Amber Milos

I had the privilege of speaking with a woman named Amber Milos, cofounder of a company called Did It with her older brother. It is an application that is in its early stages, so it is open to the public and is still getting user feedback and making changes. Did It allows you to take and share photos, and attaches information (such as location, what they are doing, context of photos, map, activities nearby) to your photo automatically. When these are shared with friends, it becomes a natural recommendation. They have reached out to some famous people such as DJ’s and chefs to see what they are doing and what they would recommend.

Amber’s route to creating this company and becoming an entrepreneur was a little bit like a maze. She assumed right out of college that she wanted to go to a top business school, but most of these schools required work experience. She spent a few years working for a corporate company (that helped put her through business school) and after business school realized that something was missing, but she didn’t quite know what it was. As a result, she questioned whether she was supposed to be in the business world. Amber went back to graduate school once again, this time for public policy. She loved public policy but also missed business. During the summer between her 1^st and 2^nd year of graduate school, she had the time to begin an idea she had been thinking about for over two years.

Amber’s favorite part of entrepreneurship was that she gets to determine her own fate, and create her own path. She realized the problem was that she was on the “corporate path” and she didn’t really want to be. She believes that business school helped her entrepreneurship career by teaching finance, accounting, operations, and legal. Although business school could help with these, she also believes that business school can’t teach how to build a network of resources. In business school, everybody is an amateur still, but when creating a startup, resources are the most important part of being successful (whether it is money, people, ideas, etc).

My favorite piece of advice that Amber gave me was that most entrepreneurs assume that they need to be the smartest out of everybody on their team. In reality, it is ideal to feel like the dumbest out of the group. Being surrounded by smart people who support the idea, and are willing to work hard and do their part is the key to creating a successful team, product, and company.

Thank you so much Amber for taking the time to talk to me.

Overview #3

This week, the project I was most focused on was the stickers.

The theme of the week seemed to be advertisement. We pulled off a strategic (unintentional, but proved very affective) plan for lining up our advertisement, in order to have the best crowd and preparation for our big selling on Thursday outside the cafeteria during both lunches.

Monday: The first thing we did was get on portraits of BHS. This is a very popular Facebook page that almost everyone from the high school who has a Facebook follows. This made it easy to reach out and tell everyone in all four grades  about the stickers and where to get them.

Tuesday: The second thing we did was create flyers, mass print them, and put one in the box for each homeroom in the school for announcements. This was read to every single student who is in a homeroom, in all four grades. This expanded our selling's to the lower grades, which is something we have been struggling with when we just walk around to sell them.

Wednesday: The third thing we did, was reach out to the super fans, and the man in charge of the athletics Instagram for the school. Athletes always have huge school pride, and using this to reach out to all of those students, plus whoever else might be following him was hugely helpful. This also presented us with a new customer, Alex the trainer of the school, who is interested in buying a few stickers from us.

We learned that through all this proportional effort, the number of products sold can be significantly higher than if we had just showed up in front of the cafeteria on Thursday. We were also able to direct people who didn't have money to buy from the school store on a different day, creating profit for both us and the school.

Jules Pieri

Jules works for a very successful advertising platform. She takes products that she thinks will be big in the future, and puts them on her platform. She has advertised things like fitbit, soda stream, and many many more big brands that we all know of today, and gives these little companies the jump-start they need to become well known in the real world.

Jules spoke towards the benefits of business school, and although at the time she went to school it was geared more towards the corporate route for business, it helped her in many ways. One of the ways was that it expander her sense of possibility, and what she could personally do and accomplish on her own. We then spoke more in depth on whether business school helps your network, or if it just introduces you to people who don’t have enough experience to be beneficial to a startup. Jules responded with saying that people her age (around 55) aren’t represented as much in startups, so she doesn’t have as many resources. But she said that 25% of venture capitalists went to Harvard Business School, which is a huge jump on financial and advocacy resources.

Jules believes that the most difficult aspects of being an entrepreneur are: being able to deal with ambiguity and anxiety. As for the ambiguity, it’s not making something better or coming in with a list each day, it is creativity every day. Coming in and being ready to make stuff up and shape your path is a difficult thing to do. For the anxiety aspect, the fear of dying, performance pressure, and having your friends and family think you’re crazy causes huge stress and anxiety about having your company be successful. The other difficult thing was fighting the facts, only 2.7 of entrepreneurs are women, and defying almost definite odds is a struggle in itself.

Thank you for taking the time to let me interview you, Jules!

Jennifer Lum

This week I interviewed a woman named Jennifer Lum. Jennifer co-founded Adelphic, a company specializing in mobile advertising. They have a platform that allows marketers and agencies that manage their mobile advertising campaigns. She works as a Chief Strategy Officer and Cofounder of the company.

Jennifer and I spoke a lot about how important it is to have a partner that adds to your skill set. She believes that working with someone who has almost no overlapping skills to bring to the table is the most beneficial, because it spreads the largest wingspan of skill sets presented for the company. For example, Jennifer works more with business matters, while her cofounder is very educated in technology and was able to come up with the design for the technology. She and her cofounder have worked together for a while, as well as a few other employees in her company.

Another big topic had to do with what type of education would be most beneficial to becoming an entrepreneur. Jennifer believes that education is invaluable, regardless of what your occupation will be. She also believes that there are certain skills entrepreneurs need that can be learned such as communication, leadership, sales, and technical knowledge (for technology companies). Jennifer also spoke about how business school can be beneficial depending on the person. It definitely helps develop networks, exposure to successful entrepreneurs who may come in for guest lectures, and assist in finding amazing internship opportunities affiliated with the school.

Finally, I asked what she thought was the most difficult aspect of being an entrepreneur was. Jennifer said that entrepreneurs need to have a high tolerance for pain. It can be lonely, and there can be a lot of rejection. After dealing with the pain, persistence needs to still be pulled together in order to get others to buy into your vision.

Overview #2

This week, my nonprofit group met with the people from Hebrew Senior Life that we are now working with. We talked about our picture project, and the different uses the photographs would have for the company. A few things came up in conversation that I hadn’t thought of before, that I thought were very interesting.

As my partner and I started discussing which days of the week we both had available, we were slowed down. Our advisors explained to us that they thought some time should be taken, before we begin, to introduce the idea to the seniors. They felt that giving them the date we would be coming isn’t good enough; they want to give time for them to warm up to the idea. Therefore, we have decided to not begin taking pictures until February.

We also talked about setting aside a time to physically meet, and talk to the seniors before we go in with a camera. The concept of a coffee hour was presented, and this will likely be happening some time in January.

During the meeting, I raised the question of what to do if a senior didn’t want to have their picture taken. They had several points in answering this. The first was that we need to make it clear that the pictures are for the use of the company only. It would be on an ID card, file for medical purposes, and in a small scrapbook for seniors to look through. The second was to mention that if they don’t want to be in the scrapbook, they don’t need to be. It is completely up to them, but the pictures will be used for health purposes otherwise. The third was to steer clear of the term, “internet.” Elderly people don’t know much about how it works, but they have heard of identity theft and bad things happening on the computer. Therefore, we plan to leave that out.

The meeting we had was helpful for planning, but also became educational by raising topics and issues I may not have realized even existed! I’m excited to meet the seniors and start working hands-on.

Sasha Hoffman

This week I interviewed a woman named Sasha Hoffman. She, her partner, and their soon to be addition to the group, have recently started working on a concept that will help with the inability to find parking in heavily populated areas, such as downtown Boston. They developed this idea from personal issues: getting many parking tickets and being late for meetings due to a lack of free spaces.

We talked a little bit about mistakes that entrepreneurs often make in their startups. Sasha had two main topics when it came to this. The first is that entrepreneurs will sometimes hire too quickly, and fire too slowly. They do this in order to get their company out the door, but in the end will make the business grow before its ready to. If someone is the wrong fit for the company, they are just wasting the money (a very important thing that requires a lot of attention in the beginning stages). The other really difficult thing for people starting a business, is that business becomes their baby. They have an idea or concept in mind, and they want to follow through and do it just the way they want to. It is sometimes hard to let go of the reigns, and let other people do their jobs. That one person can't do everything, though they will probably want to.

I then asked if Sasha had any advice for young people aspiring to be entrepreneurs. She first spoke to the subject of knowing your partners very well. She described it as a marriage, they are your other half. Sasha met her partner at an event where they were both nominated for an award. They have known each other for years, have worked through many different business ideas, and are now moving forward with this one.
She shared the advice not to begin a startup right out of college. She thinks working at other startups to learn the ropes and witness mistakes is the best way to figure out how to move forward with your own idea. It's important to work for smart people, in areas that interest you. It is beneficial to you and the people who will eventually work for you if you have a general understanding of all the different types of jobs people will have in your startup, and the best way to do this is to diversify your work in preparation for this. Without necessarily working in each department or becoming an expert, paying attention to things happening in someone else's startup is a great way to learn.
The most important piece of advice Sasha felt passionate about, was not starting a company until you're ready to. Everybody wants to be the 24 year old billionaire and become famous because of the amount of success at such a young age, but the reason these 24 year olds get so famous, is because they don't come around very often. Most people who start companies are in their thirties, after working in several different places and doing extensive planning, and building their networks.

I would like to thank Sasha Hoffman for taking the time to talk with me and answering my questions.

Overview #1

Despite the numerous different types of projects, companies, and people that I have already gotten the privilege of working with in this class, the early stages of work I am doing with BUILD and OFC have already affected and taught me the most. 

Walking in to this project, I knew a few things. I knew that things related to public schools are difficult to change. I knew that having a large number of connections would lead to a more convincing argument. I knew that these were two companies that could improve and build off of each other if they agreed to jump in to this project with me. All I needed to do was develop these connections, and present my idea.

Christina and I approached the presentation to Ms. Bayer fairly confidently. Little did we know, we would leave the presentation feeling disappointed and as though we did something wrong. We learned that even the greatest and most perfect of plans in the world, can be shut down if not presented in the correct way, by the correct people. We came to realize that two academically inclined girls from the main stream at the high school talking about ways to improve a smaller program at the same school doesn't come off as helping, like we were trying to do. 

A few saves were made during, and directly after the presentation by Christina and myself. We made sure to clarify that the students BUILD works with are very extreme versions of what would be dealt with in the high school. We also suggested that Ms. Bayer speak directly with the executive director of BUILD in order to establish more of a personal connection with someone who is higher up in the program.

Overall, I think coming to this realization of the emotional aspect being just as (if not more) important as the idea itself was a huge learning experience. Regardless, I am proud of the work that went in to that presentation and look forward to digging myself out of the situation I am now in.