This week, I had the chance to interview Jack Mara, a recent MBA Graduate from the University of Virginia (Darden) Coming into business school, Jack knew he wanted to try something entrepreneurial. He also was motivated to find a way to help his classmates. He was able to combine those two things and create 10Thoughts – a content recommendation resource for MBAs and highly motivated professionals.
During our podcast, I talked to Jack about:
- His background, and why he chose Darden
- His idea for 10Thoughts, and how it turned from an idea to a business
- The highlights and challenges of trying build 10Thoughts while in a demanding MBA program
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Show Notes
- 1:05 – Brief introduction on Jack
- 1:51 – Why Jack chose Darden
- 4:24 – Jack talks about his experience at Darden with the Prison Program
- 6:00 – Jack talks about his idea for 10 Thoughts
- 15:56 – Jack talks about the process and timeline for the formulation of 10 Thoughts
- 19:16 – Jack makes the case for why MBA’s can benefit from utilizing 10 Thoughts
- 21:18 – Jack shares his thoughts on the future for 10Thoughts
- 25:25 – Jack talks about why he’s interested in entrepreneurship
- 26:25 – Jack talks about balancing spending time on 10 Thoughts and managing his other responsibilities
- 29:35 – Jack talks about some of the challenge he’s faced with 10 Thoughts
- 33:26 – Jack shares some advice for future MBA students
- 36:46 – Jack gives advice to those thinking of pursuing a venture in business school
Quotes
On how to deal and manage failure: “For every 10 good ideas I try, 1-2 of them work. You fail all the time, and I’ve learned to get used to that”
On handling the beginning of an MBA program: “Sometimes you hear that business school it’s really fun and really chill. When you get to busy school, the first 3-4 months will be the busiest 3-4 months of your life. Understand that your first few months will be a grind, it’s not the business school lure that you hear about.”
On the herd mentality and how to avoid it: “There’s a big herd mentality in your first year of business school. A lot of people follow a herd into a career path that their classmates are excited about or doing. Really make sure you challenge your career hypotheses to make sure what you’re following is for you.”
On starting a venture in business school: “Business school is the safest place to experiment with a venture. You have bright classmates to try things and bounce ideas off of. You can try things and not get mad or you aren’t going to lose your customers.”
If you have an idea, just do it, see what happens and go for it.