faq

Design Build Ship (BUSI 365) is a new course at the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship designed for builders. it's part product studio, part playground for your ideas. think of it as an independent study disguised as a course — a dedicated block for you to build with a community of people that actually create products and prototypes, not just talk about them.

every two weeks, you build an idea, share it with real users, and decide what to do next.

This course is for builders: people already working on ideas in private, at hackathons, or on side projects. If you have real traction or the drive to get it, this is for you. We're looking for people and teams who want to move fast and test ideas in days, not months.

You should have completed one of: BUSI 220 (New Enterprises: Discovery), BUSI 222 (Tech Product Design and Development), or BUSI 369 (New Enterprises).

However, if you're already building something, can show real traction so far, and are serious about working on it, there's a possibility of bypassing the pre-requisites. Mention this in your application.

dbs is hands-on. expect to spend 8-10 hours per week outside of our monday sessions building and getting your ideas in front of people. it's a 3 credit hour course but nearly all of your time is yours to build.

we meet mondays 2 pm - 3:15 pm. every two weeks, you show what you built and share what you learned from putting it in front of users. then you decide: keep going, pivot, or start something new. in between, you'll have check-ins with the teaching team.

Yes! We encourage teams. If you're working with teammates, make sure each person applies separately and mentions the other team members by name in their application. Not everyone on your team has to sign up for the course, but at least one team member must be enrolled.

New Venture Challenge is about making progress on a startup from a holistic perspective, including business model, go-to-market, market opportunity, and more. DBS is focused on getting users early and iterating what you build through what you learn from having people use your solution. depending on where you're at, you may take one or both during your time at Rice.

let's talk if you have questions about which one is right for you.

it helps, but it's not required. if you have one, great. if not, the two-week cycle means you can try something quick and move on. you'll find your thing faster by building than by waiting for the perfect idea.

whatever you want — that's the point. quick, testable versions of your ideas that you can put in front of real users. speed and learning, not perfection. use whatever tools get you there fastest (claude code, cursor, replit, loveable, or anything else).

every fall and spring.

DBS is a product studio, not a lecture. you're not writing business plans or doing presentations — you're building products and prototypes every two weeks and testing them with real users.

Yes, BUSI 365 is an elective for the entrepreneurship minor. While it doesn't officially show up in the Rice General Announcements for the minor yet since it's a new course, we'll make sure that you get credit towards the minor if you're a part of DBS.