Founding vs Foundation
Why I’m Not Launching a Venture from the GSB
Last summer I was awarded a slot in the Impact Design Immersion Fellowship (IDIF) cohort, an opportunity for those selected to explore founding a social impact organization. My focus: community-school partnerships to provide K-12 urban classrooms with the resources and flexibility to accommodate a broader set of identities and learning needs. A niche topic for sure, but I was (still am) passionate about it, and relished even the most challenging moments of this experience.
Yet, at the end of the summer — after dozens of user interviews, expert meetings, a detailed landscape audit, and initial prototype exploration — I felt stuck.
Not stuck in the sense that I did not know what to do next. That check-list was clear: recruit founding team members, put together a pilot for the prototype, figure out how to fund it, and strap in as things become real. That list is full of buzzwords, but is standard practice on a campus where a coffee chat can turn into a founding team in 15 minutes flat. No, even with a clear path ahead, I had this nagging feeling about taking that next step.
As our IDIF cohort got together in the first weeks back to school, chatting about how to transition their summer work into one of the entrepreneurial classes or carve out dedicated time for exciting pre-launch initiatives, I felt the biggest sense of impostor syndrome since setting foot on this campus. My classmates seemed at ease when talking about their ventures as real — inevitabilities and not just possibilities. I did not feel that.
The doubt set in.
This was what I came to the GSB for, right?
If I don’t do this now, when surrounded by a support system and bolstered by the shine of a fresh GSB degree, will I ever?
Am I wasting Stanford’s investment in me, an investment someone else could have, should have, received?
Is this hesitancy about the idea, or a realization that I just don’t have what it takes?
I stewed with these questions. Let them eat away at me while I made minimal progress on what I started with my IDIF. But somewhere in that spiral, I found myself looking back at what I worked on this summer, from a new perspective.
What energized me most during the IDIF process was uncovering idiosyncrasies in the public school system, nuances of the teaching experience, the spectrum of policies and structures that make it so hard to talk about, let alone solve, issues of public education. I learned the most when my assumptions were proven wrong, when an interview went sideways.
Even though entrepreneurial instincts pushed me to streamline, to craft an elegant solution from a complicated problem, I was thriving in the mess of it all.
I had checked the box on the number of Startup Garage I interviews. I should have already iterated through a handful of MVPs according to Lean Launchpad. These are processes that help launch numerous Stanford ventures each year. And no, not all of them see the light of day in the form of a Series A or large foundation grant. But I will not argue that the process does not work. It does. Just not for me.
In realizing where my strengths and enjoyment lay in the entrepreneurial process, I came to peace with the fact that I am still on that journey, just not on the same timeline.
The “move fast and break things” mentality can work in many industries. It speaks to a desire to create change, now, that many of us at the GSB have. It has and will continue to spur some incredible, thoughtfully developed ventures. But it should not be taken as a blanket approach to entrepreneurship in all areas or lauded without considering its implications.
Innovation in public education is full of well-intended programs and start-ups that showed initial promise but ultimately did not deliver on their intention to improve student experience or outcomes. Initiatives that are not deeply rooted in and led by the communities they intend to serve end up oversimplifying or overlooking key parts of the lived experience of students, teachers, and other community members. Bold ideas do not hold up when faced with the complex realities of human lives. Some students are left out. Teachers get saddled with more responsibility.
This should not stop people and organizations, including me, from attempting change. Caution should not become paralysis, but the weight of this work should be properly valued. My prior experience with education nonprofits, time spent in the MA-MBA program, and this IDIF experience cemented that for me and will inform every decision I make about my career moving forward.
My IDIF was a success. It did not spawn a social venture, but it deepened my network in the part of education I am pivoting into, my appreciation for the complexity of the work ahead, and my commitment to uncovering more of the mess until I find the right angle to approach educational entrepreneurship in a way I can feel proud of. I’m committed to working in or alongside a school system post-GSB to help myself get there. For now, I applaud my IDIF cohort and all the other GSB founders who are pushing forward on their entrepreneurial paths, and hope you’ll applaud mine as well.
I’m not (yet) a founder, but I’ve built a strong foundation
