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Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

The Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, founded in 1996, works to prepare effective, insightful entrepreneurial leaders and to enhance knowledge about entrepreneurship and innovation. Stanford GSB has a broad and varied expertise in entrepreneurship — a wide range of courses in entrepreneurship and innovation, engaging co-curricular learning options, and faculty research on innovation, startups, venture funding, and entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Entrepreneurial Education

Stanford GSB offers more than 50 different courses in entrepreneurship and innovation, taught by academic faculty, frequently in partnership with accomplished entrepreneurs and seasoned investors. Students also have access to dozens of entrepreneurial courses at other Stanford schools, enabling them to create a personalized curriculum to meet their learning goals.

A group of students sitting at desks | Startup Garage, Stanford Graduate School of Business

Startup Garage

Where student teams design and test new business concepts that address real-world needs

Students at Stanford GSB have the unique opportunity to custom-tailor their curriculum, with over 60 courses in entrepreneurship and innovation to choose from.

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Professor George Foster speaking in a classroom | Stanford Graduate School of Business

Formation of New Ventures

Stanford GSB offers students who want to undertake an entrepreneurial career by pursuing opportunities leading to ownership of a business. The course deals with case situations from the point of view of the entrepreneur rather than the passive investor. Many cases involve visitors, since the premise is that opportunity and action have large idiosyncratic components.

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Two women talking outside on a sunny day | Stanford Graduate School of Business

Managing Growing Enterprises

Explore challenges faced by entrepreneurs as they rapidly scale a company. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on the application of analytical tools to administrative practice.

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One female taking a picture of a female holding a tea kettle.

Beyond the Classroom

Stanford GSB offers students many opportunities to extend their entrepreneurial learning outside the classroom. Co-curricular programs such as Stanford Venture Studio, entrepreneurial workshops, and the Entrepreneurial Summer Program create unique educational experiences to augment classroom learning.

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Research & Thought Leadership

Stanford faculty conduct research on a wide set of entrepreneurial topics from the valuation of unicorn firms, to the impact of experienced entrepreneurs, to the unique challenges facing Latino and Black entrepreneurs in the United States.

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Research Spotlight

U.S. Black-Owned Businesses: Pre-pandemic Trends & Challenges

Inara S. Tareque, Marlene Orozco, Paul Oyer, Jerry I. Porras
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies 2021

This research brief leverages multiple datasets from the U.S. Census Bureau to provide a summary of the state of Black-owned businesses in the United States. It is important to understand and measure these pre-pandemic trends in order to pinpoint…

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Case

2024 Search Fund Study

Peter B. Kelly
2024
The 2024 Search Fund Study reports on the financial returns and key qualities of search funds formed in the United States and Canada since 1984. This report updates the previous 2022 study with data through December 31, 2023.
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Survey

The Impact of COVID-19 on Latino-Owned Businesses

Marlene Orozco, Inara Sunan Tareque, Paul Oyer, Jerry I. Porras
Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative 2020

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Two weeks later, the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative administered a survey to 224 mostly scaled ($1 million+ revenue) Latino-owned businesses in the United…

Insights

Alumni Entrepreneurs

Alumni have found the entrepreneurial curriculum, programs, and community at Stanford GSB essential in developing their leadership skills. We invite you to hear the stories of some of those alumni.

Ricardo Cervantes, MBA ’03, and Alfredo Livas, MBA ’03: A Mexican Bakery in the Heart of LA
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Ricardo A. Navarro

After meeting in school, Cervantes and Livas teamed up to build a successful bakery chain around the idea that good food brings people together.

Entrepreneur Voices

Voices
I believe most people care deeply and want to unite when it comes to helping others in need.

Andrew Leon Hanna

MBA ’22
Kids need to grow up seeing children who look like them, in whatever media they’re consuming.

Oladoyin Oladapo

MBA ’20
I grew up with a sense of duty, of wanting to devote myself to public service.

Emily Núñez Cavness

MBA ’20
How do I continue my fast-paced career while providing for my children?

Ritu Narayan

MS ’14
I’d been in scrappy teams, in startup culture. I wanted to learn in a more structured way and be a more analytical thinker.

Tawanda Mahere

MBA ’19
Stanford GSB was a great opportunity to explore. Everyone’s door is open to you.

Jenny Eu

MBA ’03

History

CES was founded in 1996 through a visionary partnership of two Stanford GSB faculty, Charles A. Holloway and H. Irving Grousbeck, to address the need for greater understanding of issues facing entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial community.