5 world-class online courses to help you launch your startup

Here’s a list of these courses, which will not only help you strengthen your entrepreneurial foundation but also launch a successful vent

Want to start your own business? But you don’t have a business background, or you’ve failed miserably after trying business.

Entrepreneurship is very challenging, and when you’re doing it for the first time, it is even more so.

It’s true that you can learn more from your own mistakes and actions. But diving deep without learning how to swim has a greater risk of failure. Most people who jump directly into business end up leaving early. Because without knowing how to do business, you cannot succeed.

On the other hand, a little mentoring and real experience help you gain clarity, such as what things to focus on, how to tackle different situations, and what things to ensure first.

To assure that, we’ve handpicked five world-class online courses that are either taught by actual successful entrepreneurs or by institutions through which a series of successful businesses have been born.

Here’s a list of these courses, which will not only help you strengthen your entrepreneurial foundation but also launch a successful venture.

1. Y Combinator’s Startup School

Startup School is a free 10-week online program offered by Y Combinator (the most successful startup accelerator) that covers in-depth topics most startup founders are looking for.

This is the essence of what they’ve learned at Y-Combinator over the past year working with a huge number of startups.

The course is built around making it easier for people to start a company, regardless of who or where they are. The course’s instructors include super-successful entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Paul Graham, Sam Altman, and Drew Houston.

In addition, there are some founder-advisors available to provide feedback on your startups if you’re actively doing a startup.

2. How to Build a Startup by Udacity

This course will teach you how to rapidly develop and test ideas by gathering massive amounts of feedback from customers and the market.

Many startups fail because they do not validate their ideas with real-world customers early on.

To prevent this, students will learn how to exit the building, search for real customer pain points and unmet needs, and build a business around them.

3. How to Start a Startup by Stanford University

This class is a series of lectures delivered by Sam Altman at Stanford University.

It’s designed to be a sort of one-class business course for people who want to start startups.

It has some of the best speakers from the past 9 years of Y Combinator’s best founders, like Paul Graham (Y Combinator), Peter Theil (PayPal), and Ben Silbermann (Pinterest).

You can’t teach everything necessary to succeed in starting a company, but there is a surprising amount. It will help a lot of people be better at starting companies.

Talks like these have really helped Y Combinator founders create their companies. We hope you find it helpful too.

4. StartUp India Learning Program

Startup India Learning Program is a free online Entrepreneurship program by Startup India, a GOI initiative in collaboration with UpGrad.

The aim is to help entrepreneurs get their ideas and ventures to the next level through structured learning.

The program covers real-life successes, failures, and lessons on key areas of starting up by 40+ top founders of India, such as Kunal Bahl (Co-founder of Snapdeal), Ronnie Screwvala, (Co-founder of UpGrad), and Rishi Malhotra, (Co-founder of Savan Music), to name a few across various domains.

One more great thing about this course is that it is available in Hindi and English as well, which makes learning without the language barrier easier.

Also, you’ll get an opportunity to network and mentor via the discussion forums, which is surely a way to plan and launch your dream venture.

5. Entrepreneurship Specialization by Wharton University (Coursera)

Wharton’s Entrepreneurship Specialization (a five-course series) will teach you how to create, design, organize, and manage new ventures.

It takes you from opportunity identification through launch, growth, financing, and profitability.

With guidance from Wharton’s top professors and insights from Wharton’s start-up founders and financiers, you’ll develop an entrepreneurial mindset and learn how to launch a new venture.

Whether you’re seeking the potential for growth and funding or want to identify and go after opportunities for growth within an existing organization, this course delivers both.

At the end of this specialization, you’ll have a hands-on project to apply what you’ve learned.

Bonus: Launching an Innovative Business Specialization by the University of Maryland (Coursera)

This Specialization (three-course series) focuses on the entrepreneurial mindset, innovation processes, bringing innovations to market, and maintaining an advantage in the marketplace.

You’ll learn how to bring innovations to the market and craft a business model to successfully launch your new business.

In the next part of the specialization, you will develop an understanding of how to develop winning investor pitches, who and when to pitch, and how to avoid common mistakes.

With the final Capstone Project, you will apply the tools and concepts from the courses by crafting a comprehensive, customer-validated business model, a business plan, and an investor pitch.

How to Get Most of These Courses?

• Make a Note of Important Points
  Taking Notes is Organizing information in a simpler way so that it can be retained for longer will help with clarity while taking action on things.
• Start taking action toward what you’ve learned
  When you don’t take action, you immediately forget, it becomes like other ordinary information you have in your mind. Without action, no results can be achieved.
• Start Hunting for Ideas
  Start your entrepreneurial journey by deciding what change you want to make in the world.