The MIT Global Entrepreneur’s Bootcamp - Afterword
Or, the time five people from five continents pitched a sex toy at MIT (read Part 1)
As my teachers at school would have told you, I’ve never been much of a note-taker. This is perhaps something of an evolutionary oversight given that I have a terrible memory, the combination resulting in me generally never really being sure what happened any more than two or three days ago. My wife would tell you that two days is probably generous.
But on this occasion, and I’m still unsure of exactly why, I decided that the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp was important enough to take notes about every day. In retrospect, I think it was in part my way of making up to Timo Hilhorst, the man who refused to leave me alone until I applied to the bootcamp, that I was accepted and he wasn’t.
But regardless of why, I took rough notes every day and wrote them up at night in the hotel. Those notes then got sent out as a daily missive to four or five people back in the UK that wanted a serial insight into the bootcamp. They were incomplete and became increasingly less detailed and more deranged as the week continued, but I’m grateful now that I decided to take them.
It was only at the end of the bootcamp that I even considered writing them up properly. In a conversation with Erdin Beshimov (I think we were at the bar on the final night but I didn’t make a note, so I can’t remember), it came to light that I’d been keeping notes and he asked if I would be interested in writing them up for him and the bootcampers. Deep in my imposter syndrome, surrounded by so many incredible people, I felt that this was at least something that I could give back to them - my thanks and gratitude of being included in something so special, repaid in part by a record of our shared experience, and a peek behind the chaos and outrageous fun our team had.
The article for each day has taken three or four hours to write, but the investment has been worth it. Not only do I have a memory of the week but also, thanks to Timo and Erdin, I’ve been able to create this tribute to the people that make the bootcamp possible. The experience has taught me that keeping a diary, especially during momentous times, is of real value compared to the cost. And because you never know what times might be momentous, it’s something you too might like to start practicing.
Memories of a bootcamp
In a conversation with Andrew Ngui, the paternal overlord of the Bootcamp, I answered a question he asked me about what makes the bootcamp so life changing,
“Because we had to work hard to get there. Because of the people we met and the bonds we formed. Because of the amazing amount of knowledge transfer we had. Because we failed regularly in front of the mentors as they brutalised us to get us to perform better. Because it felt like a whole semester in a week. Because of this enormous sense of achievement at the end of the course. Because real life now feels pedestrian by comparison. It feels like watching 1960s Panavision, where for a week I was looking at the world in 4K”
The biggest question, of course, is what the next chapter is.
Perhaps, for me, the most startling thing about the bootcamp is the impact that we had. To an extent I was expecting the bonding and dedication of the team, because I’ve seen similarly amazing things happen with small teams in the past. What really surprised me though was how much we opened people up to talk to us openly about this taboo we had addressed. In the bar on the last night, the Symmetry team were consistently asked two things; were we going to build it, and where could people pre-order. An incredible number of people approached us to tell us that they would be prospective buyers, and spoke openly and uninhibitedly about their relationships; all because five people were brave enough to force an issue into the spotlight. If we can do this with sex in long distance relationships, what are you brave enough to change?
On my final day with Jose and Elisha, we spent the afternoon together, enjoying each other’s company and wandering around Boston. As we relaxed near the SoWa open market, I told them the same thing that I’ll tell you now - we’ll either make Symmetry, or make sure that someone else does. As they told us at the beginning of the bootcamp, the idea doesn’t belong to us, but we’d love it to take form. So if you can build it, or want to help this team build it, get in touch.
What next for the bootcamp?
The bootcamp is already spawning its own community and follow-on events. Bootcampers, like Class 3’s Sungwon Yang, have created their own events - in Sungwon’s case the awesome ‘MIT Fail Nights’, a support group for entrepreneurial failures which allows attendees to fast-track their success by avoiding the failures that are described by others in the group.
Sally Coldrick and Rachel Hentsch have been transformed into the #MITSisters, successfully funding their Indiegogo campaign, starting InfinityFoundry and creating an online community to support the future scaling of the bootcamp network.
Other bootcampers have now completed three extra days of teacher training to take the syllabus out to a much wider audience of students. Mike McCausland and Maria Sommer, to name just two, are creating and running their own 24 Steps education programmes in locations as diverse as Colorado Springs and Copenhagen. The bootcamp is now a movement, and it’s changing lives in real communities, not just those of the people lucky enough to make it to Cambridge.
If the bootcamp has sounded inspiring, exciting or fun in these articles, the words are a pale imitation of the real thing. If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, the 24 Steps, or the chance of taking part in the campus experience, I can do no more than recommend that you start taking the MIT 15390x courses on EdX (for free) and reading Bill Aulet’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship book. It will cost the same as lunch in a burger joint and it might just change your life.
It changed mine.
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This entire series of articles is dedicated to the staff, mentors and bootcampers that made Class 4 happen. I don’t want to name names because I’ll miss someone important. If you are reading this, and you were there in any capacity: thank you.
