ETA Velocity will be designed as an incubator to provide SY residential MBA students with the training, hands-on experience, mentorship, and access to resources for searching for a small business to acquire and lead as CEO, as well as possibly raising a search fund to identify and acquire that business. This experiential learning course will give students practical experience in entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA).

The energy sector is one of the most capital-intensive and strategically significant industries, driving economic growth and influencing nearly every aspect of modern life. Through real-life case studies and guest lectures, this course equips students with the analytical tools necessary to assess financial opportunities, manage volatility, and drive strategic growth in energy markets.

The sports industry represents a growing and influential sector of the economy. In the U.S. alone, it accounts for roughly 2% of GDP and dominates television viewership. But beyond its economic scale, sports offer a powerful lens through which to explore core economic concepts. The industry is uniquely data-rich, with detailed performance and financial metrics available across leagues, teams, and players, making it an ideal setting for applied economic analysis.

This course will explore with curiosity and civility the types of challenging, polarizing topics that are often either avoided or that lead to further division and damaged relationships when handled unskillfully in conversation. The objective is to create a safe space in which people push themselves to listen, manage their emotions, and communicate in new or more effective ways.

Creating a venture is ideally pursued with others. This course, designed for executive format students, turns venturing into a team activity, where founders support each other as they build their startups towards viability as a side gig or full time work. We will use the class to further develop entrepreneurial fundamentals around the principles of effectuation: bird-in-hand, affordable loss, lemonade, crazy quilt, and pilot-in-the-plane.

Skills in the design and execution of experiments are one of the fundamental and critical competencies for success in an increasingly uncertain world, and a core component in many new innovation approaches employed in business today. Knowledge of how to build a compelling evidence base to test new ideas for products, services, and strategies, prior to implementation, is a driving force for managing the risks of innovation.

Students will be required to participate in student-led Darden Executive Fund management and related activities and learning to include creating and evaluating stock pitches, participate as part of a team in managing a fund, and provide regular updates on fund activities, goals, etc. to the Board of Trustees and other stakeholders.

The course applies financial methods and practices to the evaluation of early-stage companies. The goal of the class is to help managers make better investment and financing decisions in an entrepreneurial setting. The course covers the stages of a venture's life from raising startup financing to arranging an exit and provides an overview of the private equity industry and the institutional structure for raising venture capital financing.

This course will introduce students to alternate paradigms of thought regarding the nature and meaning of economics, work, and organizing. Adopting a feminist lens on the study of business will encourage students to consider how gender, race, class, and other categories of social difference work to structure power and privilege in economic contexts, as well as to imagine alternative possibilities.

Provide an opportunity for students to describe a specific business problem clearly, succinctly, and in a manner that fosters reflection, discussion, and learning. Challenge students to analyze and resolve an unstructured managerial problem and offer them an opportunity to work closely with a faculty member. Produce a case study of quality, focus suitable for inclusion in the MBA curriculum, together with a written analysis.