In case you hadn’t noticed, Booth is abuzz with Entrepreneurship. Each Spring, the New Venture Challenge (NVC) kicks off, and the excitement is present all over Harper Center. NVC strategy sessions fill the Winter Garden, customer research interviews consume the conference rooms, and venture capitalists and famous entrepreneurs roam the halls to help with judging and coaching sessions.
The latest and greatest news is this awesome article on Poets & Quants on NVC semi-finalist TransparentMBA and its exponential growth in the last 4 months. We asked CEO Mitch Kirby to share more about what it’s been like starting up this awesome new company…
“When I returned to Booth from my summer internship, I still had doubts about exactly what career I wanted to pursue. I wanted to better understand what my life would be like based on different career decisions. If I went one route, how happy would I be, what would the day-to-day of my job be like, and how much could I expect to make?
In making these decisions in the past, I relied mainly on anecdotal evidence from friends, or general career sites like Glassdoor. But I wanted something better, something tailored to a person like me, and not just focused on my next job, but my entire career path. That’s when I decided to start TransparentMBA.
Our goal is to be the next-generation career tool by providing tailored, personalized career data and enabling users to understand not just their next job, but what an entire career path looks like. We are starting with MBAs, but plan to eventually build the go-to data source for every job and every career.
Our journey to make this dream a reality has been difficult, but being a student at Booth has made it immensely easier. First off, the ability to work side-by-side with Career Services has enabled us to better understand how we can meet students’ needs, improve career coaching, and help companies recruit top MBA talent. Taking classes like New Venture Strategy forced us to think deeply about how we scale, monetize, and build a network-based business. And finally, competing in the New Venture Challenge has challenged us to prove our business model, execute effectively, and craft our vision in order to convince judges and investors that we have what it takes to be a successful and massive company.
The path of entrepreneurship is incredibly difficult, but being surrounded by a community that cares whether or not we succeed and provides resources to make the path a little easier has made all the difference.”
Don’t forget to check out the article on Poets & Quants, as well as TBE blogger Sana’s recent post on what it’s like being part of NVC. And of course stay tuned for many more exciting NVC updates from your TBE team.
