York, Jonathan  

This Winter '09 quarter was Professor York's very first quarter at Cal Poly. He has a long history of entrepreneurship behind him, and having that experience in the classroom was great! York is a pretty laid-back guy. His classes were very stimulating. The cases that he assigns from his text are also very interesting. He also had a few guest speakers come in a talk about their experiences in entrepreneurship- even Paul Orfalea whom the "Orfalea" College of Business is named after. When taking the class, read the cases and materials for each class because he occasionally calls on students. At the end of the quarter, there is an 8 minute presentation on a product that you will be designing for the whole quarter. Seems to be a relaxed grader. Great professor. Take him!

York is the man. He has a wealth of knowledge and he gives as much of it to you as he can. The class is like one big discussion where people present ideas on case studies and the class/York critiques them. It is mostly case studies and a big project, the work load is average but you learn more than most classes.

I\'d be willing to bet that this guy is a millionare. Yale educated Ph.D with 30 years experience in every field imaginable, and he teaches because he loves it. I plan on taking every class this man offers, and you should too. This class is all case studies, and theyre all pretty interesting. Read the cases or you\'ll look like an idiot. No quizzes, midterms or a final, just in class participation and a lot of group presentations. PICK A SMART GROUP. You\'ll have to develop a new product (invention) with these people, and you don\'t want retards. I can not stress this enough. If you have a dumb group, you\'re going to look stupid in front of the class, no matter how well you pitch it. I can not stress this point enough. I got a B because I knew how to sell the idea, but if my group knew what they were doing this class would have been an easy A. I can not stress this enough, even if you have friends in the class, don\'t work with them if they are stupid. It seemed to me like York was a little dissapointed with the work ethic of Cal Poly students, so show him that you want to learn and that you\'ve read the cases (all under 10 pages) and he\'ll really like you. All in all, don\'t pass on a chance to take a York class.

Awesome professor! He challenges you to think about what makes a successful business. The things you'll learn in his class can be applied to real life. He inspires you to become an innovative entrepreneur. I highly recommend him and this course!

York is awesome and a wonderful professor for this course. The readings are interesting (although you are not really held responsible for them...but being able to comment on them during class discussion doesn't hurt). The course revolves around a group project with steps that bring you to an overall pitch. My group was awesome, which made the class that much more fun. Great class, great teacher. Take York!

Intro to Entrepreneurship with York is an experience. I've talked to people who've taken the class with other professors and from what I've heard, it's just not the same. York seems to have evolved the class from how it used to be when he first taught it, judging by the earlier reviews on here. It's more organized now, and he assigns your group for the quarter. The class itself revolves mostly around the group project. With your group you come up with your own idea for a new product/service, as well as looks at a recently established start up. There are a few quizes and a test. Not too bad as long as you do the readings, watch the videos and pay attention.

I really enjoyed taking Entrepreneurial Finance with York. He has a passion for teaching and he really wants to see all of his students succeed. The class consists primarily of group projects with an online quiz and midterm. His grading is straight forward and if you put in any effort at all you should be able to at least get a B.

York is not a good teacher for this course. He is quite disorganized and fails to actually teach the class. More often than not, he gives you an assignment to do and expects you to work it out on your own. This is his form of teaching. It fails though because students come to class with the full expectation that they did the assignment wrong. This is unsurprising though because York doesn't teach new concepts at all and simply expects students to "get it". Instead, his mentality seems to be "Figure it out on your own, just use me if you need help." I honestly think this class is fundamentally flawed because it is not very finance based at all. The majority of the assignment have to do with case studies which aren't even very finance based themselves. I am in week 6 of this course and have not learned very much financial concepts from this class that I would probably use in the future. Another problem with this course is its huge emphasis on participation and group work. 20% of the grade is participation and 35% is based on team written case memos. If you don't like speaking in class, don't waste your time with this class. If you hate working in groups, don’t bother with this class. You will be screwed if you get a crappy team. I did alright in this class, but I did not enjoy it very much. York is passionate and friendly, but is simply not a good teacher for this course.

No tests but three papers (two on books he assigns and one reflection at the end) and quite the load of presentations. The books aren't that bad, pretty interesting tbh. But let me just say I hated him as a professor. Wasted so much time, was not efficient on his part. He was so annoying too. Just talks and talks and talks like cmon dude, keep your stuff concise and let us go. This class with York is literally so much work and so stressful. Hope you have a lighter schedule to handle it.

Dr. York is literally the perfect teacher. He is intelligent, experienced, and motivated to make you learn. His methods are far from textbook but if you are entrepreneur concentration or interested in entrepreneurship you should try to get as many classes with him as possible. He's direct, he understands students struggles, and he is willing and able to offer real help with projects. Be warned he is not afraid to call you out on BS and he expects his students to work hard and understand the methods of entrepreneurship. He has an unbelievable number off connections and if you can't help you with something he is not shy about giving you a referral.