The MIF has been working with the Faculty of Management to provide even more support to teams in our program. New for the fifth year of the MIF, this collaboration will become even more integrated into the MIF Support Program. To ensure that every team has a solid grounding in the fundamentals of business launch, all teams will now begin the MIF Support Program by taking a half-day training program, followed by integration into the curriculum of the Technological Entrepreneurship course. Details on these two elements are as follows:

Introductory course on Entrepreneurship

This half-day course will be led by Professor Rob Nason, a William Dawson Scholar and an associate professor of Strategy and Organization. Content of the program will focus on entrepreneurial basics sch as the lifecycle of startup businesses, identifying product-market fit and developing a go-to market strategy. The course will take place early in January 2026.

Technological Entrepreneurship Experiential Learning

MIF teams will be integrated as real-time case studies for students in the BUSA465 Technological Entrepreneurship course being instructed by Professor Sen Chai. A Harvard graduate, Professor Chai is also an associate professor of Strategy and Organization. Her students will form teams to analyze specific business issues that each team faces and will help prepare deliverables for the team to use over the course of the Winter term. These deliverables could include components such as:

• Market segmentation and customer targeting analysis
• Competitive positioning and differentiation strategy
• Revenue model optimization recommendations
• Customer acquisition and retention strategies
• Market entry timeline and implementation roadmap
• Risk assessment and mitigation strategies
• Resource requirements and scaling plan

Teams will be matched with students in early January with an initial deep-dive session, followed by weekly check-ins through to the end of term. Commitment from the teams will be 4-5 hours of meetings over the length of the program, and final deliverables will be made available to them in April. Complete details and schedule are available here.