In Spring 2026, the Wisconsin School of Business introduced the first ever Wisconsin Applied Ventures in Entrepreneurship (WAVE) practicum for undergraduate students. The graduate version of WAVE has been taught since the 1990s and is currently taught by Dan Olszewski, Director of the Weinert Center.
The undergraduate course was taught by Maia Donohue, Director of Student Engagement – Entrepreneurial Mindset. Twenty four students enrolled in this hands-on, heavily collaborative entrepreneurship course and formed into seven teams.
The unique element of the course is that students work on their own startups throughout the course applying lessons to their own companies, over half of which have products on the market and are generating revenue.
Students conducted primary market research, learned how to challenge assumptions, went deep on fundraising, learned to track KPIs, and more.
AI was included in the coursework with an emphasis on how student founders can use the tool to conduct market research and launch scalable companies more efficiently, wisely, and quickly. One particular lesson involved using a series of specific prompts while feeding their startup pitch decks to an AI platform. The prompts were designed to make the AI think like a critical investor, replacing its usual sycophantic nature with an emphasis on parsing out risk.
The element that may have had the greatest impact on the course was the sense of community. Over half the students remained behind long after every class was over, conversing with their peers (often those from other teams) on how they were approaching each lesson, new customer/market benchmarks, and more.
The community benefit went beyond their undergraduate peers. One of the most impactful lessons was a mentor deep dive, in which seven mentors spent 20 minutes with each team before rotating to the next team. Students delivered a final pitch on the last day of class. Panelists were John W. Miller (CEO of WEDC and former UW Regent), Laura Montoya, Sean Nelson, and Andy Kalmon.
Finally, through the hands-on, community elements of the course, students became immensely better leaders. Within their teams, students had to learn how to draw on their strengths and weaknesses to find the right co-founder role within the company. Students learned how their leadership style impacts the culture of their growing company, and how it can build a resilient brand in an ever-changing market.
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