4 choices that matter in a startup strategy
Choosing the right customer, technology, competition, and organization are necessary decisions for a successful startup.
Faculty
Erin L. Scott, PhD draws upon her nearly two decades of academic and practical experience to partner with groundbreaking innovators to successfully navigate the entrepreneurial journey from initial idea to commercialization. Her research focuses on Strategy for Startups, has been published in leading journals such as Harvard Business Review and Management Science, and will be released in a forthcoming book published by Norton.
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Scott mentors early-stage entrepreneurs and teaches the award-winning Entrepreneurial Strategy course (MBA and EMBA) and the popular Entrepreneurial Founding & Teams course (MBA).
Prior to MIT Sloan, Scott was an Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore Business School. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Innovation Policy and the Economy Group. A recipient of the Kauffman Dissertation Fellowship, she earned her PhD in strategy from Washington University in St. Louis in 2013. Scott also holds an MBA-MS and BE in biomedical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and Vanderbilt University, respectively. She previously evaluated and consulted for early-stage ventures in the medical device and biotechnology sectors.
Gans, Joshua, Erin L. Scott, and Scott Stern. In Annals of Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, edited by Charles Matthews and Susana Santos, 393-400. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023.
Gans,Joshua S., Michael Kearney, Erin L. Scott, and Scott Stern. Strategy Science Vol. 6, No. 1 (2021): 39-53. NBER Preprint.
Scott, Erin L., Pian Scott, and Roman M. Lubynsky. Management Science Vol. 66, No. 3 (2020): 1005-1015. Download Paper.
Gans, Joshua, Erin L Scott, and Scott Stern. Harvard Business Review, May 2018.
Scott, Erin L., and Pian Shu. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings Vol. 107, No. 5 (2017): 308-311. Download Paper.
Choosing the right customer, technology, competition, and organization are necessary decisions for a successful startup.
"...the signature of a good idea is that the entrepreneur will be able to identify multiple potential ways to make it work."
There are many possible paths to success for good ideas. How can innovators and entrepreneurs weigh alternative options and confidently make choices to position their ventures for competitive advantage? This two-day entrepreneurship course provides a practical and systematic approach to exploring and evaluating the core choices that entrepreneurs need to make as they translate their ideas into a reality.