Entrepreneurship Law

Course information

Learning outcomes

The student shall be able to

• use system and anticipatory thinking as a tool in entrepreneurship law
• understand basic legal, business and human concepts and their relevance for the individual entrepreneur, business and society
• describe basics of contract and commercial law as well as taxation relevant for starting and running a business (a start-up/company/private trader)  
• describe different forms of cooperation and understand their legal implications
• identify the implications and legal requirements for different exit strategies
• acquire independently information on basic legal aspects for running a business and understand when professional help is needed

Content

Companies are main tools in any entrepreneur’s toolkit. In this course you will start from deciding what is the potential role of a company in your life and what is your potential role in the company you start. You will learn the main legal building blocks for a company which helps you to reach your goals as an entrepreneur, be it a freelancing business, consulting company, small business or a scalable startup aiming to change the world.

The core content of the course are basic legal concepts and issues relevant during the lifecycle of a start-up/company/private trader regarding

• Business Entities: purpose, formation agreements.
• Financing: debt/equity main alternatives.
• Intellectual property rights protection: ownership and protection
• Taxation and Social Security
• Contracts and negotiations/liability
• Employment law
• Consumer protection
• Data protection
• Insolvency
• Liquidation
• Start-up culture
• Exit

Teacher

Kalle Airo, Petra Hietanen-Kunwald

Study material

Pre-recorded lectures and interviews, official internet platforms, books/articles, legislation

Workload

This is an asynchronous online course: independent studying, written assignments and quizzes.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites. The course is open for all Aalto students, entrepreneurs and other people thinking about setting up a business.

Evaluation

Online assignments, quizzes and exams.

Teaching time and location

The teaching time and the location of the course can be found at Sisu information system

1. The link leads to Completion methods tab of the course page
2. From the top of the page (Version drop-down menu), check that academic year 2025-2026 is selected  

3. From the blue bar, click Lecture and open the Groups and teaching times tab to see the teaching time and the location of the course. Exam times can be seen by clicking Exam.
    

   Exam instructions at the Open University

The teacher has four (4) weeks to grade the exam submissions starting from the exam date.

Online learning environment for the course  

MyCourses online learning environment is a tool for both students and teachers for communication and managing everyday course work. You need an Aalto User ID to log in to the course's MyCourses workspace and participate in teaching.

Digital workspace of the course:
MyCourses

More details on completing the course will be available at MyCourses closer to the start of the course.

Registration and course fee

Registration for Open University courses is done via the link below: 
Course registration

Registration for this course starts on 26.1.2026 at 9.00  
Registration for this course ends on 22.2.2026 at 23.59

It is not possible to register before the registration period has started or after it has ended.

The number of participants is limited to 70.

This course is organized by the Aalto University School of Business.

The course fee is paid upon registration for each course at a time and it is binding. Familiarize yourself with registration and payment rules as well as other guidelines for students:
Registration, payments and rules

Activating Aalto ID and Multifactor Authentication

You can activate your Aalto User ID the day after the registration and you should activate it no later than the day before the start of the course.
Instructions for activating your Aalto user ID

Once you have activated your Aalto user ID, also enable multifactor authentication. Some of Aalto University's services require multifactor authentication.

Instructions for using Multifactor Authentication