What I Learned At Cornell Tech
When I was considering MBA programs, I thought I was too old to apply. Although I had thought about going back to school for eight years, I hadn’t found the right fit. It seemed difficult to start school and move to a new city at a time when my life felt fragmented and the program itself was still evolving, but Cornell Tech attracted me because I could complete the entire degree in one year, and it focused on two of my passions: tech and entrepreneurship.
When I moved to Ithaca a little over a year ago to start Cornell Tech, I was mentally and physically exhausted. I had just recovered from shingles, a painful breakup, and my grandmother’s unexpected death. I had hired someone to run LearnLaunch, the edtech company I had devoted every waking moment to building for two and a half years. I was scared that I was more excited about the thought of starting over than about the pursuit of knowledge.
My world shifted from building a diverse community, digital marketing plan, and sustainable organization to immersing myself in all the subjects I had avoided as an undergrad: finance, economics, and accounting, to name a few. I thought the program would be a breeze after startup life, but I was wrong. I had always been a good student, but this time I struggled not only to keep up but also to complete all the assignments since we started new classes every six weeks. I had always chosen things that were difficult for me, and this was no exception.
Luckily, my 41 classmates, all part of the second MBA class, or “V2” as we call it, made the struggle worth it. They were also risk takers, and I was inspired by their optimism, devotion to mastering difficult material, passion for startups, and willingness to share their diverse experiences. There were long days spent debating the pros and cons of the latest technologies and what companies we wanted to start. There were long nights bonding over histograms, core team projects, finance quizzes, and beer at Rulloff’s, a local bar in Ithaca.
At the end of the summer, we all moved to New York City, and our focus shifted from traditional business classes to building companies. Classes were mostly project based, and I was humbled to learn from practitioners, such as Greg Pass (former CTO of Twitter), Aaron Holiday (General Partner at 645 Ventures), and Lutz Finger (Data Scientist Director at LinkedIn), as well as others who came to speak at Conversations in the Studio, a weekly series in which prominent guest speakers engaged in closed door discussions about everything from clean water to logo design.
As an entrepreneur, it was easy to stay intensely focused on building my company, and I sometimes lost sight of the need for unstructured play. My classmates reminded me over and over again about the importance of having fun, from my Ithaca roommate Kate, who is the queen of lounging to my New York City roommate Derek, who had the ability to squeeze in piano practice and crafternoons while remaining eternally optimistic despite our enormous workload. Some of my favorite memories include watching a movie on the projector in our classroom after hours, coffee breaks at Intelligentsia, and spontaneous drinking excursions in Chelsea.
For me, the highlight of the program was working with engineers on projects. I befriended Brandon and Alap, two students who are experts in computer vision, artists, and big thinkers. They were always pushing boundaries to explore unconventional ideas and inspired me to think beyond the confines of the world we currently live in and focus on building the future of tomorrow. Along the way, we challenged one another’s ideas while learning how to speak a common language in order to build something great. We ended up co-founding OneBook, a single physical book on which you can read any content using a mixed reality device like a HoloLens. While others pushed back about the viability of the idea, we built a working product that should be ready for the consumer market by the end of the year.
I went to business school to learn the frameworks behind what I had been teaching myself on the job for the past 10 years, not to build a personal network as many do. However, reflecting back on my time at Cornell Tech, the people, diversity of opinions, and my classmates’ willingness to question everything were what made the experience worth doing. I look forward to watching the program grow in the coming years as the campus shifts to Roosevelt Island and to seeing what amazing products my classmates create next.
