One of the world’s greatest Unicorn-Builders. Muhammed Selim Korkutata / Anadolu Agency
Currently business schools focus on 2 types of entrepreneurial education.
Small-Business Model: These courses teach small business management. While these courses can be helpful for those with limited goals, do students need a 4-year degree to manage a small business, or can they learn what they need to know in one of the leading small business programs?
Early-VC Unicorn-Starter Model: These courses, including those that deal with global startups when they are international in scope, are mainly focused on innovation to start the growth venture, strategy to launch the growth venture, and capital to fund the growth venture. If the strategy shows potential, the assumption seems to be that entrepreneurs will get VC and be replaced by a professional CEO with the track record to build the venture or flip it.
The 3rd Model: But there is a third model of entrepreneurship that can be taught by business schools to train more entrepreneurs to grow more with less.
The Unicorn-Builder (U-B) Model: The U-B Model was used by 94% of billion-dollar-entrepreneurs to start a high-potential venture, position it for growth, launch it without VC, and build it to dominance. By teaching the smart strategies and skills of unicorn-builders, business schools can accomplish a lot more. Here is how the U-B model compares with the other models:
· Programs Taught: The U-B model requires more content than the two other models. Unicorn-builders need to know finance-smart strategies to get to Aha (because VCs finance after Aha), bootstrap skills to takeoff without VC (because VC only helps ~20/100,000 ventures) and unicorn-leadership to dominate (because VCs replace unproven entrepreneurs).
· Skills Needed: The U-B model requires a higher level of skills than small business in order to grow and a higher level of skills than unicorn-starters to avoid being replaced as CEO after successfully executing the difficult part of starting a potential unicorn. The unicorn-builders need to make the difficult transition from entrepreneurs to CEO. More than 9/10 billion-dollar entrepreneurs achieved this difficult feat.
Here are 4 reasons why entrepreneurial education should focus on Unicorn-Builders:
· Help All: Compared with the ~20 out of 100,000 ventures that are being helped by the VC method, the U-B method can help 100,00/ 100,000 ventures.
· Help At All Stages: Compared with the availability of VC after Aha, requiring entrepreneurs to get there on their own, the U-B method can help entrepreneurs both before and after Aha.
· Help Everywhere: Compared with the geographically limited success of VC, which has succeeded mainly in Silicon Valley (in the U.S.), the U-B method helps all entrepreneurs everywhere, including minority and female entrepreneurs, who are not currently benefitting.
· Control the Wealth: And here is the most important reason – Unicorn-Builders kept 3x the proportion of wealth created than Unicorn-Starters.
MY TAKE: Unicorn-Builder programs can help business schools and community colleges expand their repertoire and add the universally useful third model of entrepreneurial education. This education can encourage more students to consider high-performance venturing – to create wealth and keep more of it. And to pay for the increasingly expensive business school education.
