Disruptive Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Graduate Certificate

Application Requirements

• Online application and $50 application fee
• College transcripts
• Personal statement
• Resume – Work experience preferred but not required.
• Video interview as part of the online application.
• Additional requirements apply for international applicants

Learn more about the application process and what you will need to apply.

The program can be completed in as little as 9 months (2 semesters).

Two-Semester Program of Study

Required Courses

• ENI 8013 – Entrepreneurship, Venture Development, and Management
  This applied course focuses on the essential skills, strategies, and processes necessary for launching, leading, growing, commercializing, scaling and harvesting innovative ventures. The class also addresses the fundamentals of corporate venturing. Students cover topics including market opportunity identification and evaluation, concept cultivation, product/service development, process improvement, business model design, venture team leadership and venture financing.
  View Sample Syllabus
• ENI 8010 – Innovation Studio 1: Innovation and Design Thinking
  Design thinking is taught as a systematic approach to innovation and creative problem-solving that can be used in many industries. In this course, students are introduced to resourceful problem discovery through methods of noticing, observing and analyzing data. Using a combination of the lean startup methodology and design thinking, students conduct experiments as well as interviews and test prototypes to verify the viability of proposed solutions. Further, ideation models are applied to conceptualize new-to-the-world technologies, business models, products and services as potential business ventures. Students will become comfortable with ambiguity, experimentation and online collaboration. Particular is placed on AI and how it can be leveraged every step of the way.View Sample Syllabus
• ENI 8012 – Innovation, Creativity, and Imagination
  This course provides an introduction to blockchain technology and its disruptive role in sectors such as banking, payments, securities exchanges, real estate, insurance, supply chains, healthcare and media. Topics include fundamentals of blockchain technology, applications and use cases of blockchain in different industries, implications of blockchain on business practices and regulation, cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, blockchain platforms (Ethereum, Quorum, Corda), smart contracts and web-based decentralized applications.
  View Sample Syllabus

Elective Courses (Select One)

• ENI 8400 – WomenLead in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
  The course was developed around three themes: (1) self awareness and self efficacy, (2) critical analysis of economic trends that affect women and (3) a leadership development component that will demonstrate how personal characteristics, interpersonal influence, commitment, goal setting and power are necessary to be effective in the workplace. The course allows students to learn beyond the classroom and to prepare for success and leadership in business.
  View Sample Syllabus
• ENI 8250 – Entrepreneurship and Complex Global Problems
  This course leverages what we know about the entrepreneurial process to offer three sets of ideas and skills: a framework from which to understand complex problems as business opportunities, how we identify and assemble teams with the requisite skills and passion to be successful and practice at developing a go-to market strategy for viable solutions. The course will prepare students to build and leverage a global network of resources to create a successful organization with the capability of solving complex problems.
  View Sample Syllabus
• ENI 8102 – Innovating Customer Value
  To prosper in today’s intensely competitive business environment, established organizations must innovate new offerings/business models that not only maximize profitable revenue but also create beneficial social outcomes. This course focuses on the value innovation side of Demand Creation by discovering and exploiting the best opportunities to fulfill important and unsatisfied customer needs in a way that maximizes an organization’s growth potential.
  View Sample Syllabus
• ENI 8101 - Improving the Customer Experience
  In this course, students explore the application of the Demand Creation methodology for improving and extending a business’ current offerings. Students learn to identify and exploit the best opportunities for increasing product or service demand by raising customer value while simultaneously reducing costs.
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• ENI 8000 – Organizational Entrepreneurship
  This course explores contemporary tools for systematic and sustainable entrepreneurship within established companies, nonprofits, and public sector organizations. Within every organization flows a continual stream of opportunities to create customer demand. However, the complexity and speed of business obscures those opportunities—and threats. Students learn a rigorous and disciplined methodology for discovering and prioritizing opportunities for demand creation and pinpointing threats that can result in demand destruction.
  View Sample Syllabus
• ENI 8011 – Innovation Studio 2: Launch and Scale
  This experiential, AI-heavy course is treated as a mini-accelerator. The class teaches “the entrepreneurial mindset” as well as how to apply that to launch and scale a business, develop solutions to business challenges or create new products and services that result in growth opportunities for an organization. Students explore a rigorous and disciplined approach to validating product market fit, building teams, developing viable business models and crafting messaging and pitches that resonate with the audience. Students apply these learnings on a remote team project. The challenge? Launching and scaling a business or solution, ideally generating revenue before the end of the semester. Every few weeks, students convene in the classroom to receive feedback and coaching on their approaches, results, and future experiments.
  View Sample Syllabus

Georgia residents: $3,726 per semester
Non-Georgia residents: $8,898 per semester

Tuition is subject to change.

Please note: the above tuition rates apply to new non-degree-seeking students. Students who are enrolled in a cohort master's program will be charged at their current cohort tuition rate. Students who are enrolled in the Flexible MBA program will be charged at their current flexible tuition rate.

Financial Aid

These non-degree seeking programs do not qualify for federal loan funds (such as unsubsidized loans through the FAFSA). For information on additional payment options and scholarships to help with the cost of the program, please contact [email protected].

Contact Graduate Student Financial Services
We are here to help you understand the cost of your program (including the financial aid cost of attendance (https://sfs.gsu.edu/resources/coa/)), the payment schedule and financing opportunities.

[email protected]
404-413-7086

The mission of the Graduate Certificate in Disruptive Innovation and Entrepreneurship is to equip students with the tools to stimulate creative thinking, design compelling value propositions, develop viable and profitable business models and learn to pitch to investors.