Learn to turn opportunities into viable ventures through practical skills, sound judgment and an entrepreneurial mindset.
The Entrepreneurship specialization in University Canada West’s Master of Business Administration program focuses on venture development, consulting and design thinking. Students learn how to identify opportunities, understand customer needs, develop business models and communicate ideas through structured pitches.
What You Will Learn
Develop viable, human-centred and sustainable venture models that demonstrate product-market fit
Deliver structured pitches that demonstrate readiness for launching a new venture
Who should pursue this specialization?
The specialization is suited to students who want to create, evaluate, launch or support new ventures.
It may be particularly relevant to aspiring entrepreneurs, business owners, consultants, innovation professionals, project managers and product-development professionals. It can also support students interested in family businesses, social enterprises, small-business development, business transformation and intrapreneurship.
Students do not need to enter the specialization with an existing business idea. Venture opportunities, customer needs and business models are developed and evaluated throughout the courses.
Career pathways
Graduates may be prepared for roles and functions such as:
Entrepreneur, Founder or Co-founder
Small-business Owner or Manager
Management or Business consultant
Business Development Manager
Innovation Manager
Product or Service Development Manager
Project Manager
Venture-development Analyst
Startup Program or Incubator Coordinator
Startup Operations Manager
Social-enterprise Manager
Family-business Manager
Corporate Intrapreneur
Strategic Planning and Growth Roles
The specialization also develops capabilities relevant to consulting, market analysis, opportunity assessment, customer discovery, business-model development, innovation management and venture planning.
Accreditation
University Canada West has earned ACBSP Global Business Accreditation for its MBA program. The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs accredits business, accounting and business-related programs at the associate, baccalaureate, masters and doctoral degree levels worldwide.
Specialization Courses
The specialization consists of three specialization courses and MBAE 660 – Launch Your Venture, the Entrepreneurship Capstone Experience pathway. These are completed within the standard two-year MBA timeline.
BUSI 641 – Entrepreneurship
This course introduces students to the process of creating their own business venture from opportunity recognition, idea generation and customer discovery, towards the launch of their innovative business. The course investigates the main challenges associated with the first steps of startup. Students assess the opportunities, build and verify business hypothesis, define the right customer segments, research, and plan strategic development of their brand-new venture. Various frameworks are introduced that can help them start a new venture as they further explore the legal aspects and the fundraising process. Upon the completion of the course, students will have the capacity to reasonably assess the problem-solution and product-market fit and how to pitch their ideas to investors.
Prerequisite: Completion of 15 credits.
BUSI 640 – Consulting Practice
This course develops analytical consulting and business skills for a career path to:
Work within an existing consulting firm
Establish your own consulting practice
It explores both the technical and human dimensions of consulting. Working directly with a client, you will apply technical critical analysis and problem-solving skills to deal with management or business processes and problems faced by the client. The focus will be on moving from analysis to practical and realistic recommendations and solutions for the client, using AI as a tool and considering the Indigenous worldview.
Prerequisite: Completion of 24 credits.
MENT 602 – Design Thinking
Students explore how entrepreneurship, creativity, sustainability, innovation and social innovation come together in developing new business ideas. Through experiential learning, they use practical concepts, tools and models to strengthen ideation, innovation and opportunity development.
Prerequisite: Completion of 24 credits.
MBAE 660 – Launch Your Venture
This practical applied course focuses on the creation, evaluation, development and launch readiness of a new business or social venture. In building upon a business idea, key issues are addressed such as refining business model, extended customer discovery and validation, initiate building Minimum Viable Product and conduct market validation (initiate product-market fit process), in-depth industry and market analysis, product or service innovation analysis, initial product or service execution, brand development and go-to-market strategies, team selection and management, financing and funding challenges/opportunities, legal considerations. Throughout this course students refine their venture’s business model possibly through interactions with experts in different knowledge areas, and based on feedback and data. This is not a team-based course; the business venture and course deliverables will be an individual initiative within this course.
Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credits. Non-Course Prerequisite/Co-requisite: Taking BUSI 641 and MENT 602 before this course is recommended
Practical Learning
The specialization emphasizes applied learning through consulting projects, venture-development activities, opportunity analysis, design-thinking exercises, presentations and structured recommendations.
Students may also work on projects involving external organizations, community organizations or business clients, depending on the academic term and project availability.
Tools and professional development
Students use a range of practical entrepreneurship, consulting and innovation tools, including:
Design Thinking frameworks
stakeholder analysis
personas and empathy maps
Jobs-to-Be-Done
customer-journey and experience maps
brainstorming and ideation techniques
assumption mapping
rapid prototyping
competitor analysis
SWOT analysis
revenue-model and feasibility analysis
AI-assisted research, synthesis, ideation and testing tools, subject to course protocols for responsible AI use
There are no additional admission requirements beyond the standard MBA entry requirements.
Previous exposure to business or innovation may be helpful but is not required. The entrepreneurship concepts, venture-development frameworks and innovation tools needed for the specialization are taught within the program.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The specialization is completed within UCW’s standard two-year MBA timeline. Students take BUSI 641 – Entrepreneurship in Term 3, BUSI 640 – Consulting Practice and MENT 602 – Design Thinking in Term 4, followed by MBAE 660 – Launch Your Venture as the Capstone Experience pathway in Term 5.
No. Students do not need to enter the specialization with an existing business idea. Venture opportunities, customer needs and business models are developed and evaluated throughout the courses.
Students take part in applied learning through consulting projects, venture-development activities, opportunity analysis, design-thinking exercises, presentations and structured recommendations. Some courses may also include projects involving external organizations or business clients.
Students use practical tools and frameworks such as Design Thinking, stakeholder analysis, personas, empathy maps, Jobs-to-Be-Done, customer-journey mapping, assumption mapping, rapid prototyping, competitor analysis, SWOT analysis and feasibility analysis.
Graduates may pursue entrepreneurial, consulting, business development, innovation, project management, startup operations and venture-development roles. The specialization may also support students who want to lead entrepreneurial initiatives within established organizations.
There are no additional admission requirements for the specialization beyond UCW’s standard MBA entry requirements. Within the MBA, BUSI 641 requires completion of 15 credits, BUSI 640 and MENT 602 require completion of 24 credits, and MBAE 660 requires completion of 30 credits. Taking BUSI 641 and MENT 602 before MBAE 660 is recommended.
No. Entrepreneurship is a specialization within UCW’s Master of Business Administration program. Students complete the MBA curriculum and use their elective courses to develop focused knowledge in entrepreneurship, consulting and innovation.
Explore our campuses
University Canada West is an innovative business and technology-oriented institution located in the heart of vibrant Vancouver. Established in 2004, UCW offers a range of career-focused programs including the Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Arts in Business Communication, Associate of Arts and Master of Business Administration. Courses are offered at our two downtown Vancouver campuses and online too. Offering courses online brings flexibility to education, allowing those who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to gain respected qualifications.
