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McCombs MSTC Program in Austin

The Master of Science in Technology Commercialization (MSTC) at the McCombs School of Business is the first go-to-market graduate program established in the United States and one of the longest continuously operating graduate technology commercialization programs in the world. Launched in 1996 out of George Kozmetsky's IC² Institute, MSTC has trained nearly three decades of technology commercialization specialists, startup founders, corporate innovators, and product leaders. The program is one-year, cohort-based, STEM-designated, AACSB-accredited, and structured for working professionals through a hybrid in-person and live-video-conferencing format. Eduniversal recently ranked MSTC #2 in the U.S. and #1 among public universities for technology commercialization. Apptronik co-founder Jeff Cardenas (BBA '08, MSTC '13) is among the most prominent recent alumni; the broader alumni network includes founders of Datical, Seismos, Draft App, Flipped Health, and dozens of other Austin-ecosystem ventures.

Origins and Lineage

MSTC launched in 1996 out of UT Austin's IC² Institute, the cross-disciplinary research-and-policy "think and do" tank that George Kozmetsky founded in 1977 as the institutional vehicle for his technopolis framework. The MSTC program was Kozmetsky's answer to a specific gap he identified in academic infrastructure: that engineers, scientists, and inventors had no graduate-level pathway to learn the business skills required to take their innovations to market, and that conventional MBAs trained general managers rather than commercialization specialists. MSTC was structured to bridge this gap, combining the rigor of a graduate business degree with hands-on technology commercialization training.

The first-ever go-to-market graduate program designation reflects MSTC's pioneering position; comparable graduate programs at other universities did not exist when MSTC launched in 1996. The program has been continuously operational since founding, with annual cohorts of approximately 80 students, and now operates as one of McCombs' specialized master's programs alongside the Master in Professional Accounting, Master of Science in Business Analytics, Master in Finance, and Master in Marketing. The Kozmetsky Scholar Award, given annually at MSTC commencement, honors Kozmetsky's foundational role in the program's creation and the broader UT entrepreneurship infrastructure.

Program Structure

MSTC runs over three consecutive semesters across twelve months, beginning each May with in-person Launch Week in Austin and concluding the following May with graduation. The lockstep cohort-based curriculum consists of twelve required courses; all students take the same courses in the same sequence, supporting the deep cohort bonds and collaborative project work that the program is structured around. Classes meet on alternating weekends, either in person at McCombs facilities (primarily Rowling Hall and the Speedway main building) or via live video conferencing, with archived recordings available for review. Required in-person components include the May Launch Week, the August Launch Week, and the International Trip; the rest of the curriculum can be completed remotely if needed.

Term	Curriculum Focus
Term 1 (Summer)	Idea generation and identification of technologies with market potential. Market potential assessment using multiple methodologies. Persuasion and marketing fundamentals for technology commercialization. Financial accounting concepts and financial statement preparation and interpretation. May Launch Week orientation and cohort formation
Term 2 (Fall)	Negotiation skills development through analytical frameworks and practical exercises. Positioning and differentiation strategies for competitive marketplace performance. Business model development and validation. Capital raising fundamentals: market potential validation, financial requirements determination, opportunity communication. International technology commercialization in foreign-market contexts. August Launch Week and International Trip
Term 3 (Spring)	Operations and launch planning. Go-to-market strategy development. Organizational design and leadership for new ventures. Decision and risk analysis methods. Capstone business plan presentation to a panel of faculty, industry leaders, and venture capitalists

The program covers contemporary technology areas including artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, robotics, biotechnology, energy, and digital platforms. The capstone is a comprehensive business plan presentation that students develop across the full twelve months and present to a panel of external evaluators at program conclusion.

Cohort and Admissions

MSTC cohorts are designed to be diverse across professional background, industry experience, and geographic origin. Approximately 80 students enroll per cohort. Historical cohort composition includes roughly 50% from entrepreneurial backgrounds, 40% corporate innovators, and 10% tech commercialization specialists, with these proportions varying year-over-year. Approximately 25% of recent cohorts have been veterans or active-duty military personnel, supported by the Texas McCombs MSTC Military Waiver and Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. The hybrid format makes MSTC accessible to working professionals who would otherwise be unable to leave their full-time roles for graduate study; the program is explicitly structured around continuing employment rather than career interruption.

Admissions are holistic. The program does not require an undergraduate degree in engineering, computer science, or any specific technical field. Basic comfort with technology is expected, but coding, engineering, or technical undergraduate training is not. The GMAT/GRE requirement may be waived for candidates meeting one of four conditions: 15 years of post-graduate work experience, 5 years of people or project management experience, an advanced degree, or an expired GMAT score. Current UT Austin undergraduates can apply through the MS Bridge Program admissions option, which accommodates direct undergraduate-to-graduate transition for the four full-time McCombs MS programs.

Faculty and Instruction

MSTC is taught by McCombs faculty plus visiting practitioners drawn from the Austin venture-capital, corporate-innovation, and entrepreneurship community. Senior Lecturer Rob Adams, Ph.D. is among the longest-serving MSTC faculty figures and was previously the director of UT's Moot Corp Competition (the predecessor program to the Brumley Institute's Texas Venture Labs Investment Competition). The teaching format combines academic rigor with hands-on action-based courses where students develop market strategies for real-world technologies and innovations. Brett Hurt, founder of multiple Austin startups and Hurt Family Investments, has served as entrepreneur-in-residence at McCombs and engaged regularly with MSTC cohorts. The faculty model emphasizes pairing experienced practitioners with academic specialists, reflecting the program's positioning at the intersection of business research and operational practice.

Notable Alumni and Outcomes

MSTC has produced a multi-decade alumni network of founders, operators, and investors active across the Austin technology ecosystem and beyond. Notable alumni and the ventures they founded or co-founded include:

Alumnus	Venture / Role
Jeff Cardenas (MSTC '13)	Co-founder and CEO of Apptronik, the Austin humanoid robotics company building the Apollo robot for industrial deployment. Apptronik has commercial pilots with Mercedes-Benz, Apple, and Jabil. Cardenas also holds a McCombs BBA '08, making him a two-time McCombs graduate
Datical Founders	Database release automation company acquired by Liquibase. Datical was an Austin-anchored enterprise software venture during the 2010s
Seismos Founders	Energy industry technology startup focused on subsurface acoustic measurement for oil and gas operations
Draft App Founders	Daily fantasy sports platform, an early-stage venture from the MSTC alumni network
Flipped Health Founders	Digital health venture focused on patient engagement and care coordination

Beyond the headline founder outcomes, MSTC alumni have moved into product management, corporate innovation, venture capital, and operating roles at many of the major Austin technology employers including Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, IBM, and the regional startup ecosystem. The program's alumni network functions as a sustained connector between the McCombs entrepreneurship complex and the broader Austin commercial technology base.

Position in the Austin Ecosystem

MSTC sits at a specific operational position in the Austin entrepreneurship layered system. The Harkey Institute and the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center serve undergraduate students in entrepreneurship education and formation. The Brumley Institute serves graduate students in the broader UT system through Texas Venture Labs and the TVL Accelerator. KS WELI serves women-focused cross-college entrepreneurship. ATI serves deep-tech university spinouts with commercialization infrastructure. Capital Factory serves the broader Austin startup community as accelerator and founder concentration point. MSTC's distinct position is the structured graduate-level commercialization training program for working professionals, whether they are aspiring founders, corporate innovators, or technology commercialization specialists already operating in industry roles.

The pipeline from MSTC into the broader ecosystem operates through multiple channels. MSTC graduates move into Capital Factory portfolio companies and ATI member companies as founders or operators. They move into McCombs MBA program graduate networks as continuing professional connections. They move into the regional VC community as investment associates and partners. They move into corporate innovation roles at Tesla, Apple Austin, Samsung Austin, Dell, IBM, and the broader regional employer base. The continuous twenty-eight-year operation of the program (1996 to 2026) means the alumni network now spans multiple generations of Austin-ecosystem founders and operators, with later cohorts increasingly able to draw on earlier-cohort alumni for mentorship, capital introductions, and operational guidance.

The MSTC connection to George Kozmetsky's institutional foundation is direct and current. The Kozmetsky Scholar Award honored at MSTC commencement, the George Kozmetsky Tuition Waiver available to UT employees admitted to MSTC, and the IC² Institute origin of the program in 1996 all reflect the continuing presence of Kozmetsky's vision in the contemporary McCombs entrepreneurship complex. MSTC is one of the longest-running operational expressions of Kozmetsky's technopolis framework still active at UT today.