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Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Minor/Certificate

Change the World with Valuable Solutions

When innovative solutions solve real problems to improve people’s lives, blessings abound. Innovation & Entrepreneurship are reflective of God’s redemptive pattern, that is, to restore order where there is chaos in the world. Students will explore how ingenuity and imagination can be applied to their current studies to meet the pain points they encounter with sustainable solutions.

The Innovation & Entrepreneurship minor/certificate allows students from any major to learn the tools and processes for turning their innovations into value-add solutions.  You will be equipped to recognize opportunities, think outside the box, initiate risks, accept failure as part of the growth process, and appreciate the correlation between hard work and success. Our guiding goal is to prepare you to solve problems with excellence and integrity for Kingdom.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship courses will guide you through the best theoretical and empirical practices for starting profit or nonprofit companies and growing them to be successful. You will conduct feasibility studies and build business plans for investors or contributors and incorporate strategies into business models that mirror successful entrepreneur campaigns. Our hands-on professors will help you negotiate with partners and investors and expand your network of connections for building a successful business.

Get on track for these careers

  • Product Manager
  • Marketing Manager
  • Consultant
  • Venture Capitalist
  • Entrepreneur
  • Small Business Owner
  • Non-profit Manager/Director
  • Sales Professional
  • Executive Management

 

Shark Tank

You don’t have to wait until after graduation to flex your entrepreneurship muscles. Every fall semester, TU students have the opportunity to bring their business concepts before a panel of judges and compete for cash and in-kind prizes. Many Shark Tank winners such as Allera Tech, Sky Manufacturing, Lucidity Statistical Consulting, Godspeed, Cord Puck, have gone on to establish businesses pre- and post-graduation.

A student presents at a competition.
Inter-Collegiate Business Plan Competitions

Students can earn investment money through inter-collegiate business plan competitions. The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship sponsors the most promising ideas by taking them to business plan competitions around the country. Most recently, TU students placed 2nd and 4th out of 20 students teams at Olivet Nazarene University in Illinois. These students earned $3,000 and $1,000 cash for their efforts. Additionally, they were able to network and learn from some very successful entrepreneurs resulting in even more business-building opportunities.

Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship serves as the focal point for encouraging and gathering innovation from across campus and the community. Housed in the Vandermuelen Innovation Hub of the under-construction Horne Academic Center (opening Fall 2024), the Center is a place where students, faculty and the community can gather and leverage tools to collaboratively solve societal problems.

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students working as a team at IMPACT
IMPACT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Camp

TU students can build their leadership capabilities by serving as leaders in the IMPACT Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program. This year-long program exposes rising high school juniors and seniors to the ideation, validation, and business planning processes to solve some of society's greatest needs.

IMPACT is anchored by a week-long Immersion camp in the summer. Out of this camp come new ideas for solutions to problems and students eager to move through the business planning process in the coming year. TU students work with these high schoolers throughout.

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Founders Fellows

Founders Fellows exposes students to the realities of living the life of an entrepreneur by introducing them to seasoned and successful entrepreneurs and investors, as well as the various support ecosystems and founder communities that exist. Mentors and guest speakers guide you in the highs and lows of life as a founder, how to order your spiritual and personal lives to flourish in the profession, and where possible, speak directly to integrating a redemptive framework into your ideas and thinking.

Keaton Hendricks Thumbnail
Keaton Hendricks
Class of 2018

"College is the perfect time to just go after something because you really don’t have much to lose. Just try something—who knows what it could eventually be? It might be a business. With prayer and reliance on God, you have no idea how it could unfold. I’m so glad I did."

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Blake Gilbert
Entrepreneurship minor, ’25

"Taylor University Entrepreneurship does an amazing job readying students to go out and make an impact in the business world for the Kingdom! Experiences like the Business As Missions training, we received gave me a heart for developing and using for-profit business to make disciples and bring value to a world in need of Christ."

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Noah Rodman
Entrepreneurship minor, ’21

"Taylor provided me the opportunity to go to Costa Rica during my Junior year J-Term for ENT 381 Global Entrepreneurship and BAM. The 3 weeks spent in the mountains of Costa Rica opened my eyes to how I was limiting God while teaching me how we can use Business as Mission (BAM). No matter what your idea may be, if God has put something on your heart that you want to do, can do, and it doesn't go against scripture, try it! You never know how He will use you to further His kingdom. After all, giving encompasses our time, talents, and treasures, right?"

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Ariana Layton
Entrepreneurship minor, ’23

"The entrepreneurship classes at Taylor University, like New Venture Planning, have trained me to strategize different ways to solve problems from multiple perspectives. My participation in the innovation and entrepreneurship program has given me special opportunities to participate in the Shark Tank competition, unique internships, field trips to interact with problem-solving innovators, and gain a network of entrepreneurs from the Indianapolis area."

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Brayden Gilbert
Finance, ’25

"The Business as Mission seminar has been the most impactful academic experience I have had as a Taylor business student. It has helped me bridge the gap between the perceived secular nature of business and the reality that business is a valuable resource for Kingdom impact."

Start Your Business in Class

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship curriculum emphasizes real-world, hands-on experiences where we truly learn by doing.

ENT 225 Exploring Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Every student starts a business using lean start-up methodology. This exercise might lead into a Shark Tank entry and perhaps even a real start-up opportunity.

ENT 320 Transformational Entrepreneurship

Student teams work through the ideation and design processes to deliver a potential business concept by the end of the semester.

ENT 422 New Venture Planning

Students participate in Cash and Burn, a 12-day rapid start-up where the only metric is income generation, as well as a business planning project on concepts generated by the class.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Curriculum & Degree Options

Students of all majors are welcome to add this minor or certificate to their academic pursuits.

Students interested in course descriptions and academic policies can check out our Undergraduate Catalog.

Liberal Arts Foundational Core

A Taylor liberal arts education will prepare you to live and work in a fast-changing world. It also goes a step further: laying a strong spiritual foundation that cultivates wisdom. You’ll become a well-versed individual, equipped with critical thinking skills, a lifelong love of learning, and an appreciation for God’s creation.

View Foundational Core Curriculum.

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The 10th edition of Shark Tank was held on November 2, 2023, with higher attendance, more judges, and an increase in prize money. It was also renamed from Shark Tank to Trojan Arena.

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Bigger Splash Coming to Shark Tank Event

Oct 30, 2023

On November 2, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be hosting the campus’ tenth Shark Tank event with more judges, higher prizes, and greater opportunities.

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The Don Wood Foundation is dedicated to the advancement of manufacturing, entrepreneurship, and related education focused on strengthening the manufacturing sector in the Midwest. The grant is the largest ever awarded by the foundation to an institution of higher learning.

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