edX is the trusted platform for education and learning. Founded by MIT and Harvard, edX is home to more than 20 million learners, the majority of top-ranked universities in the world, and industry-leading companies. As a global nonprofit, edX is transforming traditional education, removing the barriers of cost, location, and access. Its mission:

• Increase access to high-quality education for everyone, everywhere
• Enhance teaching and learning on campus and online
• Advance teaching and learning through research

The following courses were developed by the Trust Center to meet the online learner at the stage they are currently at in their venture and provide guidance and next steps just as if they were in the classroom.

What separates an idea from a business? A paying customer.

And this is where we want to take you in this course. From there you’ll begin growing your group of target customers. This will set in motion your flywheel toward an impactful enterprise.

Yes, entrepreneurship is a creative process—this is what makes it fun. But a methodical approach is necessary for it to work. And it is this combination of creativity and discipline that you’ll begin learning in this course. Specifically, upon completion of Entrepreneurship 101, you’ll have the skills to:

• Conduct market segmentation
• Select your beachhead market
• Develop end user profiles
• Calculate your total addressable market size
• Understand your customer persona

Entrepreneurship 101 is based on case studies of MIT startup companies and their founders. Through them you’ll get exposed to innovations in mobile apps, 3D printing, power electronics, international development, watchmaking, and more. In the process you will learn how to interview potential customers, understand the crucial difference between top-down and bottom-up market analysis, and develop a strategic framework for deciding what markets to pursue for your product or service.

This course is particularly useful for:

• Corporate entrepreneurs building a new product line
• Scientists and engineers commercializing new technologies
• Entrepreneurship educators and policymakers

In Entrepreneurship 101, students learned to look at the world through the eyes of the customer – and ah, what a great perspective it is! But the journey doesn’t stop there. This is where Entrepreneurship 102 comes in.

Just as important as finding your customer is creating a great product that will solve the customer’s problem. How will customers acquire your product? What value will your product bring? What is your secret sauce? How do you stack up vis-à-vis the competition?

From fields as diverse as virtual immortality, small business marketing, urban design, language education, healthcare, and entrepreneur support services, we use in-depth case studies of MIT entrepreneurs to examine how they developed their product concepts, solved their customer’s problem, established a clear value proposition, refined their secret sauce, and understood their competition.

Entrepreneurship 102 is for you if you are creating a product or service, especially in an entrepreneurial setting. You face resource scarcity, but strive to iterate quickly through reliable insights. We’ll teach you how to do that.

Our approach to product design will be holistic. We’ll teach you to translate user needs into product priorities and product priorities into experience design.

This course is particularly useful for:

• Corporate entrepreneurs developing new businesses
• Scientists and engineers commercializing new technologies
• Creators of complex solutions that necessitate design trade-offs

Entrepreneurship 102 is equally valuable for educators, who teach and coach entrepreneurs. In addition, the course is relevant for policymakers who work to energize the innovation ecosystems in their regions.

If you can, take Entrepreneurship 102 as a team. The course will give you a common framework to make decisions, laying the foundation for your long-term success.

Successful entrepreneurship ultimately comes down to three questions:

1. Are you solving a real problem?
2. Do you have a superior solution?
3. Can you sustainably deliver the solution?

The course series Entrepreneurship 101, 102, and 103 addresses these questions one by one.

Entrepreneurship 103 is your guide to creating a profitable business. So you’ll learn more than just entrepreneurship here. You’ll start becoming a business leader.

We’ll expose you to case studies of MIT startup companies and interviews of their founders. So you’ll learn the vital business skills of:

• Designing a business model
• Pricing your product
• Building a sales process
• Measuring your cost of customer acquisition
• Estimating the lifetime value of your customer

Entrepreneurship 103 should be of particular interest to you if you are:

• Creating a business-to-business (B2B) product or service
• Building a multi-sided marketplace
• Entering a competitive market

This course is particularly useful for:

• Corporate entrepreneurs developing new businesses
• Scientists and engineers commercializing new technologies
• Creators of complex solutions that necessitate design trade-offs
• Educators, who teach and coach entrepreneurs
• Policymakers dedicated to strengthening innovation ecosystems

If you can, take Entrepreneurship 103 as a team, for the course will give you a common framework to make decisions, laying the foundation for your long-term success.

Give your best to this course. In return, you will gain the confidence that you can go from your first sale to a profitable business. And that’s priceless.