This spring, SOM is bringing back MGT 899: Generative AI & Entrepreneurship, offering students an incredible opportunity to learn from industry experts. The course, which begins in spring 2025, will be taught by Anand Ranganathan, engineering manager at Bridgewater Associates.
Professor Ranganathan leads various aspects of AI, data, and analytics research platform development at Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s most influential investment management firms. His position at Bridgewater, a company that manages approximately $120 billion in global investments, provides students with unparalleled insight into how AI is transforming finance and business at the highest levels.
Prior to joining Bridgewater, Mr. Ranganathan co-founded OneByZero, a consulting startup focused on AI solutions, and has demonstrated a deep understanding of both his entrepreneurial journey and the technical foundations of artificial intelligence.
The seven-week course combines technical depth with entrepreneurial strategy, providing students with an unusual combination of hands-on development experience and market analysis. Each week, students will learn important AI components, including prompt engineering and working with large-scale language models, developing agent AI systems and multi-agent workflows, multimodal search and generation, and chatbot development. On the business strategy side, the class will cover topics such as identifying AI-driven entrepreneurial opportunities, understanding the competitive landscape for Gen AI startups, market analysis, customer acquisition strategies, and regulatory and ethical considerations.
The course features an impressive lineup of guest speakers from leading companies and organizations, including representatives from Connecticut Innovations, Galileo, IBM, Syneos Health, Menyala, Johnson & Johnson, and Kroger. These sessions provide students with diverse perspectives on how generative AI is being implemented across healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and technology sectors. A highlight of this course is a team project in which students develop a complete pitch deck and working demo for a new Gen AI venture.
As generative AI fundamentally reshapes industries, the window of opportunity for entrepreneurs is wider and more competitive than ever. This course addresses the key challenges faced by aspiring AI entrepreneurs: understanding both the technical capabilities that enable solutions and the business strategies that make solutions viable.
“Generative AI and entrepreneurship were great resources for me at SOM,” says Rudy Cordero (MMS-TM ’25), an alumnus and currently a U.S. Technology Fellow at Palantir Technologies. “It bridged the gap between technological innovation and real-world applications, helping us understand how new AI tools can drive creativity, efficiency, and entirely new business models.”
Generative AI and Entrepreneurship will be offered on Mondays from 6pm to 9pm during Spring-1.
