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15 Sep 2017, 02:50
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Hi readers!
I joined Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA program mainly because of their startup ecosystem.
How do I feel after one year?? Super satisfied! (nobody is paying me to say this lol) But let me explain you why:
Tsinghua university, specially the School of Economics and Management (the MBA program belongs to this school) and Xlab (Tsinghua free accelerator for startups), has tons of events related to startups (how to set up one, how to pick your team, how to pitch to investors, etc.) plus tons of startup competitions and hackatons. But if you think this is not enough, to get some inspiration, the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua every year invites top executives to make some speeches at the campus; for instance, McKensey's CEO (Dominic Barton), IBM's CEO (Ginni Rometty), Tencent's CEO (Pony Ma), Alibaba's CEO (Jack Ma!) and so on.. all these events were hosted in the same building where I do my MBA classes during my first year! I even asked questions to some of them.
But going back to the MBA program, how is this program related to the startup ecosystem? 4 points:
1. Business cases: During the MBA program you are going to read a lot of business cases of real companies. How they faced challenges, how they failed or how they overcame the challenges and succeed. Learning from real experiences, and having a professor to teach you the theory and giving you guidance, is the best experience ever. I remember most of the cases I read, definitively I don't want to do same mistakes in my own startup.
2. Startup classes: There are several classes focused in startups.
2a. In Managerial Thinking class (mandatory subject), class is divided in groups and each group is forced to come up with an idea (that will benefit society) and use the theory that professor is teaching to make a solid business plan. The final exam is a competition in front of investors where each group need to present and defend their idea. Isn't this amazing??
2b. During the MBA program some MIT professors will come to teach startup modules. These classes are very interesting. Not only the professors are very skillful, the business cases they bring are very interesting.
3. Talent: Your classmates are the best pool of talent. This first year I learned a lot from them. Some will talk better than you, some will think faster you, some will be nicer than you.. so many things you can learn from them. And the ones you like, now or later, may become your partners on your startup. And if not they will always be there to give you advice and feedback.
4. Finance and Economics: If you are like me and lack of Finance and Economics experience (important fields in any startup). This is the right place! I enjoyed learning how companies finance themselves, ask for loans, set up prices, manage their Accounting, etc.
So how is it going? If you have been able to read until here it means you have some entrepreneurship spirit inside you!
Then time has arrived I share my own startup experience with you:
During my second week in the MBA program I joined Xlab's (the accelerator for Tsinghua startups) 3 days startup marathon. That 3 days were amazing, the 2 professors (real angel investors) taught us the steps you must do once you have any business idea. But not only this, this was a real competition, so from the beginning we were divided in groups and after any 1-2 hour class, we had to gather into groups and apply the theory explained previously in our own ideas. At the end of the marathon, 5 angel investors were invited as a judge and each of the groups made an elevator pitch (1 minute pitch). Truth be told, I was one of the first teams to be disqualified haha But, here comes the thing, during the competition I met one person who later became the partner of my startup.
For the next months in any event or MBA startup class we always took the opportunity to introduce our startup idea. Why would we do that? For feedback! Getting feedback from you 100 smart MBA classmates and professors is the best thing ever. Thanks to this feedback we evolved and pivoted our idea.
Later we started to participate in any startup competition we heard of. We even got 2nd prize in a competition sponsored by Facebook! The director of Tsinghua and even a Vice Presindent of Facebook were part of the judge.
At the end, my partner and myself broke up and took different paths.
But I am still working on my startup. Actually now I am looking for investors/partners, and I need to thank the professors of the MBA program and Xlab mentors because all of them are freely advising me any time I ask. This is something you also should consider as an entrepreneur, by joining this program you also join Tsinghua "network", and this is something, used wisely, can be very useful for your startup.
So this is the story of my 1st year at Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA program!
I may succeed or fail with the startup but definitively I Learned and Enjoyed a lot this first year
Cheers and see you in Tsinghua!
⚠ This discussion has been closed due to inactivity. Please start a new topic in the Business School Applications Forum if you have a similar question or a comment.
Thank you,
GMAT Club Moderator Team.
I joined Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA program mainly because of their startup ecosystem.
How do I feel after one year?? Super satisfied! (nobody is paying me to say this lol) But let me explain you why:
Tsinghua university, specially the School of Economics and Management (the MBA program belongs to this school) and Xlab (Tsinghua free accelerator for startups), has tons of events related to startups (how to set up one, how to pick your team, how to pitch to investors, etc.) plus tons of startup competitions and hackatons. But if you think this is not enough, to get some inspiration, the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua every year invites top executives to make some speeches at the campus; for instance, McKensey's CEO (Dominic Barton), IBM's CEO (Ginni Rometty), Tencent's CEO (Pony Ma), Alibaba's CEO (Jack Ma!) and so on.. all these events were hosted in the same building where I do my MBA classes during my first year! I even asked questions to some of them.
But going back to the MBA program, how is this program related to the startup ecosystem? 4 points:
1. Business cases: During the MBA program you are going to read a lot of business cases of real companies. How they faced challenges, how they failed or how they overcame the challenges and succeed. Learning from real experiences, and having a professor to teach you the theory and giving you guidance, is the best experience ever. I remember most of the cases I read, definitively I don't want to do same mistakes in my own startup.
2. Startup classes: There are several classes focused in startups.
2a. In Managerial Thinking class (mandatory subject), class is divided in groups and each group is forced to come up with an idea (that will benefit society) and use the theory that professor is teaching to make a solid business plan. The final exam is a competition in front of investors where each group need to present and defend their idea. Isn't this amazing??
2b. During the MBA program some MIT professors will come to teach startup modules. These classes are very interesting. Not only the professors are very skillful, the business cases they bring are very interesting.
3. Talent: Your classmates are the best pool of talent. This first year I learned a lot from them. Some will talk better than you, some will think faster you, some will be nicer than you.. so many things you can learn from them. And the ones you like, now or later, may become your partners on your startup. And if not they will always be there to give you advice and feedback.
4. Finance and Economics: If you are like me and lack of Finance and Economics experience (important fields in any startup). This is the right place! I enjoyed learning how companies finance themselves, ask for loans, set up prices, manage their Accounting, etc.
So how is it going? If you have been able to read until here it means you have some entrepreneurship spirit inside you!
Then time has arrived I share my own startup experience with you:
During my second week in the MBA program I joined Xlab's (the accelerator for Tsinghua startups) 3 days startup marathon. That 3 days were amazing, the 2 professors (real angel investors) taught us the steps you must do once you have any business idea. But not only this, this was a real competition, so from the beginning we were divided in groups and after any 1-2 hour class, we had to gather into groups and apply the theory explained previously in our own ideas. At the end of the marathon, 5 angel investors were invited as a judge and each of the groups made an elevator pitch (1 minute pitch). Truth be told, I was one of the first teams to be disqualified haha But, here comes the thing, during the competition I met one person who later became the partner of my startup.
For the next months in any event or MBA startup class we always took the opportunity to introduce our startup idea. Why would we do that? For feedback! Getting feedback from you 100 smart MBA classmates and professors is the best thing ever. Thanks to this feedback we evolved and pivoted our idea.
Later we started to participate in any startup competition we heard of. We even got 2nd prize in a competition sponsored by Facebook! The director of Tsinghua and even a Vice Presindent of Facebook were part of the judge.
At the end, my partner and myself broke up and took different paths.
But I am still working on my startup. Actually now I am looking for investors/partners, and I need to thank the professors of the MBA program and Xlab mentors because all of them are freely advising me any time I ask. This is something you also should consider as an entrepreneur, by joining this program you also join Tsinghua "network", and this is something, used wisely, can be very useful for your startup.
So this is the story of my 1st year at Tsinghua-MIT Global MBA program!
I may succeed or fail with the startup but definitively I Learned and Enjoyed a lot this first year
Cheers and see you in Tsinghua!
⚠ This discussion has been closed due to inactivity. Please start a new topic in the Business School Applications Forum if you have a similar question or a comment.
Thank you,
GMAT Club Moderator Team.
Moderators:
