Apple co-founder Steve Jobs described a computer as a “bicycle for your brain.” A new computer launched recently by MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship has a bit more horsepower than that.
“We may not have a Ferrari yet, but we have a car,” says Bill Aueret, the center’s managing director. That car is the MIT Entrepreneurship JetPack, a generative artificial intelligence tool trained on Aueret’s 24-step Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework that feeds prompts into a large-scale language model.
When you present your startup idea to Eship JetPack, “it’s like five or 10 or 12 MIT undergrads instantly swoop in, do all the research you need based on your question, and come back with the answers,” Aulet says.
The tool is currently being used by entrepreneurship students and is being piloted outside of MIT, and there is also a waiting list for future users to join. The tool is accessible through the Trust Center’s Orbit digital entrepreneurship platform, which was launched for students in 2019. Orbit was born out of the need for an alternative to the static Trust Center website, Aulet says.
“We weren’t following our own protocols for entrepreneurship,” he says. “I met students where they were, and many of them were on their phones. I said, ‘Let’s build a dynamic app rather than a static website. That’s how you reach students.'”
With the help of Trust Center Executive Director Paul Cheek and Product Lead Doug Williams, Orbit has become a one-stop shop for student entrepreneurs. The platform’s backend allows center leaders to see what users are clicking and what they’re not clicking on.
Aulet and his team have been studying user information since Orbit launched, which has helped them understand how students want to access information—not just course offerings and startup competition applications, but also to seek advice on ideas they’re working on and connect with an entrepreneurial community of co-founders and advisors. The team also received advice from Ethan Mollick (SM ’04, PhD ’10), associate professor of management at the Wharton School and author of the new book, “Co-Intelligence: Living and Working With AI.”
Official work on Eship JetPack began about six months ago, with the name inspired by the acceleration that jet packs provide and the human need to use that acceleration to guide direction.
“As our focus shifted from initially gathering information to providing guidance, MIT’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship and Startup Tactics frameworks were a great place to start,” Williams says.
One of the earliest beta users, Shari Van Cleave (MBA ’15), demonstrated how to use the AI tool in a YouTube video.
She submitted an idea for an experimental mobile electric vehicle charging, and within seconds, the AI tool suggested market segments, base markets, business model, pricing, assumptions, testing, and product plans—just seven of the 24 steps in the Disciplined Entrepreneurship framework she considered.
“We were impressed with how quickly the AI generated recommendations for everything from market size (TAM) to customer lifetime value models with just a few details entered,” Van Cleave said in an email. “Having a high-quality draft helps new and experienced founders execute and raise capital faster.”
Aueret says the tool can also be useful for entrepreneurs who already have an idea and are well on their way through the 24-step process: For example, they might need insights or quotes about how their company can perform better, or determine if there’s a better market to target.
“Our goal is to elevate the field of entrepreneurship. With tools like these, more people can become entrepreneurs and they can be better entrepreneurs,” Aueret said.
