Life at b-school... what's behind door #2?
School has been in full swing for about half a quarter already and I forget how quickly time flies. It's been a pretty exhilarating experience meeting so many motivated people from different backgrounds (many of them looking to change direction in their careers). I've found UCLA Anderson to be a good fit for me; the people are very supportive of each other both inside and outside of the classroom. In fact, I feel that the student body and what we do for each other seems to be bulk of the experience.
So far, I've gotten to take part in some pretty cool programs and experiences. I joined a program where I am teamed with 17 other first- and second-year MBA students with a successful entrepreneur/founder and we will be meeting with local entrepreneurs and CEOs to learn about how they built up their companies. A few weeks back, I also got a chance to sit in an angel investor meeting, hearing startups pitch to angels for capital -- a very cool experience to be that "fly on the wall."
Also a few weeks back, I happened to come across a cool web-based idea with a person I met quite randomly. The basic premise is this is a web site that helps people try to collect/input data more easily, allow people to draw conclusions, identify connections/trends, benchmark their data against averages (other people's data) and certain standards (e.g. market data), and even set thresholds to monitor data (e.g. whether they are reaching or exceeding a certain target). The web site could also suggest interesting and potentially useful correlations and maybe, given some information about certain variables or attributes, make some recommended actions or suggest that someone is no longer following their previous trend.
The idea is still work in progress, but the big news is this: we submitted the idea to a well-respected and fairly well-known seed investor called Y Combinator (www.ycombinator.com -- featured in Newsweek and BusinessWeek). We heard back from them two weeks ago and they were interested in our idea and want to talk to us this Saturday. So we'll be flying out to Boston to meet with them. While the amount of funding they'd provide might not be substantial, the connections they'd provide would be tremendous. They are connected with some of the top venture capitalists in Boston and Silicon Valley and also are plugged in with the "rock stars" of Silicon Valley like the creator of GMail, top level VPs at Yahoo!, etc.
One big challenge for me is that if we getting the green light from Y Combinator, they'd want us (my co-founder and I) to move up to Silicon Valley from January to March of next year. For me, this means at least taking off a quarter from business school (and most likely means I'd have to take the rest of the school year off because of the sequential nature of classes). I'm definitely at a crossroads here as the trade off is a very difficult decision to make.
Either way, I'm going to fly to Boston next weekend to meet with these seed investors and see what happens. Of course, if they pass on the idea, my dilemma goes away. Of course, one of the big reasons I've come to business school is to build connections in areas like tech entrepreneurship and also try and take risks (like starting up a business). Potentially cool opportunities just don't seem to arrive at the most convenient times.
So far, I've gotten to take part in some pretty cool programs and experiences. I joined a program where I am teamed with 17 other first- and second-year MBA students with a successful entrepreneur/founder and we will be meeting with local entrepreneurs and CEOs to learn about how they built up their companies. A few weeks back, I also got a chance to sit in an angel investor meeting, hearing startups pitch to angels for capital -- a very cool experience to be that "fly on the wall."
Also a few weeks back, I happened to come across a cool web-based idea with a person I met quite randomly. The basic premise is this is a web site that helps people try to collect/input data more easily, allow people to draw conclusions, identify connections/trends, benchmark their data against averages (other people's data) and certain standards (e.g. market data), and even set thresholds to monitor data (e.g. whether they are reaching or exceeding a certain target). The web site could also suggest interesting and potentially useful correlations and maybe, given some information about certain variables or attributes, make some recommended actions or suggest that someone is no longer following their previous trend.
The idea is still work in progress, but the big news is this: we submitted the idea to a well-respected and fairly well-known seed investor called Y Combinator (www.ycombinator.com -- featured in Newsweek and BusinessWeek). We heard back from them two weeks ago and they were interested in our idea and want to talk to us this Saturday. So we'll be flying out to Boston to meet with them. While the amount of funding they'd provide might not be substantial, the connections they'd provide would be tremendous. They are connected with some of the top venture capitalists in Boston and Silicon Valley and also are plugged in with the "rock stars" of Silicon Valley like the creator of GMail, top level VPs at Yahoo!, etc.
One big challenge for me is that if we getting the green light from Y Combinator, they'd want us (my co-founder and I) to move up to Silicon Valley from January to March of next year. For me, this means at least taking off a quarter from business school (and most likely means I'd have to take the rest of the school year off because of the sequential nature of classes). I'm definitely at a crossroads here as the trade off is a very difficult decision to make.
Either way, I'm going to fly to Boston next weekend to meet with these seed investors and see what happens. Of course, if they pass on the idea, my dilemma goes away. Of course, one of the big reasons I've come to business school is to build connections in areas like tech entrepreneurship and also try and take risks (like starting up a business). Potentially cool opportunities just don't seem to arrive at the most convenient times.
posted by Josh at 11:45 AM
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