Entry Date:
October 19, 2011

Entrepreneurship Lab (E-Lab)

Principal Investigator Christian Catalini

Co-investigator James P Dougherty


MIT’s Entrepreneurship Lab (E-Lab) teams work with the founding teams of high-tech startups on projects of strategic importance to the venture. The goal of the course is for students to gain experience with fast-paced, massively scalable startup companies, to apply academic knowledge to the problems faced by entrepreneurial firms in a context of uncertainty, extreme time pressure and decision making based on limited information.

Student teams learn quickly about a new industry, technology or market and strengthen their ability to develop an entrepreneurial strategy, to analyze technical feasibility, to identify early-adopters and the right target market, to set pricing, and to define a path to commercialization, ultimately delivering real value to the startup

At the end of the semester, each team presents its findings and recommendations to the senior management of the partner company.