「多くの学校がEntrepreneurshipを売りにしてるけど、それぞれどう違うんだろう？」
そんな受験生の疑問に応えるべく、今回はZLIのManaging DirectorであるSarikaにインタビューをしました。
ZLIの正式名称は、Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studiesであり、RossのEntrepreneurshipに関するprogramを主導している部門の一つです。Rossの売りであるWorlverine Fundをはじめとした学生主体のファンドやDare to dreamなどはZLIが主催しています。
Sarikaには、ZLIの他校と比較した時の違いや強みを中心に話してもらいました。インタビューの最後にZLIのキーポイントをまとめてくれたので、そこを抜粋した動画も用意したので、興味がある方はぜひ。
では、本題に入りましょう。
、、、あ、最初に自己紹介忘れてました。Class of 2019 のShoです。
1.Profile of the interviewee
Name : Sarika Gupta
Title : Managing Director, Zell Lurie Institute
Details : http://zli.umich.edu/person/sarika-gupta
インタビュー動画(ダイジェスト版)
Interview with Sarika, Managing Director of ZLI (Digest Version)
2.Interview
(Note: Sarika(S), Sho(O))
Why did you join ZLI?
O: So, as a start I want to know a bit more about you. Why did you decide to join ZLI? I know you're a graduate from Michigan and also you started some businesses. What made you come back?
S: I am a double graduate of the University of Michigan. I did my undergraduate in mechanical engineering here and then worked for about 6 years, and then came back to Ross for my MBA. While I was here I got bit by the entrepreneurial bug and decided that's the direction I wanted to go in. I connected with a few people who were launching a board game company and took that on full time after I graduated. I was the only full time employee working on that business.
O: Oh, you were the only one?
S: Yeah, so I helped take it from just an idea to designing it, getting it manufactured, and getting it into stores. Then we licensed it to someone with experience in the industry to continue selling it. It was an amazing experience for me but also very exhausting working on your own start up for a couple of years.
I was interested in startup work and my background is in the gaming space so I ended up working for an online gaming startup for another year and then really it was just a matter of my husband and I were thinking about moving. We were in Pittsburgh at the time and looking for the next opportunity and I saw this position and for me it was a great way to stay in the entrepreneurial space. And I'm always interested in learning. So learning more about entrepreneurship while also helping students explore starting businesses. It was a great combination of everything I was looking for in one position.
Can you share a memorable moment at ZLI?
O: I see. Can you share a memorable moment, a time when you feel that you glad you made the decision to join ZLI?
S: In my first year here, I worked very closely with a student team all year to help them develop their business. They were pretty early in the process in the fall, but they ended up going through most of our programs. They won our Michigan business challenge. That was about six years ago and today they're still operating their business out in L.A. and doing very well. They received an investment from Kobe Bryant's investment fund. And so for me it's just watching that whole journey. Working with them while they were here, and then just following them for the last five, six years and seeing their journey has been amazing for me.
What makes ZLI different/unique?
O: Wow, that sure is an amazing experience! So the next question is what do you think makes ZLI different or unique compared to other similar institution or programs of other business schools from your perspective?
S: I think ZLI is unique for a few reasons. First is the breadth and depth of the programs we offer. While most schools I think excel in helping students start businesses or teaching them how to be an investor, we have programs that fall across all spectrums. The way message our programs right now is learn, start, invest.
In the learn bucket are programs like our internships where you can get experience working at a startup, attend office hours, attend our startup workshops and really explore entrepreneurship, without actually starting a business. What we hear from students are they're not quite ready to launch a business. They're here as an MBA student switching careers and so they want to go work in a new industry. Maybe five years from now they want to start a business. So they are really just exploring and trying to learn. The “start” programs are for those students who do come to us and say, I know I want to start a business while I'm here. We have some amazing programs to help them do that. If you come to me in September of your first year and say "I want to be in a position where I don't have to recruit, I want to launch my business when I graduate", we're going to come up with a two year plan to help you get to that point. We will give you funding and mentorship and guidance to help you do that.
O: Can you elaborate more of that since I'm interested in starting my business?
S: Sure. Some of our programs that you can get involved in right away your first year are Dare to Dream and the Michigan Business Challenge, which really help you take from idea all the way to an operational business. We go through the process of helping you validate the idea, determining what your market is, what your financials look like, and really getting you to that point of launch. In your second year as a graduating student, if you commit to doing this after you graduate and you tell us you're not recruiting, which is rare but it happens, we have a program called Zell Entrepreneurs. The the whole point of that program is to help you launch your business when you graduate. So we give you funding and we give you mentorship from our executive director, Stewart Thornhill, who manages that program. You get to pitch in front of Sam Zell, our donor. You pitch in front of our advisory board and so we really put you into a position to succeed with your venture in that program.
O: Oh wow. I've never heard of the ZLI Entrepreneurs.
S: Yeah, it's a very small program because very few students are going to come to us and say “I'm not gonna recruit. This is what I'm going to do." and then we dedicate a lot of our time and resources to helping those students.
O: And is that only for the current students or is it possible for Alumni to apply for it?
S: No, but another area where I think we're different from other schools, is our Alumni programs. Ever since I started, I would get calls everyday from Alumni saying “now I want to start a business, can you help?”. And so we now developed a series of programs for Alumni. So as soon as you graduate, you'll be eligible. We do an Alumni summit every June, where we bring together about 40 Alumni entrepreneurs from around the country that are working on a business. And to give them some coaching, give them some guidance. Connect them with other entrepreneurs and a lot of networking and so that's been really successful. Alumni can also take advantage of office hours with our Entrepreneurs in Residence.
What makes us very different, I think from other schools is, we have four entrepreneurs in residence on our team. You’ve met with two of them Jim Price and Mike Johnson and then we have two others Josh Botkin and Rashmi Menon. And all four of them have real world experience like starting and selling businesses, working in investments, working in product management. They are open for office hours with current students and Alumni to really help them develop their business and that is a resource I don't think I've seen at many other schools.
O: Yeah, they were really helpful for me. Jim Price was the faculty advisor when I did my team project for Tauber. And he was really friendly and helpful. So when I came up this idea with starting my new business, I contacted him. I was also surprised because what I was thinking of is launching a new product in the medical device industry.
S: And then he connected you with Mike Johnson?
O: Yeah. He was the person I was looking for. In terms of medical device specific questions.
S: The last bucket, the invest bucket, is with our student led funds. So for students who are interested in learning how to think and act like an investor, they can participate in a fund. We now have 5 student led-funds which is the most of any school, where students invest real money into real start-ups and so they get experience sourcing deals and reading business plans. Doing the due diligence, negotiating with entrepreneurs, writing term sheets, closing deals. So it's great hands-on experience in that area as well.
O: Okay. By the way, what do you look into for applicants for those funds?
S: That is really difficult to answer. Very few of those students who are on the fund actually go into a VC type role. So we're looking for people of all different backgrounds and experiences. We don't want forty people who have finance experience. It’s nice to have a technical background or if you have background in education or you know like sciences or healthcare. So we’re just looking for different kind of experiences.
What is your future vision of ZLI?
O: Next question is for overall of the ZLI institute. What are your future visions?
S: In the last five years we've grown quite a bit, we've tripled in size so we've increased our programing quite a bit and we started doing this to learn start invest model. So for me I kind of want to see where those things go? It's really hard to keep growing year after year and adding new programs. I think we're always looking at if there aren't any gaps in our programming and that usually depends on students who come to us and say I'm really interested in this and I haven't really seen that here. Can you offer it? And then we'll explore and talk to other students. A couple of new initiatives that have come up this year that we will develop more next year - One is call ZLI Labs for technologies. We have a lot of programs that help students think through the business side of things, but we haven't spent as much time helping them actually develop an MVP or prototype or platform that they can go test with customers or show to investors. So with this program, we are hiring a design interns and software development interns and pairing them with our students teams to help them build their product before they graduate.
O: Oh wow, that's fascinating.
S: Yes, so we're very excited about that so we will develop that a lot more this summer and into next year. Another area that seems to be very popular that we want do a little bit more is again those students who you know they want go work at a company after they graduate. Which is very normal, but they want do what we call a side hustle. So they want to start a business on the side and then once it becomes successful, they might quit their jobs. We've seen a lot of interest in this area. We had one session on side hustle yesterday I believe. So I think we’re going to explore that a little bit more and try and do a little bit more next year with that.
O: Okay. I want to ask more about collaboration with other school. You mentioned about the collaboration with school design. Are there collaborations with other schools?
S: Yes, absolutely. So and again I think this is one of our biggest advantages. When you come to Michigan Ross, you're coming to the University of Michigan. And the University of Michigan, which many people don't know, has nineteen schools and colleges and many of them are top ten programs. For example, the med school, law school, public policy, public health, education. All of them are top programs in the country and what that helps us do is it helps us help other students form interdisciplinary teams. So you don't necessarily want five business students on one team, but it's nice if you can bring in an engineer or a med student or design student and so I think that's an advantage of coming to Ross, is that you have that network as well.
We also collaborate with the other programs. We work with the the School of Information Design Clinic and the entrepreneurship clinic at the Law School. And you know if a student comes to us with an interest in med devices or healthcare. Then we can connect them with someone at the med school, So that's, so it really gives us opportunities to partner with the different schools and help our students in that way.
O: Mmm, I'm just amazed by you know the variety of services.
S: University of Michigan is a very big school. And that's one of the advantages. It does feel like it's very big and scattered, but If you come here and you say I know I want an engineer on my team, you know we'll try and help you find someone, but it's also up to you to go to the engineering campus and try and meet students. But it's possible.
What kind of services are available for Alumni's?
O: Okay. Talking about all these services, I’m curious of what services are available for alumni’s. I know that advisors appointments which I am doing with Jim and Mike is available after graduation. I feel like there’s a lot more that’s available and I want to leverage those opportunities. How do I get to find the services are available to alumni’s?
S: So I think at this stage because you're about to graduate, what we would do is add you to our Alumni list and that way you will get our Alumni newsletter and you can find out about all the programs you can participate in through that. So we would get you involved that way because you know there still is a difference between student and Alumni and so we do have separate programs, but that would get you into those programs, which would be I think very helpful.
What kind of services are available for current students?
O: Great. Back to the services available for the students, what kind of services are available for students who already know a business idea when they come here?
S: So that would be again what I would recommend is when you first come here to start school in September. Make an appointment with us and we will help you create a two year plan. So in the first year I would recommend Dare to Dream and Michigan Business Challenge and then the second year and we actually have a summer program where the students can apply to work on their own company over the summer and we will pay a stipend for them to do that and then they get our advice weekly as well.
O: And this kind of overlaps with the previous question, but what about for a student that comes up with his or her idea after coming to Ross?
S: As soon as you come up with an idea and want talk about it, you can come to us because we have programs that run all year round. So if you, you know comfortable seeing me in January, you can still do Dare to Dream and then you know we can still work with you in the summer. The hardest part for us is when students come their second year in the winter semester.
O: Like me right?
S: Haha, Yeah. Because you now, we're wrapping up a lot of our programs. But then we can get you into the Alumni program, so it's fine.
What do you want to emphasize about ZLI?
O: So this will be my last question. Are there things you want to emphasize about ZLI?
S: I think I'd like to summarize some of the key points I made earlier. What sets us apart is we will really meet you where you are at in your entrepreneurial journey. So, if you're just interested in exploring entrepreneurship, we have programs for that. If you want to launch a business, we have programs for that. If you want to learn how to invest in a business, we have programs for that.
So, we can really help you across the whole spectrum. As I mentioned, we have four entrepreneurs in residence, which I think is an amazing resource that some people don't even know about.
And then as I mentioned, when you choose Michigan Ross, you're choosing University of Michigan, and because it's such a strong school in many different programs, it really helps you as an entrepreneur to meet strong teammates or meet with industry experts or really leverage resources from across campus.
O: Okay. I see. Okay. Thank you so much.
S: You’re welcome. Go Blue!
