Impact MBA: Entrepreneurship & Innovation

The Impact MBA, Entrepreneurship and Innovation track at CSU’s College of Business teaches you how to create and manage a team-based startup from the ground up that achieves sustainability with results focused on the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental performance.

The resulting solutions you uncover can – and should – be used as powerful forces to solve the most complex global challenges of our time.

Bring startup ideas to life

Every semester, you’ll have an innovative course on social entrepreneurship while learning foundational and transferable business skills in marketing, finance and accounting. The new venture creation process will be integrated into your courses, enhancing your planning, leadership and teamwork abilities along the way.

“The program helps students create businesses that are renewable, regenerative and that support a better life for people.”
- Mike Callahan, MBA graduate, senior project leader at National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Co-founder of PowerMundo

Summer Fellowship

After a year of coursework, you'll join an organization for the fellowship capstone. You'll gain professional experience in the field of sustainability and apply coursework to propose business models that address a global challenge. You'll also use analytical skills to improve and develop sustainable projects.

The ultimate goal of the Impact MBA, Entrepreneurship and Innovation track is to gain new perspectives and help you develop an entrepreneurial and innovative mindset which will serve you well into your career.

“All of the things you can’t Google, you figure out in the fellowship.”
– Kat Ernst, Impact MBA program director

Pitch competition

All of your hard work and team effort culminates in a pitch competition before December graduation. The competition is attended by project partners and the public, members of the faculty, the CSU community and your family and friends.

View the pitch competition videos

See how other Impact MBA students are taking their entrepreneurial spirit and pairing it with essential business skills to develop new business models and watch their pitch videos below.

Yak the Blue

Good-looking clothes can also be good for the environment. Yak the Blue was started to help regenerate Mongolia’s severely depleted ecosystems and help herders at the same time.

WellNav

Everyone deserves to lead a life well-lived. WellNav is developing partnerships to address gaps in the disability support network and empowering individuals to make better choices about their care options.

Ubiquitous

Ubiquitous is helping educate young people, regardless of their social or economic standing. Through an online educational platform and a mobile health unit, the venture hopes to empower young people with the resources they need to make smart choices.

Sweet Retreat

Sweet ReTreat is reimagining sustainable development and delicious snacks. Whether your biking or hiking, you can be sure to stop at a locally owned Sweet ReTreat for environmentally-friendly snacks in an sustainable built location.

Seagraze

Seagraze has developed a way to combat climate changing gas emissions with a seaweed additive in livestock feed that will cut methane emissions by 90% while offering ranchers more sustainable options. The venture hopes to create demand for environmentally-friendly beef products at the same time.

Immpower

The American dream should be accessible to everyone. ImmPower is developing no-interest financial instruments for use by marginalized populations, and is using Islamic concepts of financing to do it.

Heirloomers

High-quality food doesn't have to have a high price to match. Heirloomers is developing an e-commerce platform to connect consumers with the sustainably raised agricultural products they love at prices they can afford.

Attica Voting

Creating trust in the voting process is a vital part of fair elections. Attica Voting is using a transparent and secure web platform to offer voters a more sustainable alternative to paper ballots and hackable voting machines.