SBE - Startup Booster for Entrepreneurs: Where the Student is the Case Study

This case is about INSEAD’s Startup Booster for Entrepreneurs (SBE) and the MBA students who choose the elective. The unique course is designed to immerse students in an entrepreneurial environment. As an entrepreneur rather than a typical academic, Raomal Perera developed the elective to run over three periods, giving students enough time to start a venture or hatch an idea. SBE is an experiential entrepreneurial journey where students learn by doing. It provides real-world, hands-on experience for founders and would-be entrepreneurs rather than theory. Raomal encourages students who have a preconceived project to take the course and put what they learn into practice. Focal points include how to conduct customer discovery interviews, develop prototypes, and pitch an idea to investors. While the students who apply are all seriously ‘venture-minded’, they all have individual motives and experience, and their own distinct idea, goals and expectations. Outcomes vary: each student is a case study with his/her own success story.

This is a multi-purpose case designed to: • share the entrepreneurial journeys of students who take the SBE • show how the SBE helps to advance their entrepreneurial projects • demonstrate what types of projects benefit most from the course • show the value of nurturing entrepreneurial students at the institutional level, i.e., while studying for an MBA.