How my MBA is helping me become a better entrepreneur

Here’s what I got from HBS that is helping me as an entrepreneur. It is yet to be seen whether it will end up being a good choice for me but early signs are good.

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Confidence
• During my 2 years at HBS, I prepared for and participated in over 500 case discussions. These discussions were spirited debates with 90 classmates (who often intimidated me with their intelligence, experience, or both) as well as with senior leaders of important companies that I admired.
• This experience was incredibly humbling (it sucks to say something stupid or struggle in a subject when surrounded by exceptional peers) but also it gave me the gift of being able to not be afraid to raise my voice or express my thoughts because of insecurity around my background or status.
• How this applies to startup life: We are constantly meeting investors and entrepreneurs whose achievements in life dwarf that of my own. Where I previously would have been worried about saying something stupid or nervous about meeting someone who is well-known, I now have the confidence to dive in and engage with people with the end goal of them teaching me something and vice versa. It’s freeing.

Access

• I have 900 classmates, most of whom are willing to help each other out and 90 sectionmates who I know would go out of their way to help me and my partner succeed. Beyond that, I am now part of a cohort of tens of thousands of alumni that have a strong incentive to help each other out.
• How this applies to startup life: Many of these classmates and alumni end up reaching senior levels of organizations that include potential investors, potential customers, and potential strategic partners. Being able to be able to get in touch with allies at these companies is a true gift for any company. Ultimately, my company and my product has to stand on its own merits, but because of the network, I at least can get that first meeting.

Knowledge

• My co-founder and I are heavy readers of business books and so we read many of the books written by HBS professors prior to enrolling in the program. However what we found is that there is a profound difference between reading a book and learning the subject matter directly from the source.
• We’ve been privileged to have learned management theory from Clay Christensen, disruptive marketing from Youngme Moon, entrepreneurial finance from Joe Lassiter, Lean Startup principles from Tom Eisenmann and Eric Ries, Founder’s Dilemma from Noam Wasserman, and the list goes on and on.
• How this applies to startup life: Not a single day passes where we do not talk about some aspect of our academic learning in context of the business we’re building. It is not always general management or strategy frameworks (although sometimes it is), but often it is some anecdote that the professor imparted to us in his/her office that resonated so many months later. They are not only our professors for the two years we were attending HBS, but teachers and mentors that we carry with us for life. We will be their students... always.

Scope

• Growing up the son of blue collar immigrant parents, I was taught to value education, work hard, and take care of my family. I was fortunate to have a wonderful role model in my father who ran a small business for his entire life before retiring recently. I aspired to be like them in terms of how they raised my sister and I but believed that by working for large corporations, I could achieve something greater from a professional standpoint. I was wrong.
• HBS opened my eyes to a world that was bigger than the Midwest. I started thinking about what I was meant to be doing but not in a cliched “legacy” sort of way. Rather, given the opportunity to now do practically anything I wanted, what could I do that would bring meaning to my life? In a school obsessed with money, I somehow learned to measure my life in new currencies.
• How this applies to startup life: I’ve learned not to approach startup opportunities from a market size standpoint, or a financial opportunity standpoint, but rather from a “what problem do I want to solve” standpoint. Having the problem be the True North for my business gives me license to change the world... or at least try my best to do so.

Discipline

• While HBS does not have a reputation for being the most Quant school, we did develop the good habit of using data to inform our decisions. Data allows you to be intellectually honest with yourself and just as important is learning what actually needs to be measured. This applies to everything from business metrics to incentive system design.
  
• We also learned to be disciplined with our time. Both my co-founder and I were married at HBS (and he had 2 young children). Besides the 6 hours of prep needed each day for academics and actual classroom time, I also was involved in several clubs, ran the student paper, and worked on my startup. We very quickly learned that we had to be efficient with our time and to acknowledge the tradeoffs we were making to balance our personal lives with our academic and startup lives.
• How this applies to startup life: We have definitely adopted the “trust your gut but validate with data” approach to our business. Whenever my co-founders and I disagree about certain choices, rather than the discussion dissolving into a battle of egos, we know to defer to data and let it help us find the resolution we are looking for. From a work-life balance standpoint, this summer has been a complete failure. The startup accelerator that we are a part of (TechStars Chicago) has been all-consuming to the detriment of our personal lives. We owe our families quite a bit at this point and we know that what we are doing today is not sustainable. We are already planning on putting safeguards into place to allow us to better balance these two priorities once we leave Chicago and establish the business in the Bay Area.

So while the numbers would argue against entrepreneurs attending HBS, I for one am grateful for the experience and value it highly. Time will tell if my experience there will improve the odds of success for my startup but I think the words of past HBS alumni are correct in that the full appreciation of how valuable that experience is will be measured in decades rather than years.