Turn your dream business into reality — or join Austin’s exciting startup community — with a degree in Entrepreneurship.
Major Roadmap
Explore your options — classes, internships, research and study abroad. View the Entrepreneurship Major Guide to find what interests you, discover what you love, and create a major experience that jumpstarts your future.
Become a strategic innovator and learn from the best in one of the country’s top cities for starting a business.
As an Entrepreneurship major, you’ll get a solid foundation in finance, accounting and marketing while learning how to identify market opportunities and create a new product or service. You’ll study design thinking, social entrepreneurship and sustainable and ethical business strategies that resonate with your values.
Develop and pitch your idea at 3 Day Startup, iChallenge on the Hilltop and the Business Plan Competition, where you’ll get feedback from mentors. Learn how to try, fail fast, evaluate your mistakes and move on. Take advantage of the many partnerships between the Bill Munday School of Business and Austin entities like Capital Factory, Austin Startup Crawl and Impact Hub Austin. You’ll have no shortage of opportunities to network with experienced entrepreneurs who want to give back.
Get in on the ground floor at an Austin startup — or launch your own dream company. You’ll graduate with resilience, creativity and strategic thinking that will serve you in any work environment.
The Process of Innovation
In 3 Day Startup, 40 St. Edward’s University students decide which six ideas they will be working on over the course of the weekend. Read more about how this program supports our student entrepreneurs.
The Classroom and Beyond
Austin is the ideal place to study entrepreneurship, and St. Edward’s encourages you to take advantage of networking events, internships, and volunteer opportunities at showpiece events like the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals. But you’ll have opportunities to learn by doing on campus, too, through student organizations, pitch competitions and talks by visiting professionals.
Experiential Education
Your classes will send you into the community to research and create potential businesses.
In New Venture Creation, you’ll interview local entrepreneurs and work with a local startup entrepreneurial entity.
In Social Responsibility of Business, you’ll participate in a service activity in the community and write a paper about the experience. You’ll also work in a team to create a new product or service for a company that will meet a social need for an underserved community.
In the Entrepreneurial Practicum, you’ll focus on starting up a venture that serves the community and is based on strong social justice values. The course requires extensive interaction with potential customers and stakeholders to research the market for your business and determine how you would sustain it.
Student Organizations
The Student Entrepreneurship Club attracts innovation-minded members from all majors. Meet local entrepreneurs, learn leadership skills, volunteer at Austin events and support fellow students’ startups.
Develop your startup ideas with the help of a professional mentor and practice pitching them at 3-Day Startup, the iChallenge Pitch Competition and the Business Plan Pitch Competition.
Participate or volunteer at the annual ATX Hack for Change, in which teams spend a weekend developing technology-based solutions to city- and community-wide problems.
Top students are invited to join Sigma Nu Tau, the entrepreneurship honor society.
Degree Requirements
Major Requirements: The BBA in Entrepreneurship requires 66-67 hours of major coursework.
General Education Requirements: All majors require 44 hours of general education that students complete over the course of four years, in addition to their major courses.
View and download the full degree plan for our Entrepreneurship major (PDF).
A few examples of the Entrepreneurship courses students take:
- Entrepreneurial and Design Thinking – Learn methods used by entrepreneurs to identify needs, apply design thinking and propose solutions in order to create successful business models.
- New Venture Creation – Approach business plan development with both the Lean Startup and traditional frameworks, and experience working in teams to create a business plan that you pitch to an investor.
- Special Topics in Entrepreneurship – Gain the skills to succeed in your entrepreneurial venture. Topics to include international entrepreneurship, challenges for small and family businesses, social enterprise and new venture funding.
Internships
The Bill Munday School of Business has partnerships with Austin organizations that will immerse you in the city’s exciting startup culture:
- Capital Factory, an incubator, coworking space and event center for all things entrepreneurial
- Austin Startup Crawl, a showcase of technology and entrepreneurship at multiple downtown locations during the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals
- Impact Hub Austin, which offers programs blending business and social good
Students can also volunteer at the South by Southwest Conference and Festivals and attend meetups at venues like Capital Factory practically every night of the week.
In addition, Entrepreneurship majors have interned at the following organizations:
- C3Nami, a digital marketing agency
- Orange Coworking
- On Vinyl Media, a digital music aggregator promoting local Austin music
Our Faculty
Our Entrepreneurship faculty members work closely with Austin business leaders and local co-working communities to bring expertise to the classroom. Capital Factory, TechStars, Impact Hub Austin and SKU have collaborated with The Bill Munday School of Business to support Entrepreneurship students. Faculty members also have affiliations with a variety of professional organizations, including the American Marketing Association, Austin Technology Council and United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Alumni Outcomes
Entrepreneurship majors graduate with a strong foundation in critical thinking. They are prepared to join organizations in leadership roles or start their own businesses. Job titles our graduates can take on include:
- Startup founder
- Founding team member
- Product manager
- Program manager
- Business consultant
- Sales representative
Wes Hurt ’05 launched Hey Cupcake! – one of Austin’s most successful food trailers – in 2007. After expanding to six locations, Hurt sold his majority stake in the business in 2014. Struggling with addiction, he needed to switch gears and focus on getting clean. His current venture, CLEAN Cause, reflects his new commitment. CLEAN Cause is a purified-water and energy drink company that provides jobs and support for recovering addicts. At the 2017 Business Plan Competition, Hurt received the first-ever Entrepreneur of the Year award, presented by the Student Entrepreneurship Club.
Read about other successful Entrepreneurship alumni, and see what they have to say about life after St. Edward’s.
Entrepreneurship Minor
Students from any major at St. Edward's University can minor in Entrepreneurship to enhance their business knowledge and skills in new venture creation.
Required Courses:
- ENTR 2301 – Intro to Entrepreneurship
- ENTR 3392 – Entrepreneurial and Design Thinking
- ENTR 3380 – Entrepreneurial Accounting and Finance
- ENTR 4391 – Entrepreneurship Practicum
- ACCT 2301 – Financial Accounting
Electives (Choose 1):
- ENTR 4388 – Technology Entrepreneurship
- ENTR 3399 – Special Entrepreneurship Topics
- ENTR 3393 – Entrepreneurial Management
- ENTR 4382 – New Product/Services Design
- MKTG 3335 – Social Media Marketing
- MKTG 4342 – Digital Marketing and Analytics
- BDMM 4330 – Digital Law
- ACCT 2303 – Managerial Accounting
Total Hours: 15 credits for business majors; 18 hours for non-business majors. (Principles of Accounting is a required course for the minor).
Are you a current student? Contact your advisor for next steps on declaring your major or minor.