Heidi Herrick has an MBA from Oxford and a Ph.D. in strategy and entrepreneurship from the University of Utah, where she has taught in the Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy ever since.
Herrick’s first job in college was with a startup. Her passion for working with entrepreneurs continued during her time at Oxford. Before coming to the University of Utah, she worked as a consultant in San Francisco, mentoring startups in the Silicon Valley tech space. Her research focuses on strategic leadership, women in leadership, and operating under conditions of uncertainty. She believes leadership, teamwork, and learning from failure can help train great entrepreneurs.
Why did you decide to teach entrepreneurship? What interests you about the subject?
Herrick: I love working with entrepreneurs. I feel like I have the best job in the world every day to come and work with all these startups. I’m still a consultant at heart – because many student entrepreneurs and startups need guidance and help. It’s a privilege to get to work with them.
The best part is that it’s not just a classroom experience where you teach a class. Many of these students come and take other classes from me, and they come back years later and become guest speakers in my classes. It becomes like a lifelong friendship, where they still call me and ask me for advice about their business or for letters of recommendation now that they’re applying to grad schools or doing other fun things.
It has been a delight to teach at the University of Utah. We have such world-renowned programs and because so much of the experience is learning by doing, students get an enriching experience while they’re early in their startups. They go to pitches and win money for some of their startups. It is fun to see and a privilege to teach here every day.
What are the advantages of entrepreneurship education? Can it create better entrepreneurs and founders?
Herrick: I’m a firm believer that you can absolutely teach entrepreneurship. The reason I’m here is because I’ve seen it. So many entrepreneurs fail, and the startup rates are not great. And so many of these are big hits financially and to egos. A lot of these things are not easy to overlook.
I’ve seen students often fail, but what a great place to fail and make mistakes in such a safe environment supported by great faculty and mentors. And the number of resources we have here on campus is phenomenal. The list includes the Marriott Library, programs such as Bench to Bedside and the Utah Entrepreneurship Challenge, and so much more. There are just so many things that aid and give a safe place for entrepreneurs to fail early on. It all adds to their experience, skill sets, and network that will benefit them for life.
How can entrepreneurship education help students become strategic leaders and make better decisions?
Herrick: One of my favorite things that we teach is that it’s all about strategic leadership. I love that these students have opportunities to lead. Leadership is often thought of as something that doesn’t happen until late in your career; maybe after an MBA, you’re finally in those leadership positions. But if you think about it, you can be a leader on just a team project. Students can be examples for other peers in class work for some things they do outside the classroom.
One of the things we encourage and incorporate into the learning here at the U is that strategic leadership happens at all levels. From the introductory people in an organization to the highest level, there are many chances to be a strategic leader. Strategic leadership is making sure you’re doing the right things. When students can lead early, specifically in their classes, it provides space to practice the skills in a safe place to find their voice. There are many ways for them to develop, grow, and become strategic leaders in our community.
Do you believe the skills and lessons learned from entrepreneurship education apply to other educational and career pursuits? If yes, how so?
Herrick: Absolutely. I teach Entrepreneurship 1010 to 5000 right now, and all the students are primarily outside of the business school. There are dance majors, photography majors, engineers, and scientists; it enhances their careers. I just wrote two letters of recommendation this week, one for a student who was in my entrepreneurship classes, going to dental school, and eventually will run his own practice. Some of my best students have been the ones who also added entrepreneurship through the Lassonde programs, maybe as a certificate or adding a minor to their degree.
It’s been phenomenal to see the growth that happens, the leadership opportunities, and the job options students have. Students ask me to write a letter of recommendation for them because they had such a profound experience in one of our entrepreneurship classes that they believe it’s going to make them better dentists, dance studio owners, or doctors someday. Adding entrepreneurship to any degree is one of the most powerful things I’ve seen.
How can students get the most out of entrepreneurship education?
Herrick: Sometimes, a student’s favorite class is one they maybe didn’t plan to take. If they take a general education credit and it’s an entrepreneurship-related class, or if they take a bridge class and take Entrepreneurship 5000, it often ends up being one of their favorite classes that they’ve ever taken. I think adding entrepreneurship to a curriculum is great.
Lessons from entrepreneurship can be brought into activities and networking outside of the classroom. I think the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is a powerful resource for anyone across campus. Students don’t typically walk into a department or a building they don’t have classes in, but Lassonde is the exception. It’s a diverse population and adds to what students do outside the classroom. So much networking and startup ideation happen while you’re in college, so taking advantage of the time is just critical.
What do you hope students take away from entrepreneurship coursework and conversations within the classes you teach?
Herrick: I think sometimes students get hung up on a specific idea. I always tell the students that ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s much more about the process – and that’s where education is so powerful.
We can have ideas, run through the process, and learn a ton. And at the end of the timeline, if you decide to kill that business idea, the process learned is what matters. You learn how to prototype, do good surveys, develop a target market, and conduct experiments to test your idea. It’s not about that one perfect, golden idea that stands out. It’s much more about learning a process.
What are the missteps companies and founders take that lead to setbacks?
Herrick: The core of our program is all about value creation and value capture. Sometimes, I see students and founders get caught up in one step of the process. For example, building a beautiful and complex prototype on a budget. But if you’re building something nobody wants, that’s not creating or capturing any value. If nobody wants what you make, that’s a major setback. The importance of capturing value is one of the core things we teach and try to educate students on in the entrepreneurship process.
How can entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs best recover from mistakes or failure?
Herrick: Often, we see failure as a major setback. I find that most students who fail don’t lack the capabilities but lack motivation. They lack confidence, or they don’t have access to the right resources. Sometimes, I potentially make my students fail on an assignment or a project. The learning forces them to get back up and try again to repair and learn from their mistakes.
If you fail on a million-dollar project, that’s devastating. If you fail early in the first month on a million-dollar project, where you only spend $10,000, there’s a lot of room for growth and change to happen. I love that students can fail in a safe place where the stakes are smaller, and they can learn how to execute that process and navigate it. Failure can lead to more success when the stakes are higher. Those skills are incredibly valuable to learn early on.
How does having a team impact the success of a startup?
Herrick: Sometimes, visiting class guest speakers are venture capitalists with portfolios of impressive investment deals. They help build these companies and startups. They always say the number one thing they look for is the team – not the idea. Building the right team takes having the right people at the table and making those network connections now. Many connections form during your college years. The team is critical to success. Every investor and every venture capitalist would tell you they look for the team first and foremost.
How can entrepreneurs and students measure success in startups and projects?
Herrick: I think people always measure success based on typical things such as profit, growth, and achieving pre-set goals. I think there’s so much beyond that. How many network connections form, learning, how individuals and teams develop, and skill set development are also important markers of success. In hindsight, it’s less about the tangible money or the project and more about the growth that happens.
One of my favorite parts of being a professor is that I get to see students when they come in. And they’re young, and they’re just figuring things out. Then students learn from entrepreneurship programs, graduate, and apply the skills we teach them here and do phenomenal things in businesses or their startups. It’s fun to see the growth that’s transpired and be a part of that.
