"You don't need that - why do you need that for? You don't have rubella, mumps or measles", began my doctor. I could feel the weight of an already burdensome MBA matriculation process getting heavier. I need to submit my immunization records to Northwestern's medical center by the end of June. My medical practice does not have my vaccinations records for these early immunizations from my youth. Why? Because while all the other kids in the UK *were* getting their vaccinations as kids, I was in Sri Lanka. I'm not even sure I've had these vaccinations. My doctor was shaking his head - he did not think that the Northwestern medical center needed these records. I insisted otherwise; why else would they ask for them?

"Do you have lots of cash to burn?", continued my doctor, "because we can get lab reports done to check if you're immune to them, but it'll be expensive - very expensive". I wondered whether I had suddenly become some kind of science experiment for my doctor and his nurse. They had already spoken with great curiosity about the tuberculosis QuantiFERON test that Northwestern's medical center has required that I take. My doctor and nurse had never administered it before. To me, it seemed just like any other blood test - stick a needle in my arm and suck some blood out. To them it was out of the ordinary - tiny samples in three test tubes that needed to be shaken about a lot.

Wearing a slight grin, the doctor must have sensed what I was thinking. Maybe they had seen the I'm not a science experiment look before? "Instead of doing lab tests, maybe we'll just give you the MMR vaccination; it won't do you any harm and we can probably give it to you for free". At last, the weight seemed to lift. Could it be true? Would I finally be able to tick these medical immunizations off my matriculation to-do list? I could see a slight glimpse at the end of the tunnel. "Hold on", I said as I flicked through details on Northwestern's medical form, "the MMR test requires two injections at least 28 days apart - which will be after the end of June deadline for these forms". Blank stares followed.

After waving his head for a little while, my doctor gave a heavy sigh, shrugged and walked off - leaving me with the nurse. Come Monday, I'll be calling up Northwestern's medical center to ask for their permission to prolong this agony further. Oh, what joy.

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An MBA opens doors. This week I stumbled upon a door that few take, yet is typically difficult to break open without an MBA from a top business school. Described as a high-probability way of making good returns on investment and entrepreneurial effort, search funds are funds that are typically only raised by alums of top business schools. Essentially, search funds are a way for entrepreneurs to raise money to acquire a company. Once a company is acquired, the entrepreneur works to improve the profitability of the company over a period of 5 years or so, before selling it on for a profit - taking a 30% share of that profit. Usually that 30% share will be worth several million US dollars.

I stumbled upon the idea at an MIT Enterprise forum event earlier this week; I had been to their events before. On this occasion, Jim Southern explained the mechanics of search funds and went through a case study of how search funds work. One of the ideas that struck me about Jim's talk was his point that in the normal entrepreneurial path of building a company, only 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 100,000 people are successful in generating a multi-million dollar earn out. Yet, through the search fund process, the probability is more than 25%.

As Jim Southern's talk progressed, I got more and more excited about the search fund vehicle. The disheartening part for me was that the search fund process prefers acquisitions of companies with simple operational processes, e.g. a freight forwarding company or events company. This is because it makes it simpler for the entrepreneur to understand the process of the company and improve the profitability. Under this restriction, I would have to give up my preference for new media, which I have built my career on. Software development, which is at the heart of new media, can be complex - at times it can seem like a process that does not have a process. This makes it less than ideal for a search fund. However, I find new media exciting and engaging.

Consequently, at this stage - while I am enticed by the idea of search funds - I am reluctant to give up on my new media entrepreneurial plans. Setting up search fund might be a good "Plan B" for me though, if by my second year at Kellogg all else has failed.

The New York Times has a recent article on search funds. Stanford GSB has the most research and information on these funds.

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Kellogg has been keeping me more than a little bit busy over the last week or so. Almost quite suddenly, I've had a flood of correspondence from the school and a lot more to think about. What follows is a run down of this ...

Pre-Enrollment Courses. Kellogg not only has pre-term, but even has online courses for you to do before you get to even the pre-term. I had mixed feelings about this, but when they said that the courses has been designed by Kellogg faculty, I perked up a little bit. If Kellogg faculty were involved, it might well be a little bit interesting. Nevertheless, I don't think I'll be able to look at these until July - after I've finished work. Life it a little too busy at the moment.

Finances. My official loan offer came through from Northwestern. You can not help but stare at the amounts involved and gulp at it. I need to go through it all in detail and do some budgeting for myself for the next two years. I was at my bank this week when one of the "savings specialists" nabbed me to try and convince me to do something "more effective" with my savings. His eyes almost watered when I told him what I'd be spending it on.

Medicals. Some of the items on the to-do list that Kellogg provides makes me groan. This is one of them. I need to fill out a four page form describing my medical history. Worse, I need to get my doctor (GP) to fill in one of the pages. I handed the page into my medical center on Friday. He called on Monday night (after 10pm!) saying he was working late and would get back to me the next day with costs. It's Thursday and I've still not heard back. Going through and trying to find all those immunization records is killing him, I'm sure.

KWEST. Most of the other Kellogg admits that are blogging have made some mention of this already. I've been anticipating this a while. Registration opened at 10am CDT yesterday (20th May), but it took me a whole 11 minutes - it gets me thinking that I might not have been as quick as some others. Oh dear. At least I'm not going for the Mystery Trip. All my selections were pretty much in South America. I don't want to travel too far.

Accommodation. The other admits I've been in touch with are well into their hunt for accommodation. I've not been as quick off the starting block on this one. I'm favoring McManus, the halls of residence, mainly because it reduces complications for furnishing (most apartment rentals are unfurnished?) and tenancy length (I don't have to rent over the summer). I had already got my application in by the due date, 1st May. I hear we'll get results of our applications soon. Fingers crossed.

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At the end of June, I finish work. I will then have about 7-or-so weeks before arriving in Evanston and life at Kellogg kicks off with KWEST, the world wide service trips that Kellogg students embark on before pre-term starts. So I've started thinking about what I might be able to do during those 7-or-so weeks that I have off to recover from working life and prepare for student life.

Between getting my business plan and dummy prototype in order and crawling through the usual migration tasks, everything else seems to fall in the category of improving my skills. I wonder if I'll get round to any of it. Perhaps there are things I can add?

• Learn touch typing, 'cause I type fast like a monkey at the moment. TypingWeb seems like a good (i.e. free) starting point.
• Get into weight training regularly. Been on the to-do list for the last 4 years :-/
• Learn everything there is to know about venture capital (gasp!)
• Improve cooking skills, 'cause calories are a problem in the US
• Learn speed reading, 'cause I'll be doing lots of reading, right? Been on the to-do list for the last 8 years :-/.
• Improve web presence - LinkedIn, About Page on blog etc - sort it all out.
• Learn golf?

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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.

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