How often do you sit in a class and think to yourself – now THIS is what I came to business school for!!?? Well, last night it happened to me folks! And that too on a Monday!
I have posted often (and perhaps ad nauseam) about how excited I was to take an Entrepreneurship class this fall. Pity my poor husband who has to put up with all my chatter in real life (thank goodness he never reads my blog!).
I am talking, of course, about the Fall 2011 Monday night Entrepreneurship course! Usually professors sort of ease students into the course by first talking a little about the syllabus, the work load, the grading, etc, etc. Especially if it is the first day of classes after a long and sleepy summer break! Not so for Professors Zafar, Fuchs and Star!
Right at the start of class, we were told that all of us were in a conference room of a VC firm and an entrepreneur was just about to pitch us – talk about vertical takeoff! In walked the entrepreneur and off he went with his pitch. Students and professors interrupted with questions and clarifications which he was able to answer with ease and confidence.
Done with the pitch and the good professors moved us to a back room at the same VC firm and asked us to figure out whether we would consider funding the company, what due diligence we would need, what questions we did not ask, whether we liked the “team”, etc, etc. It was absolutely riveting and it took us a little time to realize that at the end of the next 15 weeks, it would be us on the other side of the table, doing the pitch, fielding questions and getting a thumbs up or down! Whew!
And once the roller coaster started, there was no stopping it. The professors even managed to make the syllabus and the schedule of assignments and other logistical details seem exciting!
If the first class was so cool … I can only imagine what the next few weeks are going to be like… the good news is that I am now 17th on the wait list, the bad news is that only single digit wait listers get in generally. But this course with these professors is worth waiting a semester or even two semesters for.
Finally, to explain the title of this post – this awesome, awesome course is to be taught by 3 Haas Professors along with 6 mentors from various industries who are a mix of entrepreneurs and angel investors! What fabulous resources to have!
P.S. The number of exclamation points in this post are high and very rightly so!
