The Business School Plan, Version 2  

Posted by Dino in , , ,

You don't want to climb the MBA ladder to find you're going to be cut down to size.©

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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14 comments

Fin  

Your process oriented approach is good.

However, it is a rare and unique product that can wait so long to be launched, before being thought of and launched by someone faster...

What you propose, is an ideal timeline, but these rarely ever work out. It seems to me, that if your idea is a good one, and providing you have tested it with some confidants, you should already be looking to launch it, now.

Unless, perhaps you have discovered teleporting?..

4 May 2009 at 20:04
Fin  

Your process oriented approach is good.

However, it is a rare and unique product that can wait so long to be launched, before being thought of and launched by someone faster...

What you propose, is an ideal timeline, but these rarely ever work out. It seems to me, that if your idea is a good one, and providing you have tested it with some confidants, you should already be looking to launch it, now.

Unless, perhaps you have discovered teleporting?..

4 May 2009 at 20:04
bizwiz  

lol @ Fin's comment. however, if you have a idea right now, you can't (maybe I should say "shouldn't") rush into a launch. If it is a great I idea then proper time has to be spent to plan it, research it, design it, finance it, implement it and finally launch it. thinking in a 2 year time frame might be the right thing to do. an exception might be if your idea is in danger to be realized by someone else first.

I created a business plan as part of my final year project... I had the idea, but with all the reading, research, designing the initial plan and writing a nice report, I soon had worked a full year on it... and then the findings itself showed that the idea might be good, but the time is not right - neither for the idea, nor for me to work on it full-time.
I also had disbelievers, but that always comes with it when you try to create something innovative. The more you work on it and the better you communicate (and sometimes translate) it to your audience, the more interest for your idea you'll receive.

At some point I thought I might give my 'old' business idea another try and work out a more solid plan when I am in b-school... but maybe I don't. who knows.


good luck,
bizwiz

4 May 2009 at 21:01
bizwiz  

lol @ Fin's comment. however, if you have a idea right now, you can't (maybe I should say "shouldn't") rush into a launch. If it is a great I idea then proper time has to be spent to plan it, research it, design it, finance it, implement it and finally launch it. thinking in a 2 year time frame might be the right thing to do. an exception might be if your idea is in danger to be realized by someone else first.

I created a business plan as part of my final year project... I had the idea, but with all the reading, research, designing the initial plan and writing a nice report, I soon had worked a full year on it... and then the findings itself showed that the idea might be good, but the time is not right - neither for the idea, nor for me to work on it full-time.
I also had disbelievers, but that always comes with it when you try to create something innovative. The more you work on it and the better you communicate (and sometimes translate) it to your audience, the more interest for your idea you'll receive.

At some point I thought I might give my 'old' business idea another try and work out a more solid plan when I am in b-school... but maybe I don't. who knows.


good luck,
bizwiz

4 May 2009 at 21:01
Fin  

Bizwiz, so it's you who's discovered teleporting!...I want in!

Seriously, I agree about the proper planning - no chance of survival without it. But, not so sure about the long timeline, especially as it appears to be an internet venture, and perhaps social networking.

2 years in B-School or planning is quite a lot friendlier than 2 years in the business world or technical innovation.

Please let me know where to send the check for the teleporting venture...

4 May 2009 at 22:02
Fin  

Bizwiz, so it's you who's discovered teleporting!...I want in!

Seriously, I agree about the proper planning - no chance of survival without it. But, not so sure about the long timeline, especially as it appears to be an internet venture, and perhaps social networking.

2 years in B-School or planning is quite a lot friendlier than 2 years in the business world or technical innovation.

Please let me know where to send the check for the teleporting venture...

4 May 2009 at 22:02
bizwiz  

teleporting is such an old hat... figured it out a while back, but the automobile- and aviation-industry were bribing hard to keep it secret and locked away.

looking into bigger challenges now...
.) satisfy (or oppress) the females need to 'buy another pair of shoes'
.) make man help at home and tidy up after themselves

4 May 2009 at 23:00
bizwiz  

teleporting is such an old hat... figured it out a while back, but the automobile- and aviation-industry were bribing hard to keep it secret and locked away.

looking into bigger challenges now...
.) satisfy (or oppress) the females need to 'buy another pair of shoes'
.) make man help at home and tidy up after themselves

4 May 2009 at 23:00
D. G.  

LOL. You guys are hilarious. Show me the teleporter! I too will invest.

In any case - you are right Fin, I could try and build it asap. And I am trying to. But...

(1) I don't have the resources to pull it together - I need developers, money for infrastructure etc. When George Lucas had the idea for Star Wars, he stiched together clips of airplane fight sequences from war movies and took them around to Speilberg's house to show him what the movie might be like. My "piece together a mock-up dummy system" before B School is just that. With that mock-up, I hope to campaign for seed funding during my first year to build a proper prototype over the summer. During the second year, that system will be put to the test and iterated - expanding the user base.

(2) Overnight success usually takes a long time. You have to remember, Facebook started in October 2003, but it was not until September 2006 that it opened registration to everyone outside of educational institutions. During that three year period, the service was expanded and iterated from a hotornot.com clone to the most engaging social network out there. Google started in January 1996, but it was not until September 1998 that it got investment to expand outside of Stanford. I don't expect to achieve Google/Facebook levels of success, but do I think it will take two years to refine and get the product and venture into something that works.

(3) It's not the idea that is important - it's the execution. The idea of streaming videos down the internet to your TV has been around for many, many years. Yet, it has yet to take off. Why? Because the technology has not been ready, or the movie industry protested over rights issues or some other resistance. At the moment, I just have some key ideas, but no specific implementation. The specific implementation is what I hope to weed out over the next two years.

Basically, the above three points are summerised as this: I have a rought idea of what I want to do, but the two years will help turn that to reality. Just as it has taken other businesses to figure out what they should be doing. Nokia started as a toilet tissue company.

You are right - it is still an ideal plan. Many things can change, and I do expect them to change. But as the proverb goes, "he who fails to plan, plans to fail".

4 May 2009 at 23:26
D. G.  

LOL. You guys are hilarious. Show me the teleporter! I too will invest.

In any case - you are right Fin, I could try and build it asap. And I am trying to. But...

(1) I don't have the resources to pull it together - I need developers, money for infrastructure etc. When George Lucas had the idea for Star Wars, he stiched together clips of airplane fight sequences from war movies and took them around to Speilberg's house to show him what the movie might be like. My "piece together a mock-up dummy system" before B School is just that. With that mock-up, I hope to campaign for seed funding during my first year to build a proper prototype over the summer. During the second year, that system will be put to the test and iterated - expanding the user base.

(2) Overnight success usually takes a long time. You have to remember, Facebook started in October 2003, but it was not until September 2006 that it opened registration to everyone outside of educational institutions. During that three year period, the service was expanded and iterated from a hotornot.com clone to the most engaging social network out there. Google started in January 1996, but it was not until September 1998 that it got investment to expand outside of Stanford. I don't expect to achieve Google/Facebook levels of success, but do I think it will take two years to refine and get the product and venture into something that works.

(3) It's not the idea that is important - it's the execution. The idea of streaming videos down the internet to your TV has been around for many, many years. Yet, it has yet to take off. Why? Because the technology has not been ready, or the movie industry protested over rights issues or some other resistance. At the moment, I just have some key ideas, but no specific implementation. The specific implementation is what I hope to weed out over the next two years.

Basically, the above three points are summerised as this: I have a rought idea of what I want to do, but the two years will help turn that to reality. Just as it has taken other businesses to figure out what they should be doing. Nokia started as a toilet tissue company.

You are right - it is still an ideal plan. Many things can change, and I do expect them to change. But as the proverb goes, "he who fails to plan, plans to fail".

4 May 2009 at 23:26
trystwithmba  

Well there's one thing you must do once your idea turns into a successful business reality - write a book on it :-). Seriously, your last comment is well worth it.

5 May 2009 at 13:33
trystwithmba  

Well there's one thing you must do once your idea turns into a successful business reality - write a book on it :-). Seriously, your last comment is well worth it.

5 May 2009 at 13:33
D. G.  

Thanks Ahembeea. But this blog is the book ;-) ... maybe more gory details are required though.

5 May 2009 at 18:33
D. G.  

Thanks Ahembeea. But this blog is the book ;-) ... maybe more gory details are required though.

5 May 2009 at 18:33

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