Aaron Schwartz of Modify Watches says business schools are ‘incredibly forgiving’ places to experiment with entrepreneurial ideas.
I am an entrepreneur – a moderately shocking fact for a kid from Cleveland. What's more shocking? I'm a very proud graduate of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Yes, I willingly left the work force for two years in order to pay to attend business school.
There is a standard list of reasons why startup types mock master of business administration degrees:
An MBA is all about drinking.
An MBA is all about partying.
An MBA is all about "networking" (read: drinking and partying).
It's true that you do not need an MBA to be an entrepreneur – actually, you don't even need a bachelor of arts (see: Zuckerberg, Mark). But I loved earning my MBA. I was able to co-found a business during school and learn from that experience. I was able to take time to think, refine and experiment. I was able to meet incredible people who have directly made an impact on the success of our business.
For those hoping to break into entrepreneurship, business school is an amazing path to do so because of its inherent opportunities. Here are five:
Experiment within an incredibly forgiving setting. While in school, I worked on a business with three other classmates. The lessons we learned were invaluable: define roles early, work on a partnership agreement, get used to the grind of working on a startup, build a diverse team in terms of perspective and skill set. Equally valuable is that on any campus there's an unparalleled wealth of resources – classmates, professors, undergrads and students in other departments, such as the information and computer science schools.
Build a relevant local network. Being a successful entrepreneur requires you to be resourceful and to find answers to complex issues. Working hard and meeting smart people affords you not only their insight, but also that of their network. Building strong relationships through intense and continuing interactions (such as school projects, event planning, or yes, having fun) creates a large advocacy network. Your classmates will want to see you succeed, and they will happily introduce you to their friends who can help. Business school is great for future business development. This is analogous to a management consultant who builds relationships with junior-level folks at client companies. In 10 years when they are both at a senior level, they will have a great working relationship.
Find your investors. Our lead investor is a great venture capitalist, Michael Berolzheimer, who graduated from Haas four years before me. The rest of the round is filled out with Cal grads, and folks whom I have met through warm introductions.
Hire a great team. Our creative director, Ashil Parag, is a close friend's cousin, and our startup lawyer, Doug Bend, is another friend's brother. Our technical director is a Cal undergrad whom I met while speaking to an entrepreneurship group. As we engage in hiring now, I can count on my classmates to provide great candidates.
Collect classwork that might actually come in handy. Business school was the first time I took a formal course in marketing, finance, accounting, sales and operations. Is a lot of it theoretical? Yes. Have I taken lessons from each class and applied them to my company? Absolutely. Even more valuable were classes from U.S. entrepreneur gurus Steve Blank and Eric Ries, a startup workshop from Haas lecturer and consultant Dave Charron in which I received the instant feedback every entrepreneur needs, and the Problem Finding, Problem Solving class from Haas lecturer Sara Beckman that gave me the beginning of a toolkit for creative problem-solving and design-thinking. "You don't know what you don't know" is one of my favourite phrases. With the right attitude and the right goals, any work, educational, travel or other experience will help you improve as an entrepreneur. Done right, business school can provide you the space to come up with that brilliant idea, the resources to execute it, and the support network that you will need during the entrepreneurial grind. And yes, it might provide people who are good at celebrating your successes, too.
Aaron Schwartz is founder and chief executive officer at Modify Industries Inc., which designs interchangeable custom watches known as Modify Watches. 