Undergraduate Courses

Develop Your Entrepreneurial Mindset Through Our Undergraduate Courses and the Entrepreneurship Minor

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is the home of experiential learning and co-curricular activities in entrepreneurship and innovation at Rice University. We prepare our students to be entrepreneurs and innovators in whatever walk of life they choose, be it a technology startup, government agency, civic group, non-profit, small business, or large corporation.

Students are encouraged to complement their major area of study by enrolling in Lilie courses, which teach frameworks for solving problems and navigating ambiguity. For those students looking for a deeper dive into the startup and venture funding space, the Entrepreneurship Minor is an 18 credit journey that will position students to be the change makers, innovators, and trendsetters they desire to be. Whether students take one course or complete the entire minor, our curricula will equip them with an entrepreneurial mindset which allows them to:

  • Identify critical problems or market opportunities and to develop validated solutions to meet these needs
  • Design solutions that are sustainable, inclusive, and equitable
  • Embrace empathy to better understand customers, users, clients, and team members
  • Excel in interdisciplinary teams and in communicating messaging across departments, organizations, and industries

Many courses are cross-listed as part of the curriculum in schools and programs including Engineering, Social Science, Global Health Technologies, and Economics. If you have questions, just stop by the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship or schedule office hours at lilie@rice.edu. We are here to help you build the skills and mindset you need to be a successful innovator in whichever path you choose.

For course schedules by semester and course section, time, and location information, please visit courses.rice.edu

Fall 2020

BUSI 220

LILIE DESIGN THINKING

Design thinking is a problem-solving process that can be used to reduce risk when launching a new idea and increase your chances of developing an innovative solution that people want. This project-based class pairs you with a start-up to develop a solution to a design challenge. This course offers a real-world opportunity to practice the application of design thinking to the entrepreneurial process—a unique skill you can take with your into any future project or career.

BUSI 223

MODELING FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Learn how to translate a startup business plan into a bottom-up quantitative model of the business. Build a model of cash flows, use that model to track performance, and identify errors in the underlying assumptions and adjust.

BUSI 461

FINANCING THE STARTUP VENTURE

For students interested in developing their own startup company or working for a venture capital or related organization, this course will familiarize you with the financial and organizational challenges typical of start-up companies. This course covers the entire early-stage venture funding continuum and provides exposure to the industry through guest speakers and case studies. The course is a pre-requisite for BUSI ###.

BUSI 469

LILIE NEW VENTURE CHALLENGE

Work on your venture using a set of tools and frameworks that will help you get from idea to launch. This individualized lab course provides the mentorship and guidance you need to build your startup. Open to venture teams with at least one Rice undergraduate student. Apply online.

SPRING 2021

BUSI/ENGI 221

NEW ENTERPRISES

Work in teams to learn the tools and processes for developing an entrepreneurial venture by taking an idea and trying to build it into a viable, scalable startup.

BUSI 463

ENTREPRENEURIAL STRATEGY

Gain a deep understanding of the core strategic challenges facing startup innovators and learn a synthetic framework for choosing and implementing entrepreneurial strategy in dynamic environments to establish competitive advantage.

BUSI 464

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Learn how to apply an entrepreneurial approach to address social challenges through the project-driven course that works on social issues relevant to Houston.

BUSI 465

STUDENT VENTURE FUND: EVALUATING STARTUP INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Students in this experiential course will evaluate early-stage startups and make recommendations for venture investment by the $2M student venture fund at Rice. The applied course gives you the opportunity to sit in the shoes of a venture investor and place investment capital into early-stage ventures. Pre-requisite: BUSI 461.