@andreagouw: @KelloggSchool @KelloggENTR Let's resolve to have articles like these written about Kellogg & Entrepreneurship smartbrief.com/servlet/wirele…
@KelloggENTR: @andreagouw tell us priority order: innovation lab, cash for starts, what else? If we gave space and cash and student biz failed, then ?
It's no
secret that I love Kellogg and I loved my time there. But there are definitely
things that Kellogg could and should do better. One of those things that is
especially dear to me is fostering an entrepreneurial culture for both MBA
candidates and alumni alike.
So once I
received this reply from the Kellogg Entrepreneurship Department, I started to
think about the changes I would like to see implemented in the curriculum and
the services for alumni entrepreneurs.
I spoke
to Shannon Jones [KSM ’08, @wshannonj] about this last week and he referred to
a program run by Stanford, StartX. I asked him for his “list” of what he would
like from Kellogg and what he sent back was the usual list of access to
people, funding, space followed by people, people, people. What struck me was his closing statement:
“The purpose of this is to build a multi-generational community of Kellogg/Northwestern entrepreneurs who support each other and to show the business and start-up world that Kellogg is interested in fostering something other then class after class of Bain Consultants and Kraft Brand Managers...”
I quickly
realized that in order for Kellogg to become a preeminent program in
entrepreneurship, in addition to Marketing and Finance, what ultimately needed to
change was the culture. The culture that
I had grown to love. The culture that
brought me to Kellogg. But also the
culture that was ultimately failing me as an entrepreneur.
As a
student, I certainly did not feel that the culture at Kellogg embraced
risk-taking which is inherent in entrepreneurship. Let's take a look at
the end of the aforementioned tweet to start, "If....biz failed,
then?" If Kellogg is not willing to bet on “”its own” then somewhere
it is failing. Another example is the
strong encouragement given to students in Entrepreneurship courses to
"Learn on someone else's dime before launching your own venture."
Entrepreneurs are optimists by nature; let's cultivate that spirit and give
them the necessary support to achieve their goals. By dissuading students
from becoming entrepreneurs and pushing them into lucrative
"traditional" MBA careers, we will smother any budding
entrepreneurial culture in the Kellogg community.
Classmate
Scott Orn [KSM ’07, @scottorn] would like to see administrators embrace its
alumni entrepreneurs just as much as it does other alumni. He finds it frustrating that start-ups get
little recognition from the school. Scott
suggests that Dean Blount or another Kellogg entity choose to highlight 1
start-up each week via podcast, twitter, or blog. “I look at the @KelloggAlumni twitter account
and see fellow alumni being recognized for their accomplishments in corporate
America. I would love to see something
similar for alumni entrepreneurs.”
As a
founder starting out in New York, I became insanely jealous of a group of HBS
high growth entrepreneurs. They had a support network of peers who were going
through similar pains of market validation, fundraising, recruitment, etc. I
watched from the sidelines as they got together monthly and became each other’s
biggest cheerleaders. Not only was the group filled with recent grads, they
also had alumni from years prior who were able to serve as mentors. There was a
sense of connectedness. [Note: There are some great founders in NY and
Hermann Mazard [KSM ‘96 , @HermannM] and @KAEGNY are working hard to build a
community, but this is largely being done without the support of the school.] Now that I am in the Bay Area, it is the same
just change HBS to Stanford.
I would
like to see a program (series of programs) that go beyond providing space and
capital and tap into the Kellogg Community:
- - Funding/ acceptance into an accelerator of sorts: signal that Kellogg believes it has given alumni a toolkit to be a successful entrepreneur [selection can be done by a panel of administrators, students (particularly those interested in Venture), alumni (bringing together different life cycles/ both sides of the table)
- - Working with students: business plan, marketing plan, pivots, etc- encouraging a community but also exposing students to “real-life” issues faced by early-stage founders
-
Engage
with other parts of the university, especially engineers (like the series of NUvention classes)
- - Mentors/advisors from the Kellogg community made up entrepreneurs and investors (angel & institutional)
- - Access to a low or no cost space would be great as well, but would become an even more valued resource as the community strengthens
o Perhaps start small in a
few key geographies, split the space with alumni development offices bringing
the greater Kellogg community to the space of other events
I am not
an administrator. I do not pretend to
have all the answers. What I am is a
passionate entrepreneur and alumna who would love to improve the status of my
alma mater as I build my company. I
understand the needs of a start-up founder and see the potential for a
symbiotic relationship between entrepreneur and academic institution. By fostering a sense of community and a
continuous dialogue between alumni entrepreneurs, investors and the School we
can elevate the position of the Levy Center and Kellogg.
It is not
the role of academic institution but rather that of the investment community to
avoid failure. Let’s embrace the new
Kellogg campaign spearheaded by Dean Blount of "Think Bravely" which
I recently had the opportunity to hear her speak on. These initiatives would complement and
enhance all that the Kellogg administration is working on. Let’s work together to strengthen Kellogg’s
biggest differentiator, “The Kellogg Culture.”
(And to the question about failed ventures, students and founders can write
a case study!)
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