I’m planning to set up a business while I am at business school. Before I applied to business school, my plans for this ambition started as a distant and vague notion. Following admission to Kellogg, they developed into a plan. This post represents my latest thinking on this plan; my latests thinking on how I might go about achieving my ambition.
I’m building a web start up. Why? Because my career has been centered around the web and it is what I know best. The barriers to entry are low – these days just about anyone can build a website. The differentiation comes in the user experience of the website and job that it satisfies. As I previously mentioned, I believe there are big opportunities around content and the Internet – everyone seems to be struggling with a model for making money from content on the Internet.
Fit with B-School. I realized early on that some ideas fit the environment of setting something up while at business school better than others. If the product or service of my business has similarities / links to services provided by clubs or other entities at business school, then I can leverage those entities. If it is a luncheon product, perhaps it could be initially distributed by the shops at the school? If it is a new type of publication, perhaps existing publications at the school can be persuaded to fund a issue? My plan is to create a web based service to entice the community at Kellogg. Who knows if it will succeed, but I’m sure going to give it a shot. If it is successful there, it can be expanded beyond these boundaries.
Recruitment. Rather than pursue the rounds of recuitment that the rest of the student body participates in, I anticipate spending the first year seeking seed funding to build a prototype system over the summer. I am then looking at the second year as time spent seeking venture capital investment to build the business properly.
Sketch of the current plan.
Before Kellogg:
- Complete a business plan for starting and developing the business; develop an elevator pitch.
- Piece together a mock-up dummy system.
First year at Kellogg:
- Test the concept out using whatever low budget / free tools there are (the mock-up system).
- Get fellow students to use the service; get feedback for improvement.
- Find mentors who can help reduce the number of mistakes I make.
- Seek investment to do work over the summer to establish a real service that can work.
- On securing funding, hire a team to work on the business over the summer.
Summer internship
- Build the service as a prototype.
- Seek out potential B2B customers of the service, i.e. companies that may want their own branded version of the site.
Second year at Kellogg:
- Continue marketing the prototype service and building the user base.
- Seek venture capital investment to build the service from prototype to full service on graduation from MBA.
After graduation:
- Build full service. Grow the business.
