Can start-up success be taught?

More colleges are launching courses in entrepreneurship, but founders question their value.

- Andrew Jack

On paper, tech entrepreneur Evan Moore seems a good advertisement for business degrees. While at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, he co-founded DoorDash, the US food delivery group now valued at more than US$70 billion (S$90 billion) and expanding fast, including through its agreed takeover of the UK's Deliveroo.

Yet he has a frank admission about his time in education: "Nothing I learnt at business school had anything to do with starting a business." The reality, he says, is that "while a number of incredibly successful founders and executives have gone to the top business schools, none are great because of the business school they went to".

His comments highlight an intensifying debate about whether it is wise - or possible - to teach entrepreneurship.

Mr Elon Musk has repeatedly discouraged budding entrepreneurs from taking MBAs, rather than learning by doing. Mr Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to co-found Microsoft.

But demand for teaching in how to run a start-up is rising, prompting many universities to launch new courses. The number of entrepreneurship master's programmes increased by 6 per cent in the five years to 2024, according to accreditation body AACSB. Leading schools offering specialised qualifications include Babson College, which runs an M.Sc in entrepreneurial leadership, and Cambridge Judge Business School.

"The level of demand now is much higher than at any period in the past," says Professor Bo Becker, head of the department of finance at the Stockholm School of Economics, which, like other schools, offers courses on topics such as innovation, lean start-ups, investing and founder talks.