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Denison Entrepreneurship Pathways Program
30-day guided program to explore, validate, and start your entrepreneurial journey that fits your life.
"I found a career I now love thanks to the Program!"
A Pragmatic Approach to Your Entrepreneurial Pivot
What's next for your career? Let's find out.
Are you considering a career shift? Wondering if entrepreneurship, a side hustle, or small business ownership could be the right path for you? Hoping to diversify your income and reduce your employment risk?
The Denison Alumni Entrepreneurship Pathways Program, brought to you by VentureOff, is a 30-day program that will guide you step by step to explore new career ideas, validate opportunities, and take action.
Transitions are powerful — and sometimes daunting. Whether you're ready to leave a job, craving more freedom, or simply curious about business ownership, this program gives you the structure, tools, companion, and community to take the first steps.
Perfect for you if you're:
Based on Proven Design Thinking Principles
The Three Stages of Your Journey
Explore
- Define the career you want to build
- Assess your time, resources, and support
- Align entrepreneurship with your career and life goals
Validate
- Test whether there's a market for your idea
- Identify the time, money, and skills required
- Pressure-test your idea in a safe, supportive setting
Start
- Outline your first steps
- Learn what matters most when launching
- Leave with a realistic action plan
What You'll Experience
The Entrepreneurship Curriculum
This is a peer-learning program; you'll be guided by fellow Denison alumni, receive a structured curriculum and an AI companion who's with you at every step, and be accompanied by fellow Denisonians. Each module builds on the one before it, and helps you explore, validate, and start your business. Along the way you'll generate real Artifacts - documents like your Entrepreneurial Archetype Summary, Market Report, Brand Guide, and Business Plan - that you'll actually use going forward should you decide to start your business.
Personal Foundation
Before you build a business, you need to know who and what you're bringing to it: your professional identity, values, skills, and the people already in your corner.
Readiness & Derisking
Your risk tolerance, goals, lifestyle needs, and fears all shape what kind of business will actually work for you — and whether you'll stick with it when things get hard.
Idea Exploration & Validation
Generate real business ideas, pressure-test them against the market, and validate whether the opportunity is right — for the market and for you. You'll leave with a Business Validation Scorecard.
Business Model Construction
This is where your business takes shape beyond an idea — your brand, your business model, your numbers, and a clear picture of what it'll take financially to get it off the ground.
What's Next
Final pressure-testing, a completed Marketing Plan, Operating Plan, and Business Plan, plus your program Scorecard and a personalized Next Steps Launch Guide — so you leave knowing exactly what to do next.
Real Artifacts, Not Exercises
Every module produces something you'll actually use — a document, a plan, a scorecard — not a worksheet you'll forget about tomorrow.
Guided by Your AI Companion
Every module is supported by an AI companion built to know the curriculum inside and out, remember everything you share, and help you think through ideas, pull in research, and turn your answers into real Artifacts.
1-on-1 With Mark and Cali
At the end of the program, you'll get a personalized one-on-one session directly with facilitators Mark Heckmann and Cali Orr — both fellow Denisonians — to take your results further.
Weekly Team Working Sessions
Fellow alumni give you new perspectives and actionable feedback on your entrepreneurial journey.
Accountability Partner Check-Ins
Go deeper and have more breakthroughs with your assigned partner throughout the program.
Program Details
Format at a Glance
Get Started Today
Our next program starts September 14, 2026
Meet Your Facilitators
Guided by Fellow Denisonians
Mark Heckmann
Mark Heckmann leads product vision, technology strategy, and growth for the entrepreneurship platform behind this program. A serial entrepreneur with a deep and varied track record, Mark brings more than 15 years of experience across startups and scale-ups.
Mark's entrepreneurial career began after his graduate program at Carnegie Mellon University, where he shifted from economic development into full-time company building. Since then, he's co-founded and operated ventures spanning commercial lavender farming, exoskeleton commercialization, subscription handyman services, and startup consulting — developing a founder methodology that directly shaped this curriculum.
Mark holds a BA from Denison University in Sociology/Anthropology and Communication, and a graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University. He's based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Cali Orr
Cali Orr leads program development, participant experience, and the day-to-day operations of building a platform she wished had existed for every professional she's spent a decade helping navigate career change.
Cali's career spans education, corporate sales, global operations, and over a decade of entrepreneurship and marketing consulting. After completing her MBA, she built a coaching and consultancy practice serving professionals and business owners. Across those ventures and more than 100 client engagements, Cali developed the frameworks, curriculum, and coaching methodology that became the foundation for this program.
Cali holds a BA in Psychology and Spanish from Denison University and an MBA from American University. She's based in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Impact: Cohort 1
Real results from participants who completed the program
What Cohort 1 Said
What past participants say
As a first time entrepreneur, the program introduced me to components of running a business I wasn't familiar with. As I progressed, I became more confident in the path forward.
The best part was validating my ideas with the AI companion and feeling hope that my business could succeed.
Mark and Cali were very helpful and knowledgeable of all stages of entrepreneurship, which made it easy to trust the program.
It was really cool to be in a course with all Denison alumni and taught by Denison alumni — it felt like reconnecting with my alma mater.
The 1:1 session at the end stood out in particular — it gave me the chance to dive into my specific needs and tie everything together.
I think the roadmap that this program provides was super helpful. You don't know what you don't know, and this gives you that guidance.
This program is an amazing step-by-step guide to validating business ideas and starting a business.
The framework and direction were invaluable in making my business idea concrete. My idea gained significant traction through the program.
Alumni Success Stories
See what fellow Denisonians have accomplished through entrepreneurship
Grew a Guitar Education Company
Hayes knew he had a passion for helping people learn guitar, but when it came to growing a business that could support him full time, he needed some support in the "how." This program gave him the pieces to take action.
Runs a Productivity Consulting Practice
Lana craved a career that was fulfilling and allowed her the financial and time freedom to care for her family, finding that balance was part of her goals in this work.
Launched an AI-Based Marketing Firm
Having only worked in corporate, Carlin was ready for more creative endeavors that also brought in additional income; now he has the business structure to do so and the confidence to take the leap.
Hear It From Cohort 1
Video Testimonials
Real stories from real participants, in their own words.
What You'll Gain
Clarity, validation, confidence, and community
Clarity
Identify your career/business idea or determine which idea to pursue first. Move from overwhelmed to focused.
Validation
Confirm your idea or next steps has market potential and fits your lifestyle before investing significant time and money.
Confidence
Take the first steps toward entrepreneurship with certainty and a clear roadmap for success.
Community
Join Denison alumni navigating change together. Build lasting connections with fellow entrepreneurs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What you need to know before you start
What if I don't have a business idea yet?
Can I do this while working full-time?
How is this different from other entrepreneurship programs?
What happens after the 30 days?
Who is leading the program?
What technology will I need to participate?
What happens if I need to miss a live call?
What if I realize my idea won't work?
Ready to Take the Leap?
Join a community of Denisonians who are embracing the challenge of entrepreneurship and writing their own next chapters. Through 30 days of guided exploration with fellow Denisonians by your side, you'll move from "I think I want to start something" to "I know what steps to take."
Enroll Now →