Teaching

AI & entrepreneurship.

Paul has experience teaching large lectures and small seminars at MIT and works with other universities around the world to deliver innovative entrepreneurship education programs.

Classes at MIT

Across every level of the Institute.

Paul teaches all levels of entrepreneurship to students across the five schools at MIT including undergraduate, MBA, PhD, and executive students. His courses span from the largest foundational entrepreneurship class, New Enterprises, to a smaller advanced class that he designed, Venture Creation Tactics.

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Venture Creation Tactics

Venture Creation Tactics focuses on building your specific business, experimenting with the practical skills that will help you to take your work from other entrepreneurship classes and enter the market. It connects the dots from the frameworks and concepts in the introductory entrepreneurship courses and guides students on how to tactically apply them in real situations. Topics are integrated and include but are not limited to, primary market research, digital advertising, outbound sales, UX design, rapid prototyping, recruiting early team members, and raising money. Taught 2022 to present.

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New Enterprises

New Enterprises, which is believed to be the oldest entrepreneurship course in the country, covers the process of identifying and quantifying market opportunities, then conceptualizing, planning, and starting a new, technology-based enterprise. Topics include opportunity assessment, the value proposition, the entrepreneur, legal issues, entrepreneurial ethics, the business plan, the founding team, seeking customers, and raising funds. Students develop detailed business plans for a start-up. Intended for students who want to start their own business, further develop an existing business, be a member of a management team in a new enterprise, or better understand the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial process. Taught 2020 to 2025.

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Public Speaking

Students further develop and refine public speaking skills through engaging interactive workshops. Techniques learned help students become dynamic and authentic speakers. Includes speaking preparation, practice, tactics related to content & delivery, storytelling, and crafting presentations. Taught 2021-present.

15.378GSD (Get S*** Done)

Building an Entrepreneurial Venture: Advanced Tools & Techniques

GSD is an intensive, project-based subject intended for startup teams already working on building a new, high-impact venture. Applies advanced entrepreneurial techniques to build and iterate a venture in a time-compressed manner. Includes weekly coaching sessions with instructors and peers, as well as highly interactive and customized sessions that provide practical, in-depth coverage on key topics in entrepreneurship. Topics include venture creation, primary market research, product development, market adoption, team and culture, and scaling processes with constrained resources. Taught Spring 2020.

15.A04First Year Seminar

Hitchhiker's Guide to the MIT Entrepreneurship Galaxy

Seminar for first-year undergraduate MIT students. Provides an overview to the sometimes complex MIT entrepreneurial ecosystem, and how best to navigate it for each student's personal journey. Includes various perspectives with a diverse and dynamic group of guest speakers who lived the journey students are about to go on themselves. The class discusses tools like the Orbit online platform, MIT's 70+ innovation and entrepreneurship-focused courses, mentoring options like the Trust Center's Entrepreneurs in Residence or the Venture Mentoring Service, and organizations like StartLabs and MIT Sandbox. The goal of this seminar is to make students comfortable from day one to access the incredible opportunities to really explore expanding their entrepreneurial skill set in a highly supportive, penalty-free, and resource-rich environment. Taught 2022-2024.

Paul Cheek teaching at MIT — collage of classroom moments

Beyond MIT

Partnering with universities worldwide.

Paul has the opportunity to teach sessions in collaboration with other schools, including:

Queensland University of Technology

Brisbane, Australia

Dalhousie University

Halifax, Canada

The Lisbon MBA

Lisbon, Portugal

Dublin City University

Dublin, Ireland

Harvard Business School

Boston, MA

The Wharton School

Philadelphia, PA

Babson College

Wellesley, MA

Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU)

Prairie View, TX

ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México)

Mexico City, Mexico

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Monterrey, Mexico

Fudan University

Shanghai, China

Universidad de Navarra

Spain

Lazaridis School of Business & Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University

Canada

Università degli Studi di Napoli “Parthenope”

Italy

What his students say

From the classroom.

Paul is a brilliant class teacher who displays very high energy and love for entrepreneurship!

MIT student

Thank you for an amazing semester Paul!! Your energy and enthusiasm is unmatched, this was by far my favorite and most informative course this year!

MIT student

Paul was genuinely enthusiastic about the material and got us engaged and participating in a manner that felt encouraging and helped facilitate learning. I asked Paul what other classes he's teaching because I want to continue to learn from him.

MIT student

Bring AI and entrepreneurship education to your campus.

Paul partners with universities, executive education programs, and accelerators around the world. Let's talk about what your students need.