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How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups?

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups?

#21

Post by georgeecollins »

keebEz wrote: post #16
waderyan wrote: post #14

Excellent back and forth. As someone considering an MBA post a failed startup, the meat, for me, was here: > Michael: Because I think a lot of people here in the valley would argue ... spending two years at an early stage startup in the Bay Area might be more fruitful than spending those two years at an HBS or a like school. > Jeff: Look, I think there’s an argument for that trade off in the short term. I think the h…

If you can't choose a good start up to join then most likely a b school is the better option. If you choose a good start up, then the start up (and payout) will most likely be much more valuable 10-20 years down the line.

As an MBA from a long time ago, I think it is important to point out that an MBA has the most impact on your career trajectory within the first five years. In my own cohort, some people leverage their MBA to get on fast tracks, some people chose careers that they did not stick with. If you recently got an MBA a lot of people will hire you for your pedigree and education. If you got an MBA ten years ago, people care about your most recent job experience. Employers will always screen for college graduates, but once you get to a certain point in your career they care less about an MBA and more about experience.

Re: How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups?

#23

Post by Retric »

chetatkinsdiet wrote: post #20
keebEz wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't choose a good start up to join then most likely a b school is the better option. If you choose a good start up, then the start up (and payout) will most likely be much more valuable 10-20 years down the line.

the difference is that it's pretty easy to tell a good b school (lots of objective rankings). at an early stage, it's really tough to tell a good startup- as a candidate you are at a significant disadvantage in choosing a startup employer due to the lack of available information. not saying one is better than the other, but that making that choice is far more difficult than the couple of sentences you mentioned.

On the other hand startups pay you money, B schools cost you money. With the delta easially being 300+k. So, you can take a fair amount of risk and still have the startup being a better bet.

Re: How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups?

#24

Post by rak111esh »

I seem to agree with a lot of points in the discussion. As a recent MBA graduate from India, I noticed that most people who join B School, just want a comfortable life with a high pay. They just want to boost their salary from say 6 Lakhs to 15 Lakhs and believe slogging in industry isn't worth it... Why do I point this out? Because this fundamental assumption will explain the following.

1) If someone has a startup idea, they always wants others to work on it. Often times, put 5-10x more effort than themselves. I am yet to see someone who learned coding so that he can get his idea out of ground. Everyone is busy coaxing engineers from nearby colleges.

2) On the knowledge part, most people don't care and its not necessarily bad. B School curriculum is evolving, albeit a bit slow. Subjects like Digital marketing, Data analytics are being offered more now than ever (obviously). However, when people work for a grade rather than the knowledge, they are seriously limiting themselves. People who got A's in analytics are afraid of a simple regression. I don't want to hire them for their knowledge, I would be hiring them for their potential. But then undergrads from top engineering colleges are cheaper (.3-.5x) with even greater potential from my experience. Knowing some technical things, can actually help them bridge the fear of starting up.

3) Education Loan of 20 Lakhs. This makes sure that you work at least for a few years, before you get married and get a house loan and work to pay that off. The fees for most B Schools MBA program increased more than 10x in last 10 years. I am pretty sure the value add remained almost stagnant in all these years. This is a huge hindrance for people to even pursue their idea.

4) CV point mongers blocking some important positions. The Entrepreneurship cell in my college has not registered the incubator from 3 years despite having a check ready which can be en cashed. Why? They are not interested in start ups or anything, they just want a line in their CV (for extra curriculars/club activities) which companies, especially FMCG & consulting ones value. This noise, if separated can help a lot.

How should B Schools prepare? The first thing is try to change the selection process. I dont know in what way, but a few experiments here can help. Second is to change the loan payback policies, offer deferred placement for people who want to try their startup and failed. Third is to actually have a working incubator, recruit people full time, maybe a couple of developers who help students create their MVP (Viability validation required). Last but not the least, the placement process is one of the culprit in this ecosystem. Maybe a course or workshop on the "business side" of things such as "How to start a startup?" which actually gives them information on India specific resources or others which can help students think "Why India needs startups now?" (Seriously, current market can only employ ~30% of graduates).

Honestly, I think an MBA grad has quite a significant advantage in identifying the opportunity gaps purely because of the mindset, its just that not a lot of them (including me) do it actively.

PS:- Sorry for the round about rant.

Re: How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups?

#25

Post by _e »

transparentlabs wrote: post #13

As a both a business school graduate and company founder I witnessed this first hand. At my school, the majority of people wanting to do "entrepreneurship" were not really committed to it, but rather dabbling in it. They had an idea and did surveys to "validate" the need and were always looking for random undergraduate engineers to seduce into helping them. That being said, there was a small handful of people who wer…

Would you have stumbled upon your idea if it weren't for the MBA?

Re: How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups?

#26

Post by transparentlabs »

_e wrote: post #25
transparentlabs wrote: post #13

As a both a business school graduate and company founder I witnessed this first hand. At my school, the majority of people wanting to do "entrepreneurship" were not really committed to it, but rather dabbling in it. They had an idea and did surveys to "validate" the need and were always looking for random undergraduate engineers to seduce into helping them. That being said, there was a small handful of people who wer…

Would you have stumbled upon your idea if it weren't for the MBA?

Definitely not, it was my struggles with getting better data that I could trust through the recruiting process that made the idea strike me in the first place.

I do also have to say, the resources that Chicago Booth provided for entrepreneurs were quite amazing, similar to what you would get through a high-quality startup accelerator. Their New Venture Challenge is also really great and gave us the initial boost we needed to get off the ground.

In my particular case, the company would not exist without me getting my MBA, but this is somewhat of a unique example.

Re: How Should Business Schools Prepare Students for Startups?

#29

Post by spamizbad »

Business schools might be the wrong place to mint tech entrepreneurs. The number of wannabe tech founders vs those taking coding electives is telling.

And speaking as a technical manager, I'm also deeply skeptical that combing an MBA with a bootcamp/MOOC will make you a proficient technical manager. It might put you on better footing to hire a competent one, though.

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