Top MBA Connect

The 2013 CUNY IVE SmartPitch Challenge is underway and is paving the way for the next generation budding entrepreneurs.

When people think of innovation and entrepreneurship in New York City, they often think about the tech startups in Silicon Alley. Or possibly companies catering to foodies with artisanal ice cream or high-end food trucks serving a mash-up of cuisines (think kimchi tacos). However, one of New York’s (and the country’s) most innovative small businesses is Red Rabbit, which provides healthy meals, made from scratch, with regionally sourced produce, to the City’s schools.

In my previous blog posts, I have discussed the two main benefits from doing an MBA at a top business school for the purpose of starting your own business – reputation and network. This post will focus more on the specific skills, techniques and lessons that I learned during my MBA Iand found just as valuable while developing my startup, Flat-Club from an idea to a growing company.

When I think of business school and the MBA program, I always take a step back and say to myself, “what am I supposed to be learning here?” I have long been under the impression that obtaining an MBA is also accompanied by a plaque that reads “Master of the Universe.” Now while you may not receive a plaque, if you navigate B-school correctly, you will have the tools to be the master of a universe. Your own.

At Flat-Club we try to find all sorts of ways to use leverage. No, not strictly using debt to push the company forward but any application of the scientific definition: using a small lever to get outsized results. One of our best small levers has been our affiliation with an MBA networks. I wrote a post before on why doing a MBA is a good idea for Entrepreneurs. This post will give a few real life examples from Flat-Club.

Funny thing happened to me on the way to my career on Wall St. I graduated during a time when the economy was booming, the stock market was racing to the moon and interest rates were low. The year was 2006 and I had heard tons of stories of how people got rich in tech bubble of 2001 and by flipping houses in the real estate market. I was a young undergraduate with several years of work experience looking for my chance to make my millions. Heck, I would've been good with a few hundred thousand.

Networking is the second of the two main reasons for going to business school, the other being reputation. Both these points are also crucial for any startup. Since we discussed the benefits of reputation in my last post, now we come to networking.

Are you starting your own business and looking to learn from other entrepreneurs? There are some common traits shared by most successful entrepreneurs, as outlined in the Kauffman Foundation's Anatomy of an Entrepreneur reports. Read on to find out what they are.

As more people have been creating their own businesses as part of the tech startup craze, the number of startup incubators has also increased. According to ReadWriteWeb, the US is home to over 1,000 incubators. But, what is a startup incubator? Read on for an explanation.

VAROJ is a Southern California-based startup that is focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the retail industry. By partnering with celebrities, designers, and merchants and their preferred causes, VAROJ (http://www.varoj.org) provides an online shopping arena where consumers can purchase clothes and accessories that include a donation to a specific charity, and then share their selections through digital conversations.

The company was founded by three bright, young individuals: Rick Garcia (CTO), Frankie Scanlon (Operations), and Vanessa Lengies (Outreach). I conducted an interview with Varoj’s head of outreach Vanessa Lengies to find out more about the business idea development and the team’s transition from idea to action. Below are my findings: