Online courses to start a business can help new entrepreneurs learn the essential skills they need, without going back to school or attending in-person classes
1. Startup School (Y Combinator)
What it is
- Startup School is a free online program from Y Combinator (YC), the startup accelerator behind companies like Airbnb and Dropbox.
- It’s designed for people who want to learn how to start a company with guidance from experienced founders and YC partners.
Why it’s useful for new founders
- Concentrated on startups specifically, rather than general management theory
- Draws from YC’s more than ten years of expertise advising and investing in thousands of businesses.
- Contains organized information about choosing to launch, creating a product, communicating with consumers, and more (via the curriculum and YC’s collection of speeches and writings).
This makes it especially useful if you’re aiming for a tech or high-growth startup, even if you’re still at the idea stage.
How AI can add value here
Research shows AI innovation can promote entrepreneurial activity by improving opportunity recognition, decision-making, and entrepreneurship education.
Used alongside Startup School, AI tools can help you:
- Develop and refine startup concepts in response to customer concerns.
- Make well-organized deadlines and action plans based on YC’s recommendations.
- Make draft pitch decks, landing page copy, and investor emails for you to edit.
- You can practice by acting out customer interviews or objections.
This aligns with findings that AI can act as a “collaborator” in entrepreneurial decision-making and reduce the difficulty of key startup activities.
2. Becoming an Entrepreneur (MITx / LaunchX)
What it is
Becoming an Entrepreneur is an MITx online course created with LaunchX, described as:
- An online course that assists individuals of different ages and backgrounds in starting a business.
- Centered on imparting “business skills and startup mindset” to help you succeed as an entrepreneur.
The course page explains that it includes:
- Inspiration and guided brainstorming.
- Creativity exercises.
- Activities that take you into your community to make a real impact.
- Content on developing business ideas, doing market research, designing, testing, and pitching your offering, using MIT’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship, lean methods, and design thinking.
No prior business experience is required.
Why it’s useful for new founders
This course is particularly strong if you want a structured, university-backed introduction to entrepreneurship that still pushes you to do real work :
- From concept to pitch, it views entrepreneurship as a process.
- It combines action (market research, testing) with theory (disciplined entrepreneurship, design thinking).
- It has enrolled “hundreds of thousands” of students, indicating widespread uptake and gradual improvement.
How AI can add value here
AI innovation greatly encourages opportunity-driven entrepreneurship and supports entrepreneurs through improved investment and education, according to the global AI-and-entrepreneurship study previously mentioned.
Layer AI onto this course to:
- Turn your brainstorming outputs into structured business model canvases.
- Quickly summarize market research articles or reports you’re reading.
- Draft and refine your pitch scripts based on MIT’s frameworks.
- Create a test copy or simple visuals for your first experiments.
In other words, AI helps you move faster through the “research → design → pitch” loop that the course teaches.
3. How to Start Your Own Business Specialization (Coursera, Michigan State University)
What it is
- Coursera’s How to Start Your Own Business Specialization from Michigan State University is explicitly positioned as a hands-on program.
- It’s a multi-course specialization under Coursera’s entrepreneurship category and appears in Coursera’s list of popular “Starting a Business” offerings.
- Coursera notes that these starting-a-business courses build skills such as financial statements, business planning, value propositions, and customer acquisition.
Why it’s useful for new founders
- Intended for novices seeking a methodical route from concept to launch.
- Combines a number of fundamental abilities, including planning, consumer research, legal and structural decision-making, and basic finance.
- According to Coursera’s support documents, it is hosted on a popular MOOC platform and offers financial help for numerous specific courses and specializations, as well as free auditing for some content.
This is a good fit if you want a step-by-step path with quizzes, peer interaction, and a recognized university behind the curriculum.
How AI can add value here
Given that many small business owners already use AI for data analysis, marketing, and communication.
- Use AI to turn assignment prompts into checklists and project plans.
- Draft early versions of your business plan, executive summary and basic financial assumptions (for you or a mentor to refine).
- Generate lists of potential customer segments to research.
- Practice email outreach templates, sales scripts and FAQ answers.
This lets you spend more time validating and talking to customers, not just formatting documents.
4. An Entire MBA in 1 Course (Udemy)
What it is
“An Entire MBA in 1 Course: Award Winning Business School Prof” on Udemy is a comprehensive business course taught by Chris Haroun and designed to cover key topics from launching a startup through to scaling and potential exit. The course is listed as a bestseller on Udemy. As of the May 2025 course page update, it shows a rating of 4.4 out of 5 based on 62,679 ratings, with 506,439 students enrolled
Why it’s useful for new founders
While not a narrow “how to start” course, this is valuable if you:
- Want a broad foundation in finance, strategy, marketing, and growth, compressed into one long course.
- Prefer an instructor-led style with one recognizable teacher whose courses have been taken by millions of learners globally.
This can complement more execution-focused programs like Startup School or the Michigan State specialization.
How AI can add value here
Because the course spans so many business topics, AI tools can help you :
- Summarize long sections into your own notes and flashcards.
- Create simple financial models or scenario tables based on concepts introduced.
- Generate practice questions to test your understanding of finance, strategy or marketing frameworks.
Given research that AI can enhance entrepreneurs’ learning abilities and professional skills through improved education, using AI as a “tutor” alongside a dense course like this can make the material more digestible and actionable.
5. Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women (Online via Coursera)
What it is
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women is a free-to-access online business education initiative hosted on Coursera. The collection page describes it as:
- A free online business education program available globally.
- Ten core courses covering all aspects of running a business.
- Three additional elective courses to complement the core content.
- Designed specifically for entrepreneurs ready to grow their businesses.
One of the flagship courses, “Grow Your Business with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women,” explains that:
- It helps you identify a specific growth opportunity.
- Introduces a Business Growth Plan (BGP) as a strategic tool.
- Encourages you to complete all ten courses to develop your Business Growth Plan fully.
The FAQ notes that completing all 10 core courses allows you to explore key elements of your business and build a thorough growth plan, and eligible participants who complete them may join the 10,000 Women Alumni Community for ongoing support.
Why it’s useful for new and growing founders
- Ideal for female entrepreneurs seeking a global peer network and organized growth courses.
- Practical focus on a single, cohesive Business Growth Plan throughout classes as opposed to disjointed tasks.
- The core content is entirely free to access on Coursera.
This is especially attractive if you already have a business and want to scale it with a focused, growth-plan mindset.
How AI can add value here
When you’re building a growth plan, AI can:
- Help analyze your market and competitors by summarizing public information.
- Suggest ways to structure your Business Growth Plan based on course guidelines.
- Draft policy documents, internal communication or customer messaging tied to your new growth strategy.
In parallel, macro-level research highlights that AI adoption can boost productivity and innovation for SMEs, OECD, so combining a program like 10,000 Women with basic AI literacy can position your business to grow more efficiently.
6. HubSpot Academy (Marketing & Sales for New Businesses)
What it is
HubSpot Academy provides a large library of business and marketing courses covering areas such as inbound marketing, content marketing, SEO, social media promotion and email marketing. Creating an account is free, and learners get unlimited access to the full course library along with free software tools and certifications.
Why it’s useful for new founders
Even the best business idea fails without a way to attract and retain customers. HubSpot Academy is valuable because it :
- Focuses on modern digital marketing and sales.
- Structure content into short, practical lessons and certifications.
- Stays aligned with real-world inbound marketing practices used by many companies.
This makes it an excellent companion to any of the more general entrepreneurship courses above.
How AI can add value here
Given that many businesses extensively rely on AI for marketing tasks like content ideation and activation, you can :
- Utilize AI to create social media posts, email campaigns, and blog entries using HubSpot’s inbound frameworks.
- Make several headlines, call to action, and ad copy variations fast for A/B testing.
- Create templates and playbooks for your own company using the HubSpot course materials.
By pairing structured marketing education with AI-driven execution, you can implement campaigns faster while still grounded in solid strategy.
How to Get More Value From These Courses (Beyond the Videos)
When used as frameworks rather than merely as content to be consumed, online courses perform best. The true benefit lies in how you apply what you learn in conjunction with contemporary tools and practices.
1. Transform Lessons into Practical Plans
After each module, take a moment to convert important concepts into straightforward action steps rather than just passively viewing the courses. For instance, include three client questions you can test right away, following a market research class. This facilitates a quicker transition from theory to practice.
2. Accelerate Idea Validation and Research
Early research is where many founders suffer the most. You can focus on testing ideas in the real world by cutting down on the amount of time you spend obtaining information by using contemporary digital tools to compare ideas, organize notes, and summarize publications.
3. Before going live, practice communicating.
Practicing your messaging in private beforehand helps boost confidence, whether you’re contacting potential clients, writing a landing page, or selling an idea. Clarity is increased, and errors are decreased when communication is drafted and refined before being made public.
4. Maintain Your Consistency Without Burning Out
Flexibility is one of the main benefits of taking classes online. You may maintain momentum without becoming overwhelmed by establishing a simple schedule, such as finishing one course and one little task each week. When launching a firm, consistency is more important than speed.
5. Why This Method Is Effective
This guide’s courses offer established frameworks and structure. You may learn more quickly, retain more information, and make quantifiable progress toward starting a real business by combining that structure with useful execution habits.
Practical ways to pair AI with these courses
Without making any claims about specific tools’ performance, typical AI-assisted workflows compatible with the research above include :
1. Faster research and validation
- Summarizing long reports or articles you encounter in entrepreneurship, marketing or finance modules.
- Turning customer interview notes into themes and insights.
- Generating lists of potential customer segments or problems to investigate.
2. Better documentation and planning
- Drafting first versions of business plans, growth plans, marketing strategies or pitch scripts based on course frameworks.
- Turning lecture notes into structured checklists, timelines and to-do lists.
- Creating sample policies or internal documents to support operations as your business grows.
3. Content and communication support
- Drafting emails to mentors, partners, or potential customers.
- Generating marketing content ideas aligned with inbound or digital marketing best practices.
- Creating multiple versions of copy for testing improves your chances of finding a message that resonates.
According to research demonstrating that AI helps opportunity perception, decision-making, and entrepreneurial education, when used responsibly—that is, by reviewing and modifying outputs yourself—AI can act as a force multiplier for everything you learn in these entrepreneurship courses..
Putting It All Together: Which Course Should You Start With?
Here’s a simple way to pick:
- “I have an idea and would like startup-focused advice.” Start with MITx Becoming an Entrepreneur or Startup School.
- “I want a beginner-friendly, structured path with assignments.” Take a look at the How to Start Your Own Business course on Coursera.
- “I want a comprehensive business foundation in one location.” Enroll in Udemy’s “Entire MBA in 1 Course” as your foundational training.
- Explore Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women on Coursera. “I already run a business and want to grow it, especially as a woman entrepreneur.”
- “I need customers and marketing systems.” • Include classes on inbound marketing, content, and sales in HubSpot Academy.
Whichever path you choose, the challenges of starting and growing a legitimate business can be greatly decreased by combining top-notch online instruction with practical application—and cautious use of AI as a co-pilot.
Discliamer
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be considered business, financial, or legal advice. We do not guarantee outcomes and are not responsible for the content, policies, or services of any third-party websites or courses mentioned.