So...you want to be an entrepreneur. You’ve got a few “brilliant” ideas bopping around your brain and one that you know has real potential. You’re finally ready to make this happen, to bring your vision to life and start your own venture. But what is the next step? How do you turn your dream into dollars?
Couple options.
A) What are you waiting for? Start your business. Find a crew of collaborators, brew some coffee and gear up for sleepless nights of coding, drafting a business plan, and hunting for investors.
B) Go to business school.
There’s no denying which sounds cooler. Working round the clock with your buddies in a dark dorm room or basement has rock star appeal thanks to legends like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
Plus, there’s been plenty of B-school bashing lately. Only a few weeks ago at a Harvard Business School conference, founding partner at VC firm Social+Capital Partnership Chamath Palihapitiya said a business degree would hurt, not help, aspiring entrepreneurs.
So should we all skip school and hit the ground running? Eschew the “establishment” and throw ourselves into startup trenches? After all isn't real world experience exceedingly more valuable than sitting in a classroom for two years?
Not so fast.
Before you quit your job and take to 24-hour coding sessions, skipping business school might not be your wisest choice. Aspiring startup-ers must realize the MBA-less, twenty-something “hacker in a hoodie” is nothing more than a stereotype, an outlier popularized by Facebook, Tumblr, and Snapchat. In Aileen Lee’s viral analysis of “The Unicorn Club” - the 39 U.S.-based software companies started since 2003 and valued at over $1 billion by public or private market investors - she debunked the startup stereotype, discovering most founders are thirty-somethings with considerable work experience. And - more often than the stereotype would suggest - Unicorn founders have MBAs.
Jeff Bussgang, a General Partner at Flybridge Capital, took a closer look Lee's data and discovered 33 percent of the Unicorns had at least one founding member with an MBA, and 82 percent had a founding member or an executive team member with an MBA. Gilt, Kayak, Marketo, Yelp; all were startups where both the founder and at least one executive hold an MBA.
So while an MBA is certainly not a prerequisite for startup success, to say it’s a handicap is absurd. Attending business school could give your company the best possible shot for success.
The garage, basement, or dorm room isn’t the ultimate startup launchpad; it’s B-school.
Read on to learn six reasons why...
Fundamentals Matter.
Brilliant ideas and hard work can only take you so far. Business school requires students to master a wide scope of skill necessary to operate a venture from end to end. While not impossible tasks for the MBA-less, the logistics of building a team, balancing a budget, reviewing contracts, understanding term sheets etc. will be executed much more easily and efficiently for the business school graduate.
Learn to lead.
Some might be “natural born leaders,” but that doesn’t mean they know how to run a company. "It's complete bullshit that you're born, not made," said Bill Aulet, managing director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, to BostInno.
Business school produces expert managers who are trained to build a team, oversee operations, and communicate effectively, not only for an early stage startup, but for the long-term. An MBA turns the “idea guy” into a CEO, and this can be the difference between fleeting success and a sustainable enterprise.
Train to Innovate
Business school gets a bad rap, misrepresented as the epitome of creativity-crushing convention. But the truth is, it's quite the opposite. One could even call an MBA program ‘Innovation 101.’
The soft skills taught in an MBA program are the tools you need to optimize opportunity, adapt to unexpected changes, and solve problems creatively. Or as ThriveHive founder Max Faingezicht puts it, an MBA prepares you to thrive amongst the startup chaos.
“At a startup, you’re making critical decisions with incomplete information multiple times a day” said Faingezicht. Business school trains students to navigate the uncertainties and complexities across numerous business scenarios.
Plus, equipped with the ability to innovate, MBA graduates will find success beyond one single venture.
"Great entrepreneurs know how to fish; they don't just catch one fish,” Bill Aulet said.
Learn to fail
Business school teaches you how to fail. While it might not seem like the most compelling reason to attend business school, it’s an important one.
“I would have spent a lot of money to be able to fail faster," MIT’s Bill Aulet said.
Business school provides a forum to fail which doesn’t result in financial ruin. You can experiment, explore business opportunities, test ideas and experience the outcomes without consequence. Why not make mistakes when you can afford to do so? You gain all the knowledge, lessons, and insights without the cost and can apply this wisdom to build a better business.
Community of connections
The benefits of business school are myriad and many; but the greatest asset to an entrepreneur just might be the people you meet. Business school gives you access to a diverse and dynamic talent pool that can be an invaluable resource during your career as an entrepreneur. Not only are you likely to meet a potential business partner, but also the future decision-makers at global companies, venture capital firms, or CEOs of their own successful startups. This network can be leveraged for guidance, industry knowledge, sales leads, introductions to potentials hires, partnership opportunities...the list goes on.
Entrepreneurial education
While MBA graduates used to favor traditional fields like finance and consulting, now the majority intend to start their own business. To cater to this increasingly entrepreneurial class of rising professionals, business schools are evolving to be more startup-centric. Many now offer courses entirely focused on building a business from drafting a business plan to the financing of fundraising.
This is not limited to the classroom. Campuses are booming with entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship centers, on-campus accelerators, and a wealth of startup resources are now staples on B-school campuses. These initiatives, paired with a rich network, make business school the ultimate launchpad for startups.
Pictured: Bentley University via EdTech
http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/03/20/so-you-want-to-be-an-entreprene...