Arts & Entertainment  April 15, 2015

Boulder incubator Watson University launching bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship

Eric Glustrom
Eric Glustrom

BOULDER — Watson University, a nonprofit incubator in Boulder geared toward socially-minded startups, is launching a two-and-a-half-year bachelor’s degree program in entrepreneurship through a partnership with Lynn University.

The program is accredited through Lynn, a small private school in Boca Raton, Fla., and gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to build their own startups as part of the curriculum.

The goal, Watson officials say, is to help solve the dilemma that many entrepreneurs face, which is whether they should choose between earning a college degree or building their companies. To do both, young entrepreneurs must often give attention first to their studies while working on their startups after midnight once they’ve finished their homework.

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“It’s really about flipping that model on its back to give students more flexibility to work on their businesses,” Watson’s vice president Romain Vakilitabar said Wednesday.

Founded in 2013 by Eric Glustrom, Watson has been offering semester-long incubator courses for young entrepreneurs. Glustrom is noted for having co-founded Educate!, a nonprofit in Uganda that works to provide leadership and entrepreneurship training there.

The new Watson degree program is a 120-credit-hour program. Sixty of those credit hours are earned through taking online general requirement courses through Lynn, which ultimately bestows the degree. The other 60 credit hours are earned in Boulder where Watson rents space and holds its classes in buildings at Chautauqua Park.

Students have four 15-credit-hour semesters in Boulder, with nine hours each semester earned through the “Watson Lab,” essentially a co-working space where students work on their startups and get access to mentors from the community and other resources of the incubator. The other courses, meanwhile, cover topics like ideation, revenue creation and scaling companies.

Vakilitabar said that, while other universities have developed entrepreneurial focuses in their business schools, Watson is aiming to provide a more hands-on approach to learning entrepreneurial skills than just teaching theory.

“It’s way more practical than just writing a business plan,” he said.

Of the 15 entrepreneurs participating in the Watson incubator now, three began piloting the new degree program last fall and are on track to graduate in spring 2016. Cost of the entire program is $76,000.

Watson, which is funded by tuition revenue and philanthropists, offers some scholarships but also offers a payback method for students through which they can commit 3 percent to 5 percent of their future revenue from their companies or a subsequent job until they’ve paid Watson back for their tuition.

“We have a vested interest in the success of our scholars,” Vakilitabar said of the payback program.

Eric Glustrom
Eric Glustrom

BOULDER — Watson University, a nonprofit incubator in Boulder geared toward socially-minded startups, is launching a two-and-a-half-year bachelor’s degree program in entrepreneurship through a partnership with Lynn University.

The program is accredited through Lynn, a small private school in Boca Raton, Fla., and gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to build their own startups as part of the curriculum.

The goal, Watson officials say, is to help solve the dilemma that many entrepreneurs face, which is whether they should choose between earning a college degree or building their companies. To…

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