with the practical. Ideas in the competition ranged from Urgent Care AI to creating a plug for casks to monitor volume – the ideas were terrific, as was the demonstration in applying the concepts. A dozen teams competed with a 10-minute pitch and a 10-minute Q&A session in the first round. This was then narrowed down to four finalists. I’m not going to call out the winner here, because the stakes aren’t high, and I truly believe that winning is in learning?and applying the process with a team you met less than a week before. (But, the lucky winners did get autographed galley copies of new entrepreneurship books from Paul Cheek and Bill Aulet .)

The MIT EDP program fosters entrepreneurial skills and an entrepreneurial mindset among participants, but the lessons apply across the board. Corporate leaders often need to be immersed in an experience where you are learning and applying new ideas in a team with people you just met. The EDP experience made me think of how this intense, immersive type of experience would be ideal for onboarding new employees, helping teams to gel faster, and accepting newer players and their ideas.

So, whether you had the opportunity to attend MIT EDP or not, I encourage you to take the plunge and be open to new experiences. Create a space where you can identify new opportunities, experience different ways to work, learn new skills, and embrace your passions.

If you’re an entrepreneur or corporate leader, and would like to learn more about how energy leadership coaching can help you to recognize your unique energy and harness it to lead more effectively, please reach out ([email protected]). I hold coaching certifications from both iPEC and ICF.