ETA Fellows Program Launches at Booth

For more and more students, their post-MBA goal is to acquire an established company in order to operate, optimize, and grow it, often with the intention of selling it for a profit, a practice known as entrepreneurship through acquisition, or ETA.

To meet this surge in popularity in ETA, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation recently launched the Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Fellows Program at Booth, with the inaugural cohort starting in Autumn Quarter 2024.

Made possible by a generous donation from Michael Muscolino, ’99, cofounder and partner of the San Francisco–based investment firm Sixth Street, the new program provides tailored educational opportunities and resources to Booth students who plan to pursue ETA within a few years of earning their MBA.

“The knowledge, resources, and connections that I gained during my time at Booth were instrumental in my professional development and are still having an impact on my career to this day,” says Muscolino. “I am proud to be able to give back to the university and hope that the Fellows program will provide graduates exploring the ETA field everything they need to start their career off right.”

The ETA Fellows Program runs from October to May and provides students with access to curated opportunities and resources, including educational deep dives on topics relevant to ETA professionals, cohort events and field experiences, one-on-one coaching and mentorship with ETA Advisory Committee members, and a dedicated research and travel budget.

ETA Fellows are selected annually through a competitive application and screening process in which students share information about their ETA career goals, including their timeline, industry and geographic focus, and anticipated milestones. Fellows are selected by a committee comprising Polsky Center staff, Chicago Booth ETA faculty, and other external advisors.

The fellowship is expected to launch with six to eight fellows and grow over time to serve up to 10 students each year.

“The ETA Fellows Program adds yet another option to the already robust programming offered by the Polsky Center for students looking to pursue entrepreneurship,” says Brian O’Connor, ’06, faculty advisor to the program.

O’Connor and Mark Agnew, ’08, both adjunct associate professors of entrepreneurship, teach Booth’s ETA course, which is consistently oversubscribed, with about 140 students enrolled annually—further evidence of the growing interest in ETA in and out of the classroom. The course expanded to three sections for this school year.

An earlier version of this story was first published by the Polsky Center.