What Most Surprised MBA Students In Business School
ApplicantLab |
September 29, 2023

In this episode of Business Casual, our hosts discuss the 15 biggest surprises MBA students may encounter during their programs. One surprise mentioned is the overwhelming nature of the MBA experience due to numerous activities and opportunities. MBA programs also heavily emphasize soft skills like collaboration and leadership. The hosts stress prioritization and reflect on the transformative potential of an MBA for personal growth.

They also share a story of a colleague discovering that a recommendation letter appeared to be written using Chat GPT, discussing the challenges and awkwardness of addressing this with recommenders. They emphasize the importance of candid conversations with recommenders about expectations and recommendation quality.

Overall, the episode highlights surprising MBA experiences and challenges, including unexpected AI use in recommendation letters.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:07.450] – John

Hello, everyone. It’s John Byrne with Poets of Quants. Welcome to Business Casual, our weekly podcast with my co host Maria Wich Vila and Caroline Diarte Edwards. We recently ran a story that I really kind of like. We asked the latest graduating class of MBAs all over the world what was the single biggest surprise they found from their MBA experience? And we collected 15 of these. We call it the 15 biggest surprises awaiting MBA students. And it’s kind of really intriguing. Each of these are, in the words of MBA graduates from all the top schools, one that I really loved, and I think this would resonate with both Caroline and Maria as well, is this one business school de ages you. It’s kind of a pause in your life that allows you to think more thoughtfully about what you’ve done and where you want to go. I’m going to quote from this one graduate of an MBA program because I think this is just beautiful stuff. The MBA afforded me two years to reflect on how I’ve lived my life up until now and strategize around the life I want to build for myself moving forward. Where do I want to live? Who do I want to surround myself with? How can I be a better son, brother, friend and citizen? What aspects of my desired lifestyle are non negotiable? How should I prioritize my mental health and other non professional priorities like travel, fitness and family? My two years in business school served as a critical reset period for me. I thought that was really brilliant. Caroline, what do you think?

[00:01:51.380] – Caroline

Yeah, I definitely sign up for the aging. I think it’s kind of a shame that I went through that in my twenty s. I would be very happy. To go through it now.

[00:02:01.210] – John

I bet you a lot of people who go through think, oh my God, it aged me really fast.

[00:02:07.190] – Caroline

Yeah, you don’t necessarily get a lot of sleep, so I’m not sure that that’s good for staying young. But joking aside, I totally agree that it’s an incredibly transformative experience. And I think that’s something that resonates with a lot of MBA students, that you expect it to be something that will broaden your perspectives, that will open your eyes to new possibilities that you might not otherwise have considered. But I think that until you’re actually in that experience, you don’t fully appreciate what a deep transformation it can be. Right? And so many people go to the MBA, go into the MBA with a sort of set idea of what they’re going to do when they graduate. And so many of them end up doing something wildly different that they would have never imagined, have imagined before. And that’s because they have had that chance, as you say, to take a step back, to take stock, to reflect on who they are, what they’ve done, the skills they’ve built, what they like to do. And at the same time, they’ve been exposed to so much and so many different opportunities and so many different organizations and had a chance to learn about so many different avenues.

[00:03:28.040] – Caroline

And so that combination of being able to take a step back and that exposure means that a lot of people come out of the program doing something very different than they would otherwise have anticipated. And I think that’s wonderful. Right. It just gives you that chance to take a step in your life that you might otherwise never have taken.

[00:03:47.690] – John

Really true. Now, there are 15 things on our list. Maria, does anyone resonate with you?

[00:03:54.970] – Maria

Well, I think all of them resonated on some level. I think the one of it is totally nonstop. Right. You think about school as mostly being school and, oh, maybe I’ll do an extracurricular or two, but that’s really not the experience at all. It’s that plus plus super, mega extra, because you’re not only going to classes and participating in clubs the way you might have in college, but you’re also trying to find a job and you’re networking like crazy and you’re participating in case competitions. And I think the biggest value, Caroline, a few seconds ago was mentioning how one of the biggest benefits of the experience is that you meet people from all these different backgrounds and you start learning about different industries and different positions, and you ask yourself, well, what is the pharmaceutical industry like? Maybe I should work in that. And you start setting up these conversations with your classmates and the next thing you know, it’s two in the morning and it’s up time to get ready to go to sleep and do it all over again. So I think because the MBA is such a transformative and pivotal moment in someone’s life, I think that does differentiate it from a typical academic experience.

[00:05:02.750] – Maria

And that pivotal moment of your life means that you are putting so much energy into getting to know other people. That is just an element of time that just makes it feel like it’s twice as much time as any other schooling you’ve ever done.

[00:05:15.350] – John

Yeah, definitely. I’m going to just go through the 15 surprises. You mentioned one already. Number one, it is really hard to say no. And this is something that Caroline touched upon before. I mean, there’s so many things that you can do in and out of the classroom that it really can be bewildering and overwhelming. And saying no to some of them is important, but boy, is it hard to the professors really care. A lot of people come from undergraduate backgrounds where they were lectured at and didn’t really have a relationship with professors at business school. The classes tend to be smaller, particularly in the elective curriculum, and the professors are pretty devoted in many cases to the students, even though obviously their research interests are incredibly important to them. Some professors actually help students find jobs and mentor them and work on their startups with them. So that was one big surprise for a couple of students. There’s a heavy focus on soft skills. For all that we talk about this, there’s still a surprise about how much emphasis is placed on collaboration and leadership and business goals and teamwork. It is overloaded and overwhelming.

[00:06:35.400] – John

Four, it is totally nonstop, as Maria noted. Five, your classmates will love to travel. That is so true. And that is so expensive. You get to practice. What you learn immediately is surprise number six. Number seven, you get a lot of freedom in business school. That’s true. Number eight, it is a time to reflect and to grow. And graduates from Tuck, from UC Irvine, and from other schools mentioned that one because it’s such a big deal. Caroline, did you find something that made you remember back to your days at INSEAD in this group?

[00:07:18.330] – Caroline

Yes, definitely. I mean, the fact that it’s difficult to say no and there’s just so much to do, I think resonates, especially with a one year program like INSEAD, which is really like drinking from a fire hose. And I remember when I finished the program, I felt like I’d sort of jumped off a speeding train. Right. It was really strange to adjust to normal life again, because you had been through this incredibly intense experience where the pace is so fast, and as Maria said, it gives you a different sense of the passage of time. Your impression of time even changes. And so I found it quite strange then adjusting to real life again. And I think also what you said about the relationship with professors, I think that’s extremely true. And I think that’s partly because there’s a different level of maturity in the students versus when you’re an undergrad. And so the professors really are treating the students like peers rather than talking down to the students like they’re these young people who don’t know anything. Right. Because also the professors are very reliant on the knowledge of the students who come to the classroom.

[00:08:37.690] – Caroline

And it’s not a case where it’s just the professor dispensing his or her knowledge to their students. It’s more a case of facilitating a learning experience that draws on that collective knowledge and that incredible collective knowledge that you get in the classroom. And so the professors are very reliant on the students, and that changes the dynamic, I think, and the relationship that you have. That’s great. It’s wonderful to be able to build those personal relationships with faculty.

[00:09:10.750] – John

That’s so true. And we are in the phase now where we’re reporting on all the class profiles that are coming out at the schools, and you really get a sense of the richness of diversity of backgrounds and experiences that are brought to an MBA classroom through those class profiles. Number nine was, networking requires a lot of time and energy. No kidding. Ten, don’t underestimate the value of prioritization. There’s this phrase called ruthless prioritization. And that’s exactly what you have to do in business school, because there’s so many things to do, so many case studies to read. Number eleven, you’ll make a lot of friends. And number twelve, business school builds confidence. And we all know that self confidence, not cockiness, is an important ingredient in success. Were there any surprises, Maria, that weren’t on here that should be?

[00:10:02.770] – Maria

No, I think folks covered it. I’m glad to see that the graduates are focusing a lot on the interpersonal relationships they developed in business school, because I do think that that is the thing that going into the future, aside from the basic education. But really taking that network and those friends and those peers with you, that’s the most valuable thing. And so I will sometimes tell folks if you’ve got a networking event to go to or a good party to go to or something like that, and there’s a test tomorrow, like, yeah, study for the test, but you probably won’t use what that test is covering five years from now. But you will probably be reaching out to and hanging out with friends from business school 20 years from now. In fact, just this past weekend, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah at my house and we had some business school friends over. These people really do become a part of your life for a long time. So I’m glad to see that the kids today are smart enough to know, to develop and nurture those relationships, because that is really such a gem and high value thing you take away totally.

[00:11:10.880] – John

So check it out. The 15 biggest surprises that waiting MBA students. If you are a prospective student, an applicant, if you are a current student that just started your program, I think you really want to read this because you get a sense of what you’re going to be experiencing and maybe how to take best advantage of it. Now, one other story that kind of came out actually came from one of your colleagues, Caroline at Fortuna Admissions, and we have a story on it from one of your colleagues, Judith Silverman Hodara, and it’s called Help My Recommender Use Chat GPT. Now, we’ve talked about Chat GPT every now and then, but this is a whole new twist on it. How did it come about, Caroline?

[00:11:55.870] – Caroline

Well, the discussion came up because one of my colleagues, Heidi Hillis, received a recommendation letter for review and was very suspicious that GPT had been used. So it had very effusive praise, but it was very generic and lacking in examples. And then one dead giveaway was that it switched between he and she. So it’s a little bit confused about who it was talking, um, and then when we started talking about it.

[00:12:31.310] – John

Who sends the recommendation, not the recommend. The essay to Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School is in the essay.

[00:12:40.450] – Caroline

I mean that that happens. I mean, that has always happened, but I’m just afraid that errors like that are going to start to pop up more frequently when people have this tempting shortcut at their fingertips. And then when we started talking about it, then other coaches mentioned that they had faced similar situation with their clients. And so I think it is coming up more and more. Unfortunately, what we’re advising our clients is to preempt that and if possible, have a discussion with your recommenders before they draft anything, which you should do anyway, right? You shouldn’t just send them an email asking them to write your recommendation and then forget about it. Right? You should ideally sit down with them, go through some bullet points with them of the key talking points that you would like them to get across, because you want what they say to back up what you say in your application. And there should be some coherence in the whole story. And so what we’re advising clients is at that point when you have that discussion, you should also try to diplomatically weave into the conversation that it’s better if they don’t use generative AI as a tool.

[00:13:59.390] – Caroline

And in this specific case that I mentioned, my colleague actually contacted the recommender and the recommender was very receptive to the feedback and rewrote things.

[00:14:10.670] – John

Mender was embarrassed at being caught at it.

[00:14:12.870] – Maria

As they should have been. Right?

[00:14:16.480] – Caroline

Well, so I don’t think that she actually know we’ve caught you out using AI, but I think she tried to point out that he or she needed to add in more concrete examples and pointed out some of the issues in the style. So I think that’s the way that she addressed it. So it is another issue that, unfortunately, candidates now have to manage as part of the application process and just anticipate. I think it’s best to anticipate it and address it with recommenders up front, if possible, before they go off and draft something that is just churned out in 20 seconds flat.

[00:14:59.790] – John

You know what’s kind of remarkable about this? We had always thought that the bigger issue were candidates using Chat GPT to write their essays. And lo and behold, you would never have imagined that a recommender would actually turn the Chat GPT to write a rec letter. Maria, what do you make of this?

[00:15:22.070] – Maria

Yeah, I have to say, I did not anticipate that being an know. It did not even occur to me until I saw this article from Caroline and her colleagues. It was like, oh my gosh. But I guess everyone’s catching on to Chat GPT and if they’re trying to save some time, maybe they figure everyone else is doing it, so I’ll do it too. But the swapping of the genders. That shows that the person didn’t even proofread. I mean, yikes. I’m glad that Heidi was able to deal with that in a diplomatic and effective fashion. I would expect no less.

[00:16:06.070] – John

Now, here’s another interesting question. If I got this right now, Caroline, did you mention that Heidi was the one who actually called the recommender to get the recommender to write a more.

[00:16:16.100] – Caroline

Specific yes, yes, that’s right. Yeah, she did.

[00:16:19.840] – John

Because I would have thought that the consultant would just sit back and make the candidate do that. I can see the advantage of the consultant actually doing that instead of the candidate, because, after all, on one level, you’re offering somewhat critical commentary to the recommender about what they’ve just handed in to you. Right, yeah.

[00:16:42.200] – Caroline

I think sometimes there’s a difficult power relationship between the candidate and the recommender and it could be their boss. Right. And a candidate may struggle to give feedback that could be taken as critical to the recommender. So in that case, it seemed to work better that Heidi gave the feedback directly. I do think that it’s an interesting question, but maybe there is more of a risk that recommenders use Chat GPT than candidates, because candidates are obviously much more invested in the process than the recommenders. Right. Because it’s their admission to business school that is on the line and they know that it’s an intensive process and they have to dedicate a lot of time to it. But recommenders normally, by their very nature, are incredibly busy people with a lot of demands and they probably writing that recommendation in their spare time, and so it may be more tempting for them than even for the candidate to take a shortcut, if that seems like an option. So I wouldn’t be surprised if schools start to spot some dotty recommendation letters.

[00:17:51.090] – John

Coming in is really solid, because recommenders, let’s face it, they often leave things at the last minute. They think a rec letter is an easy thing to do and it can for many people, even though they may say yes, be something of a nuisance. So I could very well see people turning to generative AI to dash one out and just get it over and done with. So you might be right there where a candidate is invested in the process. And a candidate might even be afraid that admissions Office might be using some sort of software to detect Chat GPT or other AI products. And if they’re caught with it, they’re immediately going to have an application that gets spiked. So they may be actually less inclined to use Chat GPT than the recommender. How about that? Wow. All right, well, there you go. Two lessons here. One, know that you will be surprised when you go to business school and get into a great MBA program. And know that your recommenders should never use Chat GPT, especially when the product refers to you as a he and a she in the same. And Caroline. Thank you.

[00:19:07.150] – John

This is John Byrne with Poets and Quants. You’ve been listening to Business Casual. Our weekly podcast.

The Economist Dis on MBAs: Is the Degree Still Worth It?
Business School News | General | P&Q Podcast "Business Casual"
What Most Surprised MBA Students In Business School
ApplicantLab |
September 29, 2023

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] John Byrne: Hello, everyone. This is John Byrne with Poets& Quants. We have a really cool story to relate to you today. Me and my co host, Maria Wich-Vila and Caroline Diarte Edwards, are going to talk about the most disruptive MBA startups of the year. Every year, Poets& Quants invites the top schools all over the world.

To submit nominations for ventures with what we call the greatest potential for lasting beyond business school. So what we want to do is acknowledge MBAs who have launched really cool companies that are paving the way for the future. And this year, we have 41 student startups that we have honored in what is the sixth annual list of the most disruptive MBA startups.

And they come from all over. We got nominations from Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, MIT, INSEAD, London Business School and others. And, uh, I think what the basic list shows is that entrepreneurship is alive and well in business schools are a lot of great ideas. A lot of them are powered by AI. No surprise there.

They involve every imaginable industry. There’s a good number of these in the business of health as well as in beverages, consumer products and things like that. And I wonder, Caroline, if you have a favorite among this group, and I bet you it’s going to be an INSEAD startup.

[00:01:30] Caroline Diarte Edwards: Yeah, I have a few favorites, and definitely INSEAD is on my list, although I’m going to start with a London Business School one.

Um, and there were a few international ones that I thought were really interesting. I like the story from kiro, which is a fintech startup, coming out of London Business School, founded by LBS student Alicia Chowdhury. she secured 200, 000 in funding, and it’s the first AI powered financial coach, which is designed to help,

Gen Zed, as I would say, or Gen Z, as you would say. and young adults, get personalized financial guidance. So that’s something that jumped out to me, given that I now have a young adult among my children and trying to teach her financial literacy is somewhat challenging, so I can definitely see the need for that. And she tells a really interesting story about how financial literacy was something that she had struggled with and realized that there was a gap in the market, right? There’s a lot of great financial information out there, but it’s not necessarily tailored and communicated well to young people. And she ended up working in finance before business school.

she doesn’t have a tech background, but she did. Teach herself the fundamentals of AI and machine learning, and she assembled a technical team to work with her. And I thought it was really interesting as well, how she leveraged the LBS resources. And I think a lot of the stories that you have in this article really tell a great deal about the power of business school experience in helping people launch a company. And of course, there’s often a lot of criticism about the value of going to business school. And if you want to be an entrepreneur, there’s no point going to business school. And I think that this article really debunks that. so for example, this is how she benefited from LBS.

She was a finalist in the LBS Launchpad. She completed the LBS Entrepreneurship Summer School. She joined the LBS Incubator. She led the LBS Entrepreneurship Club. And then, of course, she benefited greatly from a lot of the courses that she took at LBS. I got a lot of great advice from LBS faculty, as well as the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Capital.

I think a wonderful story about how a student had a vision of something that she wanted to do and saw a gap in the market and really went after it, leveraging that wonderful ecosystem that you get at business school and she’s got a VC group backing her. So that’s one of her investors and Aviva Group is a huge financial company.

I think it sounds very promising. So congratulations to Alicia.

[00:04:11] John Byrne: Yeah, you’re right. One of the things that comes through here is the support that students get from the schools. And their classmates and their professors, it’s a real terrific thing.

As you said before, a lot of people say, hey, if you want to start a company, instead of paying a school tuition, just use that as your seed capital and you’re going to be better off, but the truth is that a business school you’re surrounded by really smart colleagues and people who’ve been through this before and mentorship from professors and seed money from the many venture challenges that occur at different schools can make a very big difference and shift the odds in your favor of success. Maria, do you have a favorite?

[00:04:53] Maria Wich-Vila: Yeah, my favorite.

startup was Cell Mind, which is out of the Johns Hopkins business school. This one really hit home for me personally. What they are trying to do is they are trying to maximize access to a type of cancer therapy called “Car T”. And I have indirectly lived this. We have a good friend from business school who has been battling cancer for several years, and last year there was a complete rollercoaster around  this car T therapy. And I apologize to any doctors if I’m butchering this. But basically, my understanding is that if it works for you, it essentially can cure your cancer or cause it to go into remission. But, if for whatever reason, if your body is too weak at the time that you receive it, it can actually kill you. Unfortunately, it can cause something called a cytokine storm, I think.

And so, the decision of whether to go or no go is obviously one that is very fraught with a lot of, emotion and risk. And so, we actually had a friend who last year was approved for CAR T. But then in the weeks right before they were going to give it to her, they then disapproved her because she had gotten weaker … it was this whole roller coaster.

And so any sort of startup that is doing something to figure out, which patients actually are likely to do well with this therapy? Can we expand our doctors being perhaps understandably a little too cautious because they’re concerned about the negative side effects, perhaps being worse than the.than the cancer itself.

Anything that can help expand access to this is why they were number one in my book. And as you guys were just talking about. Because Johns Hopkins is one of the best, if not the best medical school in the world, this is a great example of a business school student or group of business school students leveraging the resources and the expertise at that overarching institution, trying to find ways to commercialize it, and just make the most of those resources.

I really loved that story.

[00:06:40] John Byrne: Yeah, and that’s what you increasingly find. it’s not a bunch of MBA students doing their thing. It’s reaching out and having these really entrepreneurial collisions with students from other departments, other schools where they have deep expertise in computer science or engineering or medicine or law or public policy or environmental sciences teaming up with MBAs to launch things. which really give them extra power.

One of my favorites comes out of, uh, Chicago Booth. And, it’s sort

a really interesting idea where, first off, it’s called Encore, and it’s a marketplace for high end collectibles. Now, you think, how could that really be a cool thing? What they’ve done is they’ve combined TikTok style videos. With the traditional eBay auction format, to create a really engaging experience for people who want to shop for these collectibles. But what’scool is the MBA who’s behind this. His name is Will Enema, at first thought he shouldn’t apply to Chicago Booth, new venture challenge, because he had already raised a pre seed round and thought that Encore might not be good for that traditional, giving money out kind of program. But, he entered it after he was urged to by a number of professors at Booth. The idea placed second in the competition. He won $350, 000 to help launch his company, but here’s the real kicker:

Within two weeks of that competition, a venture capitalist who participated in the judging agreed to lead their seed round. So it just shows you how, incredible things can happen, in the environment of a business school.

Now, Caroline, I’m sure you have others that you really thought were really cool. Name another one.

[00:08:29] Caroline Diarte Edwards: Yeah. So my second one is of course, an INSEAD startup and it’s called faceflow. ai. And I really liked this one because it’s an AI powered skincare platform. So again, relating it to my personal experience of having four daughters who are constantly clamoring for the. latest ridiculous beauty product that they’ve seen on Instagram.

I think this is a fantastic idea.

What it does is it actually gives you scientifically based product recommendations, right? So they have for the two founders, Daniel Patel and Simon Zhang, Patel had previously founded a marketplace for international skincare brands. So he knew the skin, the beauty industry, skincare products.

And then his partner, Simon, is an experienced AI engineer, and so they’ve combined their expertise to bring AI to skincare recommendations. And it’s underway. I checked out their website. I have signed up already. The product is not yet available, but I’m looking forward to when it comes through.

And they won the INSEAD French competition and, talk about how they’ve benefited from the very entrepreneurial environment at INSEAD,

I really enjoyed reading about their experience and I’m excited to learn more about their products.

[00:09:49] John Byrne: Yeah, absolutely. And now

Maria, I know there are 2 Harvard startups on the list from your alma mater. did you pick 1 of them as your 2nd choice?

[00:10:00] Maria Wich-Vila: It was not necessarily my 2nd choice, but there was 1 called Vulcan Investments. This is a little bit out of my, Wheelhouse. So I think we all tend to gravitate towards something we know or something we have experience with, but it’s trying to figure out how to solve the rare earth magnet problem. Right now. A lot of these rare earth materials that are powering modern technologies are coming from China, which poses several challenges, especially should relations with that country not go well in the future. So this is trying to solve for that issue. I think that was a really interesting one.

But actually, my second choice was one that again, I have indirect personal experience with, albeit in a different way. It was called Yogger. What they’re trying to do is, I believe it’s taking your phone to watch you as you perform exercise then give you feedback on, your gait, your form, et cetera.

And this was really interesting to me, not so much because of exercise, although I wish it were (ha ha) (though: side note, my dad was a track and cross country coach for decades and I totally forgot about that in the moment, but I should have mentioned that!!! D’oh!!!), but who knows, maybe this will motivate me to jog more (har har har).

In the interview with the entrepreneur. he talked about how you can do things like a gait analysis right now, in other words, tracking how your legs move when you are running or jogging, and then providing an analysis, but these sorts of things are very difficult to get to. It’s expensive. You need to be set up with, they put a whole bunch of sensors on all of your joints. and I have a friend who has a child with cerebral palsy and they’ve had to do these, go to actually Hopkins (this is not a Hopkins based startup, it’s from Tuck, Dartmouth Tuck), but they’ve (my friends, I mean) had to go to Hopkins and actually have these, it’s a day long thing to set up your child with the different sensors. And so the thought of using something as simple as an iPhone app, perhaps, machine learning, et cetera. all that good stuff to analyze your gait and make this accessible. It’s not only I think useful for casual exercise enthusiasts, but I think it could also have ramifications and uses even in other areas. For example, kids with special needs. So I was really excited about this one.

John Byrne:

MIT Sloan has three startups on our list this year.

That’s more than any other school. And one of the really cool ones is called Vertical Horizons. This is an incredibly ambitious startup. It’s all about commercializing high density, high efficiency power supplies for AI computing. Essentially, it’s a semiconductor company. and you might not think that an MBA would be involved in actually creating a semiconductor company.

But it’s founded by Cynthia Allen, an MBA in the class of 2024 at Sloan and one of her professors. So it’s a good example of where university develop some sort of new technology or new insights. And then needs to commercialize it. And in this case, you have an MBA coming along, who has a great interest in this, and is helping to commercialize it. The actual idea of it has 4 million in research grant funding to develop the technology. So there’s a good amount of money behind this very ambitious idea.

I think, stepping away from the individual startups, what I think this says about, the ability of people who want to go to business school and use that experience as an incubator to launch a startup, it’s alive and well, it’s a great way to launch a company because it does take a lot of risk off the table and these startups, these 41 startups that these different business schools really give you a great insight into what different people are doing.

Caroline, I’m sure, and Maria as well, you probably meet a number of people in your practices, that want to use an MBA to do a startup. Do you think they’re ready to take full advantage of these experiences?

Caroline Diarte Edwards:

Yeah, I certainly hear from a lot of candidates who are hoping to launch a venture. Some of them want to do it as soon as they graduate and for some of them it’s more of a longer term ambition because of course financing can be a challenge.

Especially if you’ve invested a lot in taking on a lot of debt with your MBA and a lot of the themes that I hear, candidates are interested in come through in your article as well. So it’s noticeable that there are quite a few startups in your list that address, healthcare issues as Maria highlighted, also education, environmental challenges. And I think those are three areas that I hear a lot about from candidates in terms of where they would really like to have an impact.

And I think, something else that is noticeable is that a lot of them are really trying to have a positive impact on the world as well. They’re really trying to address,  fundamental societal challenges, many of them, which I think is wonderful from health care, mental health issues, pollution. et cetera. There’s a lot of really interesting, and important issues that are being addressed by some of these startups. and, I think it’s wonderful that we have this young generation, going through business school who are ready tackle these challenges that that they have inherited from our generation.

John Byrne:

Yeah. And these ideas are going way beyond, some of the earlier ideas of five, 10 years ago, hookup apps and match.com, uh, wannabes and things like that. some of these ideas are remarkably sophisticated and elegant as well.

Maria, last words.

Maria Wich-Vila:

I think that this article not only is very optimistic in terms of these amazing ideas that are out there, but I also like that it shows that there are so many different paths to entrepreneurship through the MBA that first of all, number one, the NBA is valuable for entrepreneurship, which, as you noted a second ago, is often a stereotype that that exists that, oh, I don’t need this. but also there are so many different MBA programs out there. Look at the range of schools that are creating these amazing startups. Look at the fact, one of the, Stanford ones, the student was not an MBA student. They were an MSx student.

Sometimes I’ll meet people who are a little bit on the older side who are applying and they’re like, I have to do the two year program and I’m like, no, you can… you just need to get your foot in the door and even if it’s that MSxs program, it’s one year versus two years. For example, you can, you just need to get to a university that’s going to teach you the things you need and give you the resources and then you can take it from there.

So I, the other thing I really appreciate about this article is showing the breadth of programs and the breadth of students and the breadth of backgrounds of these students who are creating incredible new companies.

[00:16:37] John Byrne: Yeah, check it out. It’s called most disruptive MBA startups of 2025, and it’s on the Poets& Quants website.

If you are interested in doing a startup, I think you’ll learn a lot about how business school can help you make it a reality. This is John Byrne with Poets& Quants. You’ve been listening to Business Casual, our weekly podcast.

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