Search results for startup lessons:
Zipcar Founder and MIT Sloan Grad Robin Chase Offers Entrepreneur Advice
Last month, Zipcar founder and “Peers Inc” author Robin Chase, ‘86, spoke at MIT Sloan‘s Women in Management’s Push for Parity Week, offering three incredibly valuable lessons to those in attendance.
Cambridge Judge Announces New Barclays Partnership Course
Meet the Barclays Scale Up UK Programme.
It’s a 36-week long course by the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge in partnership with British multinational mega-bank Barclays.
The new course plans to help businesses address core growth problems, according to a recent press release. Professors Stelios Kavadias and Hanadi Jabado of the School’s Entrepreneurship Centre will lead the course—and they’ll get help from other industry experts, too. Both instructors carry impressive resumes: Kavadias is the Margaret Thatcher Professor of Enterprise Studies in Innovation & Growth, and Director of the school’s Entrepreneurship Centre. Jabado is Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre.
“Small businesses face many hurdles in successfully scaling up, so Cambridge Judge Business School is offering companies the opportunity to upgrade their managerial skillsets to get access to capital and scale their organization up,” Cambridge Judge Dean Christoph Loch said in the press release. “The new Barclays Scale Up UK Programme will provide a clear framework for addressing these issues, and the business school is delighted to provide its expertise.”
Company founders and senior executive teams at the bank will now have access to essential lessons in tapping into growth that’ll only benefit the business. Barclays clients that still have room to grow can take the course. That means any business, from startups to those making more than £20 million in annual sales. The course will take in no more than 20 leadership teams.
The course is made up of several different major components including marketing, operational excellence, recruitment, and funding. These, among others, are essential to building growth in new businesses.
“From talking to our clients, we recognize there is a knowledge gap when it comes to leadership skills, especially for ambitious businesses growing at speed, and we see this partnership with Cambridge Judge as an opportunity to help bridge this gap for our clients and to further cement our commitment to supporting the eco-system beyond traditional banking,” Richard Heggie, Head of High-Growth and Entrepreneurs at Barclays, said.
University of Maryland Smith School Program Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs
This summer, the University of Maryland R.H. Smith School of Business has served as host for middle school students in the Ashoka Youth Venture Program, helping students to think like an innovator as they venture out to change the world.
Funds Help McCombs MBA Students Pursue Social Impact
With the rising emphasis on social impact in recent years, it has become fairly common for MBA programs to prepare their students not just to do well in business but to also do good in the world, and students are on board with this shift in focus. Based on Net Impact’s 2014 “Business as UNusual” guide to graduate programs, 88 percent of surveyed MBA students reported that learning about social and environmental business is a priority.
At the UT Austin McCombs School of Business, peer-generated funds are supporting MBA students in exploring social impact as a career emphasis, starting during their first-year internship.
The Social Enterprise Fund
The Social Enterprise Fund was created by the full-time MBA Class of 2010 as a legacy gift. Its goal: to support first-year MBA students who are interested in working in social impact career fields such as sustainability, nonprofits and other nontraditional sectors.
As an expansion to the fund, the co-founders developed the McCombs’ Social Impact Internship Fund (SIIF), which provides first-year MBA students with financial support so they can explore internships in nonprofit and social impact organizations. These internships typically pay less than those in technology, consulting and financial services, but SIIF helps to offset some of the difference.
That help was especially welcome to Andrew Whiteman, MBA ‘17, who wanted to choose an internship without money driving his decision. He opted to intern with a clean energy startup in San Francisco where the pay was less, but the opportunity to do good was great.
“I was committed to working for a clean energy company and therefore did not recruit with big consulting firms or banks earlier in the semester,” Whiteman wrote in a blog. “With a cross-country move to one of the most expensive cities in the country, the SIIF stipend helped make sure I stayed above water during the summer.”
And, last year, the fund received a boost from SIIFs co-founders, which decided to increase support for students to make a bigger impact. Their goal was to strengthen McCombs’ emphasis on social impact as well as the recruitment of students to that area of work and study.
In the end, thanks to MBA ’17 students Tim Carreon, Silva Gentchev, Margo Hufstetler Gonzalez and Caitlin Goodrich—who co-founded the fund during the spring 2016 semester—and other McCombs’ alumni and faculty, the fund raised more than $33,000, increasing previous funding by more than 600 percent.
“The SIIF allowed me to explore employment at a company with a social impact mission without having to worry about how I was going to make it work financially,” said Teddy Boeddiker, MBA ’17, who interned with small footprint home company Kasita. “This is something that I believe many MBA students are interested in, but few can afford to accept a low-or no-income internship or job.”
McCombs MBA Students Pursue Social Impact
In a recent school blog entry, McCombs shared the internship experiences of MBA ’17 students Andrew Whiteman, Janet Thomassen, Eric Pressberg and Teddy Boeddiker: four students that benefited from the SIIF.
- Andrew Whiteman, MBA ‘17
Whiteman interned at Stem Inc, an energy startup in San Francisco that pairs intelligent controls with energy storage to increase energy cost savings and protect against changing rates. “Working at Stem was a thrilling experience,” said Whiteman, who worked on pricing solutions for the wholesale electricity markets.
“Electricity market participants often face unpredictable price swings and common hedging strategies can be quite costly,” he said. “My final product was a financial model that quantified the economic value in the marketplace, proposing an alternative solution to current hedging strategies.”
- Janet Thomassen, MBA ‘17
Thomassen took an internship in New York City with the social impact consulting firm, Inspiring Capital, which supports the social enterprise sector by connecting talented business professionals with high-potential and purpose-driven organizations. Her role was to work with Goodwill NY/NJ to assess the financial feasibility of a new document management service.
“The feasibility study led me to urge Goodwill not to pursue this additional business line due to a highly competitive market and unattractive long-term financial returns,” she said. “However, I shared lessons on how to think about the market opportunity, operational competencies, and financial considerations when assessing the viability of a new business line.”
- Eric Pressberg, MBA ‘17
Pressberg chose to intern with an environmental conservation nonprofit in Washington, D.C., the Nature Conservancy. As a summer associate, his role was to work with the conservation finance team to help the new aquaculture—fish farming—department.
“We were developing the strategy, [deciding] how to go about raising funds, the story to tell potential donors, and what type of projects we want to have—things like building a tool to decide if a project was worthy of investment, creating some of the PR documents to communicate with potential investors and donors and then actually designing the specific project, which was based in the Chesapeake Bay,” he shared.
- Teddy Boeddiker, MBA ‘17
Boeddiker stayed in Austin for his internship and worked with a small footprint home startup called Kasita. The company manufactures 320-square-foot homes for more affordable housing options. As an intern, Boeddiker spent his time fine-tuning the pitch deck to help the company gain additional funding.
“I spent most of my effort helping ‘Professor Dumpster’ [Jeff Wilson, CEO and co-founder of Kasita] fine-tune his pitch deck as he sought funding to grow the company,” he said. “He was pitching the company to experienced technical investors who expected more detailed information on financial projections and the market size.”
By offering funding and internship opportunities for their MBA students, McCombs has helped to alleviate some of the financial burden for students interested in social impact, and making it easier than ever to enter this particularly rewarding career area.
Running a Company: Two UCLA Anderson MBA Alums Discuss
Entrepreneurship is one of the fastest growing career choices; Forbes estimates that approximately 543,000 new businesses are started each month. That said, the truth is that 90 percent of startups eventually fail, which makes it vital for budding entrepreneurs to learn from their predecessors.
Recently, Erik Basu, a UCLA Anderson School of Management MBA alum and Founder/CEO of Sentek Global, and John Tabis, Anderson MBA ’06 and Co-Founder of the Bouqs Company, shared their advice about running a company. And while both company founders offered different perspectives, their advice is valuable for any potential entrepreneur. Continue reading…
The Best San Francisco Part-Time MBA Programs
Not every MBA candidate can manage a full-time degree program. So many business school students continue to work throughout their studies, balancing a job and graduate school through a part-time MBA program. Many of these programs take place in the evenings and on weekends, allowing for flexibility along with continued professional growth. Continue reading…
MetroMBA’s Favorite Podcasts of 2016
The sun setting on 2016 means that the holidays are here, of which now unofficially includes list week. Along with our favorite books and apps of the year, here are our favorite business podcasts for MBA students.
Best MBA Blogs
Welcome to our list of the best MBA blogs. In this list we’ve chosen to focus on student/alumni-run program blogs, i.e. not admissions dept blogs. The blogs are presented in alphabetical order. Enjoy! Continue reading…
The ROI of the MBA
That’s probably the first question that came to mind when you thought about going back to school. It’s not an easy question, and there’s not an easy answer.
Return on investment — the ROI of the MBA — is multi-faceted. You not only have to look at your salary to debt ratio, but you also have to consider the time investment, career progress, network, and even skills and lessons learned. Continue reading…
Top 7 MBA Podcasts for Business Professionals
It’s a new year and that means as a business professional and MBA candidate it’s time to step up your game by learning new strategies, setting new goals, and staying cutting edge in your industry. While reading blogs is a great start, sometimes the best way to absorb new information is through MBA podcasts. Continue reading…
Exploring Entrepreneurship Opportunities for MBAs
While ten years ago MBA programs were mostly focused on helping applicants achieve their dream career in corporate America, that’s no longer the case. Many MBA graduates are starting to become less interested in traditional jobs and more interested in starting their own companies. In fact, a recent study of over 30,000 Wharton MBA graduates showed that more than seven percent of 2013 grads started their own companies, five times as many as in 2007. And Stanford reported a record 16 percent of its MBA graduates launching startups in 2012. This clear shift in graduate desires has also caused a change in the focus of many business schools. Continue reading…
Mays Business School Hosts Entrepreneurship Saturday for over 100 Graduates
Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, along with co-hosts Startup Aggieland and The Association of Former Students, recently served as the host for Entrepreneurship Saturday. The day-long event at Mays featured lectures from entrepreneurs emphasizing presentation skills, marketing strategy and financing for over 100 business-focused Texas A&M graduates.
During the event, keynote speaker Chris Valletta credited his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with teaching him invaluable lessons about entrepreneurship . Though later cut from the team, Valletta emphasized the importance of “emotional intelligence” that became clear to him as a professional football player. Continue reading…
Do Entrepreneurs Need an MBA?
Entrepreneurship has become a well-established feature of popular culture. Every Friday night in the U.S., ABC Network features Shark Tank, its hit show about everyday entrepreneurs approaching potential investors, seeking much needed capital and often receiving equally valuable advice. The entrepreneurs featured have many things in common, including a passion for their product or ideas and a palatable drive. What they often don’t have is an MBA and all that it provides. Continue reading…
Sloan Students and Alum Featured in Forbes 30 Under 30
Six students and alumni from the MIT Sloan School of Management have been named to Forbes’ 2015 “30 Under 30” lists. The “30 Under 30” lists from Forbes acknowledges leading young people in 20 different fields. Fields that people work in range from games, law and policy to art and style and enterprise technology. This is the fourth annual 30 under 30 lists.
This year’s lists features 600 new young professionals. Forbes boasts that this year’s lists features new profiles that have not previously been named to the lists before. A panel of what Forbes calls “A-List judges” selects each person featured in the lists. Some of the panelists include, Isaac Mizrahi, Susan Wojcicki, Dan Levin, Daniel Ek and Taylor Hanson.
Lerner Student Opens Biz in West Chester
Lerner College of Business and Economics MBA student Matt Kay has opened a new weightless floating spa in West Chester, Pennsylvania. His spa is the largest of its kind within 125 miles.
During therapeutic floating, a client enters a tub containing water as well as over 1,000 pounds of Epsom salts. The density of this mixture allows the client to float effortlessly in the water, inducing a state of deep meditative relaxation and alleviating physical discomfort.
New Courses At Kellogg
The following article was originally sourced from the piece “Hands-on Learning” on Kellogg’s News & Events page.
Each semester, the Kellogg School of Management offers new, cutting-edge courses for its MBA students. Here are highlights of two new courses students are taking in the spring semester 2014. Continue reading…
Kellogg Professor Shares Insight for Middle-Market Execs
The following article was originally sourced from the piece “Built to Scale” on Kellogg’s News & Events page.
In the second installment of the Kellogg-Chase “Growth in Middle-Market Companies” series, Kellogg School of Management Professor Mohan Sawhney highlights five strategic areas where middle-market executives must shift their mindset to achieve scale.
To take their company to the next level, middle-market companies need to navigate five transitions to ensure that the company is “built to scale.” Continue reading…
Haas Publishes Case Studies
The University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business has reached a distribution agreement with Harvard Business Publishing to publish The Berkeley-Haas Case Series. The case studies aim to draw lessons for success from disruptive trends and unconventional management strategies. Twenty Berkeley-Haas cases have already been launched on the Harvard Business School Publishing website, and Haas representatives plan to add 10 to 15 new cases to the site each year.
The Berkeley-Haas Case Series is produced by the staff of the Haas School’s quarterly management publication, the California Management Review. Some of the cases within the series draw on lessons from Haas’ applied innovation experiential learning courses.
Here are a few examples of the newly available case studies:
“Genentech. . . Culture Change to Drive Business Results” explores how a senior vice president merged four franchises by changing company culture.
“Zoosk: Pivoting to Win the Dating Game” analyzes the startup launch of the romantic social network Zoosk and how a response to changing external factors changed the future of the company.
“Alphabet Energy: Thermoelectrics and Market Energy” examines a startup company’s search to determine the right market for its new technology that turns heat into electricity.
“Netflix: Pricing Decision 2011” explores Netflix’s decision to split its DVD subscription and online streaming services.
In a recent Businessweek article, Patrick Clark observes that the new case studies give Haas the chance to connect itself to company culture in the Bay Area in the minds of prospective students. According to the article, Haas Dean Richard Lyons observed that schools that are identified with Silicon Valley are appealing to prospective students, since technology is reshaping the business world.
