Entrepreneurs' thread

[Shredder]

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I would like to know if there is anyone else out there who is interested, either now or in the future. Speak up

 

[Haybrant]

There is this class I plan to take at Stanford in a couple years that pairs grad students up in groups of four: 1 or 2 engineers, 1 or 2 med students, and 1 MBA student. Im pretty interested in medical/biotech devises so I plan to use this course to get more involved if I can go somewhere with my ideas. I would recommend going to a med school where other grad programs are represented for easier collaboration if you have similar entrepreneurship aspirations

 

[crazy_cavalier]

Ya lots of schools have the MD/MBA option. I wonder if UPenn has that? That'd be pretty crazy good.

 

[Shredder]

Ya lots of schools have the MD/MBA option. I wonder if UPenn has that? That'd be pretty crazy good.

penn does have one. most good schools do. stanford doesnt...i was sad about that. at least they dont have an official md/mba joint program. you can do them independently but that looks tricky. im definitely shooting for that combo. its hard to get most ppl to appreciate it, typically theyre bewildered and taken aback, even adcoms.

entrepreneurship sounds sweet though...im going to start looking into it in the coming year. its tough as a college student though with limited resources, connections, knowledge, and credentials.

 

[DrBowtie]

What courses/experiences do you think are minimum to apply for MD/MBA programs? I have a serious interest, but as of now haven't had the ability to fit in any b classes. I do have two years before applying but I am on a tight schedule for my major.
Edit: I have micro and marco from AP now that I think of it.

 

[Shredder]

What courses/experiences do you think are minimum to apply for MD/MBA programs? I have a serious interest, but as of now haven't had the ability to fit in any b classes. I do have two years before applying but I am on a tight schedule for my major.
Edit: I have micro and marco from AP now that I think of it.

hmm thats a bummer, ive had room to fit in a business minor. maybe if you have any space to squeeze something in during a summer? or one idea im very intrigued by is getting experience with an HMO, but im not sure how to get started on that. it might be more important to just focus on the MD part since thats more competitive. im not even planning on applying for the mba portion until after im accepted somewhere, its too much trouble juggling both at once, and you have to take the gmat too. so you may be able to pick up some experience after you get accepted to med schools if you do that.

theres discussion on this on the MD/MBA forum, but people there tend to be older and the forum activity level is low. mward04, law2doc, and flindophile seem to know a lot.

 

[DrBowtie]

Yeah I am a physics/bio double major so it consumes a lot of schedule. A minor at my school is 27 hours so a commitment like that I think is unrealistic. Should I go for the intro accounting sequence, intermediate econ sequence, or intro finance?

 

[Premedtomed]

I would like to know if there is anyone else out there who is interested, either now or in the future. Speak up

👍 👍 👍

What's up bud!

 

[Premedtomed]

I majored in Finance btw

 

[Shredder]

I majored in Finance btw

hmm did you get a lot of beef for that from premed peers, advisors, and schools? its inspiring to see that there are some people out there with similar interests, ill have to remember.

i wouldnt think too much about it brettbatchelor, perhaps do what seems appealing to you and things should fall into place. i think, or at least i hope that b schools wont be expecting quite as much out of us as premeds/med students, and we will be contributing some diversity to them. our numbers are significantly higher too.

 

[Premedtomed]

Yeah , from one guy I did. But I knew what I was doing and so didn't care about his opinion.

 

[DrBowtie]

Yeah, I'm not trying to worry too bad. I will just try to dominate the GMAT.

 

[CanuckRazorback]

👍 👍 👍

You better believe it! That was one of my concentrations for my MBA (Entrepreneurship and Strategic Alliances)

If you guys want to get some great exposure to entrepreneurship, you should inquire at your school about business plan competitions. I competed in 3 this year and not only do you get great experience and make awesome connections, you can also win some dough. My team won a total of $17,000, so we all made a little over $5,600 each. There are undergrad and grad competitions. Most team members are MBAs, but teams are always looking for people in medicine/engineering/sciences to add depth to the team. Actually, the winning team at a competition I went to was from Ohio State and the team leader was a newly minted MD (he must have been in the MD/MBA program).

Another way to get into it is to have a great product/idea/etc. and recruit a couple MBAs. If you have an issued patent or a patent pending technology, you will do very well in competitions. If you get started early in the fall, you can compete pretty much from November to April.

 

[Haybrant]

im definitely shooting for that combo. its hard to get most ppl to appreciate it, typically theyre bewildered and taken aback, even adcoms.
.

do you guys think one should be talking about such aspirations at interviews? I would say it shouldnt really be a focus or be brought up at all; no time to defend my point, which i think is more or less obvious anyway, but what do you guys think.

 

[CanuckRazorback]

do you guys think one should be talking about such aspirations at interviews? I would say it shouldnt really be a focus or be brought up at all; no time to defend my point, which i think is more or less obvious anyway, but what do you guys think.

Well, it depends how you approach it. I didn't have a choice since I was already in the MBA program so I got the question every time. I received positive feedback once I explained why I was doing it and what I plan to do with it. One of my interviewers was so happy with my motivation I thought she was going to hug me.

Many people think that you are going after an MD/MBA to get rich. The truth is that if you want to get rich, get an MBA period. It'll take you a year or two, you'll save tons of money, and you'll end up making more money than physicians. It is a touchy subject with adcoms, but if you show creativity, strong evidence backing your MD/MBA aspiration, and plans for the future, it will play in your favor. I read a lot of articles about health policy, HC administration, insurance inefficiencies. When it came up in interviews, I was prepared.

 

[Shredder]

do you guys think one should be talking about such aspirations at interviews? I would say it shouldnt really be a focus or be brought up at all; no time to defend my point, which i think is more or less obvious anyway, but what do you guys think.

i think if you put some kind of medical twist on it it could be a strength and set one apart from other applicants. its different if you mention getting involved in businesses completely independent from medicine, that would assuredly not be well received. im personally going to be forced to mention it since i have no volunteering at all, which seems to be pretty imperative but i have disregarded. like razorback said, preparation is probably the key since it is going out on a limb and could be a disaster if botched.

 

[GhungrooGuy]

It also depends on whether or not you are applying to joint programs simultaneously (rarer) or once you've already been accepted to med school (much more common). At one school that doesn't have a particular MD-MBA program, i mentioned the potential of looking into getting an MBA and my interviewer definitely reacted negatively. at other schools, a big part of the presentation they give you on interview day is about the multiple-degree resources that they *want* you to take advantage of (ex/ Penn, Duke). Regardless of what second-degree you're thinking about, I think what's most important is WHY you want to pursue it -- what will it give you that "just" an MD won't....

Also, I would definitely echo the advice to pursue what you are interested in and not just a finance/'business' track, depending on the schools you are interested. A lot of business schools are a lot less about "business" and more about "management" which is really applicable in a broad spectrum of career fields (obviously including medicine)...

 

[notdeadyet]

What courses/experiences do you think are minimum to apply for MD/MBA programs? I have a serious interest, but as of now haven't had the ability to fit in any b classes. I do have two years before applying but I am on a tight schedule for my major.
Edit: I have micro and marco from AP now that I think of it.

Don't sweat it. Most of the MBAs I work with came from majors other than business. I was accepted to two MBA programs with zero business/finance courses done.

Talk to the adcons and you'll find that MBA programs are following the path of law schools where many are advocating majors OTHER than business. Most reputable b-schools start pretty much from ground zero.

For instance, Harvard's business school advises prospective college-student applicants to not major in business necessarily, but in whatever interests you (though it helps to take courses with an analytical and quantitative aspect, anything from finance to mathematics to sociology).

The two big pieces of advice for preparing to apply for b-school, universally, are:
Do well on the GMAT
Demonstrate leadership ability

Don't sweat the business major unless it flips your switch anyway. You'd be hard pressed to find top business schools that advise students to major in business. Just as you won't find law schools that advise students to major in pre-law.

 

[DrBowtie]

👍 Thanks for the info

I should be good on those fronts, I just was a bit worried that they wouldn't think I was a serious applicant without business classes and experience i.e. med applicant without clinical work.

 

[Shredder]

for any of you aspiring hot shots out there, i just found this disney game that i started playing a second ago. consider giving it a try, and dont make fun of me! it seems like a glorified lemonade stand, what a classic!

http://disney.go.com/hotshot/

 

[DrBowtie]

Let's translate the interest in this thread and infuse some life into the MD/MBA forum.

 

[Shredder]

Let's translate the interest in this thread and infuse some life into the MD/MBA forum.

ive tried, but its not likely to happen. theres a big difference in mentality between the two forums. i encourage you to see if you can do it though. i think anyone who has enough interest in it would go there on his own, you and i being some of them.

 

[CanuckRazorback]

for any of you aspiring hot shots out there, i just found this disney game that i started playing a second ago. consider giving it a try, and dont make fun of me! it seems like a glorified lemonade stand, what a classic!

http://disney.go.com/hotshot/

Shredder, I am having major flashbacks... I think the worse parts of MBA programs are the marketing simulations. We did Markstrat and Marketplace. IT SUCKS!

 

[CanuckRazorback]

Yeah, I'm not trying to worry too bad. I will just try to dominate the GMAT.

After taking the MCAT, the GMAT is a breeze. I have some GMAT books I am trying to get rid of if you're interested. I really don't want to move them so PM away if you want them.

Also, the last "business" class I had before starting my MBA program was high school economics so don't even worry about taking business classes. My school made me take a finance prep course, which was a total waste of time and money since we pretty much started from scratch when the real program started.

 

[LabMonster]

Medical schools seem to be behind the trends that shape their students' futures.

For instance, it is only recently (relatively speaking) that first years get patient contact, and learning how to take a history and assess is something you need a strong foundation in.

In parallel, where are the business/marketing classes in medical school that teach how to build a successful practice or market a new product? We are smart people who can figure this stuff out, but a stronger foundation may allow fewer missteps in the future.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

I recommend that you read these books in my thread in the ophthalmology forum:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=194496

Also read this article:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2005-01-09-peabody_x.htm

You don't have to go to business school to be an entrepreneur. After your ideas take off, then hire a CEO to run the company. The two guys who developed Google, for instance, were computer science PhD students at Stanford (http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html). They hired MBAs after their company was up and running. Skilled MBAs are great, but many have difficulty thinking outside the box. To be an entrepreneur, you have to think outside the box.

Ray Kroc, the found of the billion dollar McDonalds' fast food industry, did not invent the hamburger. He found two brothers and purchased their name, repackaged it, and sold it to the rest of the World. Kroc is a genius in marketing. In addition, Kroc admits that his primary business is not burgers. Kroc is in the real estate business. McDonalds owns more land than the catholic church, and has Park Avenue plots in every major city from Paris to New York.


Work and go to school to learn, not to get a degree and paycheck. Keep your mind open to new ideas. Gain new skills. With more experience and being a "jack of all trades", your mind and eyes will see things others cannot. Entrepreneurs are B students. They know a little about everything. Good luck!