Has an MBA helped with my startup?

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Background

I completed an MBA at Wharton, graduating in 2020.

You can’t go 15 minutes talking to me without me mentioning it - the very first thing that happens when you matriculate at an ivy league school is that they force you to swear a blood oath that you’ll bring up your pedigree incessantly.

On a serious note, my MBA was a fantastic experience - I spent two years in Philadelphia investing in myself.

People ask me all the time whether my MBA was worth it and whether I use it in my day-to-day as an entrepreneur.

TLDR: It depends and sort of. Sorry, but read the full post -

Academically

To the uninitiated, it would seem the primary purpose of gaining an MBA is to learn about business.

I learned quite a bit during my MBA - I double majored in Finance and Entrepreneurship. Wharton has a robust offering of courses taught by a world-class faculty. Each course offers a level of depth that you’d expect in a master’s level class.

The utility of these course varied significantly, however.

On one end of the spectrum, Legal Aspects of Entrepreneurship and Finance of Venture Capital were two classes that have proven very helpful. The professors were insightful, motivating, and genuinely interested in us.

On the other end, Behavioral Finance was utterly useless - far too academic and in no way applicable to being an entrepreneur. I chose to take that course because of a personal interest, and did not expect it to be useful, so no big deal.

Sadly, there were courses directly applicable and desperately needed as an entrepreneur that were not useful - I had high hopes for Entrepreneurial Marketing, and the course fell short.

Here’s the criminal part -

I graduated from Wharton without understanding anything about sales - how does a sales process work? How do I construct a funnel? I lacked tactical and strategic understanding of how to run a tight process.

More holistically, an MBA can teach academic frameworks, but doesn’t teach the actual doing.

I think my academic disappointment comes from this vantage point:

Strategizing and understanding business dynamics is easy, but execution is hard.

An MBA teaches you how to strategize, not how to do.

Learning about business and startups is best accomplished by doing - nobody can strategize you to a growing business, you have to execute consistently well and get lucky over time.

Academics are only part of the MBA, however, so don’t break out the pitchforks yet.

Network

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how to consistently get lucky.

You should read that post - it’s better than this one IMHO, but here we are, so let me get to the point. A great network that’s working to help you is worth its weight in gold. There is no better place to build a network than in business school.

If you went to business school and only gained the network of friends in your class, that would be incredible.

You would have hundreds of people who will go on to lead, start, and invest in tremendous businesses.

People like to do deals and invest in people they know - there’s a baseline level of trust required to part with your money as a customer or investor. Having classmates in positions of power and influence who are rooting for your success is huge.

You don’t only get to network with your class.

You also gain access to tens or hundreds of thousands of alumni as well. I’ve had calls and chatted with people who have absolutely zero connection to me, apart from the fact that we attended the same MBA program.

That’s an incredibly powerful reach that is difficult to replicate.

When I need to meet a decision maker who is in a position of power, I can use the Wharton alumni network to get me closer.

This is a tremendous advantage that cannot be overstated.

Credentialing

The last category worth mentioning is credentialing.

A quick human psychology lesson - we associate things with one another.

When you read the word, “lemon” you associate sour, limes, orange, etc.

When you read the word, “Wharton MBA”, you associate smart, driven, hardworking, finance bro, not good enough for Harvard, etc.

Credentialing makes people take you more seriously - they assume some baseline level of competence and intelligence that may or may not be present.

I’ve written a lot about imposter syndrome in the past - the TLDR is that I often feel like a fraud telling people about my startups.

Despite the fact that I repeatedly say, “I don’t know sh*t about anything,” people assume I know what I’m doing by virtue of my Wharton MBA and the fact that I am brazen enough to write this substack.

So thank you to my Wharton MBA for helping people take me seriously.

What I DIDN’T learn in an MBA program

Sales.

I didn’t learn sales and I’m salty about it.

In startups, sales is everything. It’s the alpha and the omega - your business starts with your first sale and ends with you selling your company or going public (aka selling a portion on the public markets).

You sell your vision and team when you raise money from investors.

You sell your product and services when you close your first client.

You sell the prospect of future wealth when you hire critical talent.

It’s all sales and I didn’t learn any of it in business school.

So is an MBA worth it?

IMHO, absolutely.

The two years I spent in business school were unbelievably fun and helped launch me onto the path I am on today.

I made great friends, built a network, and now get to pretend to know what I’m doing by writing this substack. I’d call that a pretty big win!

Did you go to business school? Regret going or regret not going? Let me know your thoughts by replying directly to this email!

Best,
Brendan