Entrepreneurship in Program in Real Estate
Many students in the Program in Real Estate attend Cornell to gain the practical knowledge and industry insight required to start a successful business venture upon graduation. Entrepreneurship is an integral part of the real estate industry and the Program encourages students to explore their venture ideas and concepts through an assortment of entrepreneurship courses available to them. The Program designed a concentration for students whom are keen on launching an entrepreneurial career. The concentration consists of taking a variety of courses that provide students with the necessary tools to do so. One of the popular courses for students interested in conceptualizing a business venture is Entrepreneurship, Private Equity and Business Plans offered at the Johnson Graduate School of Management.
David J. BenDaniel is the instructor of the Entrepreneurship, Private Equity and Business Plan Development course. Professor BenDaniel holds the title of Don and Margi Berens Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Johnson Graduate School of Management and Senior Fellow of the Entrepreneurship and Personal Enterprise (EPE) Program. The EPE is a multi-disciplinary effort to provide students opportunities to interact with successful alumni through education and outreach efforts. This university-wide program offers courses in entrepreneurship in almost all of Cornell’s schools and colleges. He holds degrees in physics and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has been a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Graduate School of Business. Professor BenDaniel held a senior vice presidency in Textron Corporation’s American research and development division, was group vice president of Exxon Enterprises, supervising the energy-development and technology-components groups, and started General Electric’s technical-ventures operation. He is currently on the Advisory Board at the Johnson Graduate School of Management. He has been featured in Fortune, Business Week, Success Magazine, and Physics Today, among other publications. Recently, he co-edited a new book, International M&A, Joint Ventures and Beyond - Doing the Deal. He utilizes his experience in venture capital investing to effectively communicate the lessons of this course to students.
Since the study of entrepreneurship is not complete without true practical experience, the course uses lectures, live case studies, and a business plan to address entrepreneurial management issues in startup high-growth ventures and private equity investments. Topics include valuation and management of startup ventures, buying and selling of businesses, and leveraged buyouts. Additionally, students are exposed to real life scenarios and experiences in the private equity and entrepreneurial world with a set of guest lecturers that speak on specialized including negotiations for buying and selling businesses, role of boards in startup companies, and distressed businesses.
Students are required to form teams and develop a business plan designed for a high growth business that assesses real financial risk and has realistic returns. Participants in the course are encouraged to conceptualize a business with the intention of actually launching it upon graduation. Twice during the semester, business plans are presented to potential investors in an exercise designed to familiarize students with the process of investment presentations to industry professionals. Isaac Losh, PRE’11, describes the course as, “Tremendously useful. The course offers invaluable insight into the complexities of starting your own business.”
The Program in Real Estate offers this and other courses to students interested in entrepreneurship and encourages students to formulate business ideas during their academic career at Cornell.