MBA: After one year

Around September of last year I was ending my Executive MBA path. Now, almost one year from that day has passed and it’s time to sum up how things have been going. This year I’ve been very busy. I’ve been trying to develop the activities I started during my MBA, which consist in mainly two areas: the GSoM Entrepreneurship Club and my personal startup.

Let’s start with the Entrepreneurship Club. Together with other alumni and students, backed up by MIP (now POLIMI Graduate School of Management), we started on some intense work to build up the first club at the school. The club aspired to become a reference point for sharing experiences and contacts and exchanging value in all its forms related to the field of entrepreneurship among alumni, students, and external partners who want to begin their entrepreneur challenge or have already started it. Of course, for entrepreneurship we included startups, small/medium companies, family businesses, etc, as well as potential investors. It was a long task involving networking to create a community of people with similar interests but, at the same time, different. Every business has its peculiarities, hence it is not at all simple to convoy them into a fluid group. Distance added an additional challenge to face. It therefore started with business networking, coffee chats, and inspirational meetings to enable the community’s members to start getting to know each other. We then added thematic workshops on emerging topics raised by the club’s participants, such as crowdfunding, company evaluation, NFTs & blockchain, the metaverse, and a bridge to Silicon Valley. In these events, we wanted to touch on practical cases from companies which had already gone to market in order to convey real feelings and the concrete issues they had encountered.

I would say that, as of now, the initial intention of the club has been achieved (and it needs to keep alive to sustain its value). The connections that have been created and the network we have built up are incredible! It’s an amazing and potentially hugely powerful network that POLIMI GSoM can reveal to everyone who participates actively in these events and activities!

Let’s move on the second topic of today’s chat — the startup. This is my personal startup (and, naturally, not only mine). It was a product development, so it was clear from the beginning that it would take a long time before it reached market readiness, and it will still take a lot more effort. It’s a true test of your own determination that drains your energy and requires you to make sacrifices, make strong decisions, bear failures and be able to afford to restart by pivoting multiple times. Here, two aspects we studied became very clear and I think come before anything else: your team and your network. My sincere recommendation to anyone who wants to start their own business is to surround yourself with trusted and reliable people, rather than simply competent ones. It’s a fundamental rule, but essential especially on unexplored paths. The ability to network is vital for the progression of an idea as well. A good idea, but not in the right context and without the necessary leverage that a good business network can provide, will have severe hurdles to overcome.

Network, network, network: it’s a constant in today’s discourse. And yet I would still like to reiterate it. We live a really connected world, where networking cannot be underestimated. It will open doors and build bridges. It could make the difference between a successful outcome or just a beautiful dream.

And, obviously, let’s get in touch on LinkedIn!

If you interested in hearing more about me or the club, please feel free to reach out to me or register directly here