Startup Minor

Students from all six schools of Aalto University are welcome to take Startup Minor or take entrepreneurship courses as electives. The Startup Minor consists of courses where you can advance your own business and acquire crucial skills, insight and experience needed to build bold startups, do venturing within existing companies, or join entrepreneurial teams.

The Startup minor focuses on the founding phase of entrepreneurship, and the courses are especially relevant if you are currently building something or are preparing to start a company. Check also the Founder’s minor, which provides a good selection of courses for building up underlying entrepreneurship skills.

After completing the minor, student can

• Apply user-centric design practices for iterative product development
• Apply experimentation methods to validate market demand, business concepts, and value proposals
• Implement sales, marketing and communication strategies to engage customers and stakeholders
• Apply planning and management methods for startups, including strategy, finance, law and ethical decision making
• Develop leadership, self-leadership and teamworking skills to build and manage diverse teams and collaborate with stakeholders
• Develop an entrepreneurial mindset to be creative, brave, flexible and capable at working with others to create new ideas and succeed together, also beyond startup-context
   

The minor consists of two types of courses: a startup project courses and topic courses. The project course provides you with skills on the process of starting up and getting going. “Entrepreneurship lab” provides a hands-on experience in identifying, exploring, validating, and developing opportunities for scalable business. These are indispensable skills for an entrepreneur and there’s no replacement for the experience. If you are currently working on your company or startup idea, "From Zero to Product" and "Building a Growth Company" let you work on your own business. The topic courses cover important and integral skills of entrepreneurship: prototyping, prototyping, design thinking, finance, innovation, contracting and much more. These are more specific courses and great for both providing an overview as well as way to start accumulating expertise in specific skill.

For topic courses, you can also suggest to the teacher in charge alternative entrepreneurship related courses available elsewhere in Aalto University. 
 

Code: SCI3110

Extent: 20–25 ECTS

Curriculum: 2024–2026

Level: Advanced studies

Language of learning: English

Theme: Global business dynamics

Target group: All Aalto students

Teacher in charge: Mikko Jääskeläinen

Administrative contact: Tarja Timonen

Organising department: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management

School: School of Science

Prerequisites: No prerequisites for the minor. Individual courses may have their own prerequisites, students are requested to check these before signing up.

Quotas and restrictions: No quotas. The minor is targeted for master students. 

Application process: -

Content and structure of the minor

About the minor

Description of the minor

Students from all six schools of Aalto University are welcome to take Startup Minor or take entrepreneurship courses as electives. The Startup Minor provides you with insight and experience needed to build bold startups, do venturing within existing companies, or join entrepreneurial teams. During the courses you’ll learn by doing together with people from various backgrounds and nationalities. This will teach you practical ‘street smarts’ for starting new ventures, which is one of the best ways to making an impact in real life.

Intended learning outcomes

After completing the minor, student can

• Apply user-centric design practices for iterative product development
• Apply experimentation methods to validate market demand, business concepts, and value proposals
• Implement sales, marketing and communication strategies to engage customers and stakeholders
• Apply planning and management methods for startups, including strategy, finance, law and ethical decision making
• Develop leadership, self-leadership and teamworking skills to build and manage diverse teams and collaborate with stakeholders
• Develop an entrepreneurial mindset to be creative, brave, flexible and capable at working with others to create new ideas and succeed together, also beyond startup-context
   

Content description

The minor consists of two types of courses: a startup project course and topic courses. The project course provides you with skills on the process of starting up and getting going. These are indispensable skills for an entrepreneur and there’s no replacement for the experience. The topic courses cover important and integral skills of entrepreneurship: leadership, design thinking, finance, innovation, start-ups, prototyping and much more. These are more specific courses and great for both providing an overview as well as way to start accumulating expertise in specific skill

The introductory courses Starting Up and Entrepneurship Essentials provide a fast and easy introduction to the main concepts of startup entreprenership, should you need one. For topic courses, you can also suggest to the teacher in charge alternative entrepreneurship related courses available elsewhere in Aalto University. 

You can find course descriptions in Sisu. In your study plan, choose the course and click the course code or search courses by code or name. Learning environments are found in MyCourses through search or after registration in "My own courses".

Content

As of 1 August 2024, the name of the minor is Startup Minor. The previous name of the minor was APV Startup Minor. For the previous curriculum details of the minor, go to: https://www.aalto.fi/en/minors/avp-startup-minor

 

Basic information of the minor

Code: SCI3110

Extent: 20–25 ECTS

Language of instruction: English

Level: Masters

Theme: Global business dynamics

Curriculum: 2022–2024

Target group: All Aalto students

Teacher in charge: Lauri Järvilehto

Administrative contact: Tarja Timonen

Organising department: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management

Prerequisites: No prerequisites for the minor. Individual courses may have their own prerequisites, students are requested to check these before signing up.

Quotas and restrictions: No quotas. The minor is targeted for master students. Bachelor students who have acquired the basic understanding of startup entrepreneurship for example through activities in the student ecosystem can also choose the minor.

 

Content and structure of the minor

Students from all six schools of Aalto University are welcome to take Aalto Ventures Program Startup Minor or take entrepreneurship courses as electives. The AVP Startup Minor provides you with insight and experience needed to build bold startups, do venturing within existing companies, or join entrepreneurial teams. During the courses you’ll learn by doing together with people from various backgrounds and nationalities. This will teach you practical ‘street smarts’ for starting new ventures, which is one of the best ways to making an impact in real life.

The minor consists of two types of courses: The Startup Experience project course and topic courses. The project course provides you with skills on the process of starting up and getting going. These are indispensable skills for an entrepreneur and there’s no replacement for the experience. The topic courses cover important and integral skills of entrepreneurship: leadership, design thinking, finance, innovation, start-ups, prototyping and much more. These are more specific courses and great for both providing an overview as well as way to start accumulating expertise in specific skill.

The introductory course Starting Up and the project course Startup Experience are required for the minor. For topic courses, you can also suggest to the teacher in charge alternative entrepreneurship related courses available elsewhere in Aalto University. Work with the Kiuas accelerator can be credited as part of the AVP Startup Minor on a case-by-case basis.

Basic information of the minor 

Code: SCI3110

Extent: 20-25 cr

Language: English

Organizing department: Industrial Engineering and Management

Teacher in charge: Lauri Järvilehto

Target group: All master's students of Aalto University.

Application procedure:

Quotas and restrictions: No quotas. The minor is targeted only for master students.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites.

Content and structure of the minor

Students from all six schools of Aalto University are welcome to take Aalto Ventures Program Startup Minor or take entrepreneurship courses as electives. The AVP Startup Minor provides you with insight and experience needed to build bold startups, do venturing within existing companies, or join entrepreneurial teams. During the courses you’ll learn by doing together with people from various backgrounds and nationalities. This will teach you practical ‘street smarts’ for starting new ventures, which is one of the best ways to making an impact in real life.

The minor consists of two types of courses: project courses and topic courses. The project courses provide you with skills on the process of starting up and getting going. These are indispensable skills for an entrepreneur and there’s no replacement for the experience. The topic courses cover important and integral skills of entrepreneurship: leadership, design thinking, finance, innovation, start-ups, prototyping and much more. These are more specific courses and great for both providing an overview as well as way to start accumulating expertise in specific skill.

The project course Startup Experience is required for the minor. This can, however, be replaced by any project course addressing venture creation and building, such as Venture Ideation and Venture Formation courses together. Product design focused project courses cannot be used to replace Startup Experience. For topic courses, you can also suggest to the teacher in charge alternative entrepreneurship related courses available elsewhere in Aalto University. Work with the Kiuas accelerator can be credited as part of the AVP Startup Minor on a case-by-case basis.

Basic information of the minor

Code: SCI3090

Extent: 20-25 cr

Language: English

Organizing department: Industrial Engineering and Management

Teacher in charge: Mikko Jääskeläinen Lauri Järvilehto

Target group: All master's students of Aalto University.

Application procedure:

Quotas and restrictions: No quotas. The minor is targeted only for master students.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites.

Content and structure of the minor

Students from all six schools of Aalto University are welcome to take Startup minor or take entrepreneurship courses as electives. Entrepreneurship courses in Aalto provide master’s students with diverse steps into entrepreneurship. The courses cover important aspects of entrepreneurship; leadership, design thinking, finance, innovation, start-ups, prototyping, storytelling and much more.

The Startup minor seeks to inspire and provide students with insight and experience needed to build bold new ventures either as new independent startup companies or within existing companies. During the courses you’ll learn by doing together with people from various backgrounds and nationalities. This will teach you practical ‘street smarts’ for starting new ventures, which is one of the best ways to making an impact in real life.

The startup entrepreneurship minor is based on a large project course. The project courses are supported by 2 or more required core courses and a large selection of elective courses (Entrepreneurship electives).

Although most courses in the minor are cross-school courses and as such broadly accessible for students from different schools within Aalto University, please note that individual courses may have group size limits and separate application procedures. 

Basic information of the minor

Code: SCI3090

Extent: 20-25 cr

Language: English

Teacher in charge: Mikko Jääskeläinen

Target group: All master's students of Aalto University.

Application procedure: Instructions for registration, please see: http://avp.aalto.fi/courses/

Quotas and restrictions: No quotas. The minor is targeted only for master students.

Prerequisites: No prerequisites.

Content and structure of the minor

Students from all six schools of Aalto University are welcome to take Startup minor or take entrepreneurship courses as electives. Entrepreneurship courses in Aalto provide master’s students with diverse steps into entrepreneurship. The courses cover important aspects of entrepreneurship; leadership, design thinking, finance, innovation, start-ups, prototyping, storytelling and much more.

The Startup minor seeks to inspire and provide students with insight and experience needed to build bold new ventures either as new independent startup companies or within existing companies. Durin the courses you’ll learn by doing together with people from various backgrounds and nationalities. This will teach you practical ‘street smarts’ for starting new ventures, which is one of the best ways to making an impact in real life.

The startup entrepreneurship minor is based on a large project course. The project courses are supported by 1-2 required core courses and a large selection of elective courses (Entrepreneurship electives).

Although most courses in the minor are cross-school courses and as such broadly accessible for students from different schools within Aalto University, please note that individual courses may have group size limits and separate application procedures.