Entrepreneurship 101: Who is Your Customer

Entrepreneurship 101: Who is Your Customer is a short, self-paced MITx Online course built on the idea that what separates an idea from a business is a paying customer. It is the first of the MIT entrepreneurship bootcamp series and focuses on the disciplined, methodical side of a creative process. On completion you should be able to conduct market segmentation, select a beachhead market, develop end user profiles, calculate total addressable market size and describe a customer persona. Teaching is based on case studies of MIT startups and their founders, spanning mobile apps, 3D printing, power electronics, international development and watchmaking, and along the way you learn to interview potential customers, tell top-down from bottom-up market analysis, and build a framework for deciding which markets to pursue.

MIT says the course is especially useful for corporate entrepreneurs launching a new product line, scientists and engineers commercialising technology, and entrepreneurship educators and policymakers. It is estimated at 4 weeks and 2 to 4 hours per week. Auditing is free and includes the course and its materials, while the certificate track, listed at $49 on the course page, adds graded assignments and exams and an MIT certificate on completion.