Hello friends! My name is June Cong and I’m excited to meet you. Throughout this year, I hope to connect with many of you and hear your stories, and it only feels right to share one of my own.
I’ll start off with this: for the majority of my life, I never thought that I’d get an MBA. Growing up in Silicon Valley, I idolized people who had built companies out of their garages with nothing but computers and a passion for innovation. I’ve known from a young age that I wanted to be like them — scrappy and resourceful, building something from nothing with a close-knit team of technologists.
So why then, am I here (at Booth) and not somewhere else?
My background before Booth was in both enterprise and consumer tech, working across different functions to get first-hand experience in the different areas needed to run a company — product development, marketing, and sales. But along the way, I realized that while I had functional experience in many areas and a great network of colleagues and classmates I could reach out to, there were still gaps in my own expertise and network that would take me a long time to fill.
I looked at my skill set, and realized that I could either spend five years trying to learn the functions I wasn’t familiar with by switching roles and trying new jobs, or I could go to business school and fill those gaps by learning directly from people at the pinnacle of their industries. With classes like the Venture Capital Lab and Operations Management, I’ve been able to round out my experience with practical lessons in other areas of business, and get exposure to new industries and functions. Additionally, the University of Chicago’s entrepreneurship resources through the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation showed me that the University really prides itself on supporting entrepreneurship, and I was sold.
Throughout this year, I’m excited to highlight more stories about the entrepreneurship resources here at the University of Chicago, and I’m also excited to keep you updated on my journey with my startup as we prepare for launch, the New Venture Challenge (NVC), and beyond. Follow along on The Booth Experience, and I can’t wait to hear some of your stories as well!
