Salt Lake City—The award-winning Master of Business Creation at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business is expanding and is now offered online or in person.

Starting in January 2023, startup founders can enroll in the one-of-a-kind program through a new online option to participate in the program virtually from anywhere in the world.

The priority deadline to join the online program in January is Sept. 15, 2022, and the full-time program is still accepting applications on a rolling basis for the 2022-23 academic year. Apply and learn more here.

“We are excited to offer this new online option for founders who want to participate in this unique program to learn how to grow their startup companies,” says Rachel Hayes, dean of the David Eccles School of Business. “We know founders are busy and need the flexibility to get the support they need, and that is why we created this new option.”

The MBC is an academic offering of the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy in partnership with the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. Both are part of the Eccles School, which is ranked among the top 10 schools for entrepreneurship by US News & World Report.

The online option expands on the successful full-time option. It offers the same benefits, including intense focus on the founder’s startup, applied curriculum, personalized mentorship, substantial scholarships, peer support and discussion, access to $5 million in startup funding, and more.

Unlike the full-time option, the online option allows founders to complete the program on a part-time basis with a flexible schedule and over a longer period of time. The online program can be completed in 14 months compared to 9 months for the full-time program.

“Our goal is to provide the same quality learning across both programs,” says Taft Price, a co-director of the MBC program and a professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy. “By offering our content both in-person and online, we will meet the needs and schedules of a wider variety of founders than ever before. Our in-person option provides structure to allow the founders to apply what are learning to their business in real-time. The online program is ideal for founders who need to fit the program around other pressing demands on their time and prefer the flexibility of learning the content at the time best suited to their lives.”

The Eccles School enrolled the first group of founders in the MBC program in fall 2019. It was created to blend the best attributes of a business curriculum with a startup accelerator. The founders develop their startups while taking classes from leading experts and receiving extensive resources and mentorship to help them address their immediate business needs. A viable startup is required to enroll in the MBC program, and classroom learning will be immediately applied to the founder’s startup.

Dylan Turner was one of the first students to participate in the program in 2019-20. During that time, he grew a telehealth company, Doxy.me, which saw massive growth during the pandemic, and he credited the MBC program as helping them prepare.

“The MBC program gave us the technical details, strategy, and oversight that only people with years and years of startup experience have,” Turner says. “We accomplished almost everything we set out to do. We are more organized now, we have a comprehensive sales strategy, organizational charts, strategic objectives, and oversight. We have a plan, and now we know how to implement it. In short, we went from a startup to a ‘real’ business.”

The MBC program is one of the latest additions to the Eccles School, which celebrates entrepreneurship as a core value and fosters it throughout its undergraduate and graduate programs. The MBC program also was recognized by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) in the 2020 Innovations That Inspire member challenge.

Learn more about the Master of Business Creation program and apply at eccles.utah.edu/mbc.

About the David Eccles School of Business

The Eccles School is synonymous with “doing.” The Eccles experience provides a world-class business education with a unique, entrepreneurial focus on real-world scenarios where students put what they learn into practice long before graduation. Founded in 1917 and educating more than 6,000 students annually, the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business offers nine undergraduate majors, four MBAs, eight other graduate programs, a Ph.D. in six areas, and executive education curricula. The School is also home to 12 institutes, centers, and initiatives that deliver academic research and support an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation. For more information, visit Eccles.Utah.edu or call 801-581-7676.

About the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute

The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is a nationally ranked hub for student entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Utah and an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business. The first programs were offered in 2001, through the vision and support of Pierre Lassonde, an alumnus of the Eccles School and successful mining entrepreneur. The institute now provides opportunities for thousands of students to learn about entrepreneurship and innovation. Programs include workshops, networking events, business-plan competitions, startup support, innovation programs, graduate seminars, scholarships, community outreach, and more. All programs are open to students from any academic major or background. The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute also manages Lassonde Studios, five-story innovation space and housing facility for all students. Learn more at Lassonde.Utah.edu.