Best Place to Launch Your Business – Babson & Boston
Leaving family business in India, I started my Babson MBA last Fall with the objective of launching my own business soon. Turns out within two months I’m pitching an Alternate Reality Gaming idea with an American (my co-founder Joseph Draschil) at the Babson Big Idea Competition. Joseph had been thinking on this idea for sometime and had even tested it with few of his friends before the MBA. At the end of the competition, Spy Games (our startup) stood runners up with a ticket to Startup Chile and $40000!
An even bigger opportunity fell in our lap when we were invited to pitch Spy Games concept to the Sharks – Mark Cuban and Daymond John. Pitching the idea to these billionaires is an experience that will take another post. But for now, it was an awesome experience that helped us gain valuable insights in our own business and network with some great individuals. Soon after, we realized that this is something that both Joseph and I are really passionate about and gave up the idea of looking for internships and focusing on launching this business. After all we are at the best entrepreneurship school in the world and one of the best Startup cities @ Boston.
Getting out of Babson this Spring has been an eye opener for me. There are so many fantastic opportunities and free resources for startups that it’s unbelievable. I’ve been attending startup events almost everyday at Microsoft NERD center, Harvard i-Lab, Venture Cafe, etc. Particularly relevant and mightily useful was Lean Startup Machine, a three workshop organized by Trevor Owens. We were able to talk to a bunch of people (our target market) and come up with a landing page that helped us identify our next steps – the prototype. Sounds easy but it’s by far the most difficult thing to do to go up and talk to strangers asking what they think about your idea and will they pay for it.
While all this was going on, Spy Games was invited by Babson to conduct a game around Babson’s history, culture and entrepreneurial spirit on Founder’s Day this April. We have been working on various tests to refine this product that will give people a chance to learn about Babson in a fun and interactive way.
Looking back at the last few months (though they feel like yesterday) this is what I think about Babson and Boston – Babson MBA is as good as it gets for anyone looking to launch a business and Babson will help you with resources and network if you’re willing to take the risk and just ask!
Boston, on the other hand, is a great place to live and network with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the US. Resources are plenty such as MassChallenge, Microsoft NERD center, Startup Boston, Venture Cafe, Lean Startup Circle, and many more!
Darshan Doshi
MBA 2013
Twitter : @Doshi_Darshan