Posts from Tom Eisenmann

Back To School

I've always loved Rodney Dangerfield's Back To School. I laugh out loud just thinking about that film. This week I'm doing my own version of Back To School.

Monday night I did my annual talk with InSITE, the Columbia/NYU joint program that puts graduate students (mostly law school and business school students) into pro bono consulting gigs with startups. Apparently this is the fifth year in a row that I've met with them. The way we do the InSITE talk is I meet with the entire group (there are something like 40 to 50 members) in a classroom. I talk for a half an hour then take questions for half an hour. Then we go around the corner to a pub and hang out for a couple hours. It's the only event I do all year that involves pitchers of beer. And for that reason alone, its one of my favorites.

Then yesterday I went up to Cambridge Massachusetts to visit Tom Eisenmann's class at Harvard Business School. This is the second year in a row I've met with his class. I was interviewed by Jeff Bussgang for 90 minutes. I have to tell you that being interviewed by a colleague and/or peer is so much better. The questions were interesting, insightful, and super relevant. Here's a Storify summary of the session. I refute the word legendary in the title. The rest is spot on.


And finally, I'm headed down to Princeton this morning to talk to JP Singh's computer science class. Again, this is the second year in a row I've met with JP's class. My stated goal at Princeton this morning will be to convince these students to start their careers in NYC's tech community instead of some other startup hub around the world. I'll talk for 30 minutes and then take questions.

You might ask why I'm turning into Thornton Mellon this week. Yes, I do like being on college campuses. The energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm is infectious. But more than that, this is talent development. We want to see more students choosing a career in entrepreneurship, more bright people working in startups, and more bright people working in our portfolio.  This year already, I've talked at Columbia twice, Brooklyn Poly once, and now this back to back to back Ivy League week. And more is coming. Talent development is that important to our business and our portfolio.

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MBA Tuesday

Yesterday I went up to Harvard Business School and participated in a lunch and a class. My friend Jeff Bussgang arranged the trip and we were hosted by HBS Professor Tom Eisenmann. Jeff and I sat in front of Tom's class Launching Technology Ventures and talked for almost 2 hours on topics like Lean Startup Methodology, Pivoting, doing a startup vs joining a startup, and more.

I can tell you this, the HBS I visited is not the HBS I used to know. The students I had lunch with had all built a startup and exited before going to HBS. The knowledge and passion for startups evident in Tom's class was off the charts. If business school is turning into entrepreneur school, then that's a damn good thing.

Anyway, Jeff took notes from the day and posted them on his blog. Every time I talk in front of a large group and take questions, some things come out of my mouth that are new thoughts that I've not expressed before. Between Jeff's post and the tweet stream from the class, I was able to review the talk and a few thoughts struck me as good enough to share here.

– There is a very high correlation between lean startup approach and the top performing companies in our two funds.

– Lean startup methology is great, but it is really a lean startup culture you want.

– Lean startup is a machine, garbage in will give you garbage out.

– Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions should be data driven.

– Hunches come from being a power user of the products in your category and from having a long standing obsession about the problem you are solving.

– Domain expertise to the point of obsession is highly correlated with the most successful entrepeneurs in our portfolio.

– Ideas that most people derided as ridiculous have produced the best outcomes. Don't do the obvious thing.

– Monetization should be native and improve the experience for users.

– If you have an idea that you can't get out of your head, do a startup. Otherwise join a startup.

– If you are not technical, get product experience. Get your hands dirty and work with engineers.

– Take risks when you get out of business school. If you don't take risks, you won't find yourself in an interesting job and career.

Finally, I'd like to say that Tom encouraged his class to tweet during class. I think that is fantastic. The tweet stream is like publicly available course notes for the class we did yesterday. Every time I talk to a class full of students I am going to call out a hashtag at the start of class and encourage tweeting.

I'm very encouraged with what is going on at HBS and some of the other top business schools I've visited this year. Entrepreneurship is alive and well and a growing theme of business education. As it should be.



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