After starting her career at Mckinsey in London, Annabel (Kiki) Morgan moved to New York to attend Columbia Business School (Class of 2019) where, to her very own surprise, her journey to entrepreneurship began. In our interview with Annabel, she shared her entrepreneurship journey, and how she is using the various programs and resources for students at Columbia to launch her startup called tryll.
MBASchoooled: What did you do prior to business school, and why did you choose to pursue an MBA?
Prior to Business School I was at McKinsey in the London office. I joined the Firm as a generalist and explored numerous industries and functions to figure out what I enjoyed most and where I would have liked to specialise. After a couple of years, I thought that Business School would have been a great opportunity to take a step back, reflect on all that I had learned and continue exploring to figure out what I wanted my next chapter to look like, so I decided to apply!
MBASchooled:You decided to start a company in business school. What made you do this, and how did that process go?
Before Columbia Business School, I had never ever thought of myself as an entrepreneur. This soon changed when I started Graduate School – I immersed myself into the rather contagious entrepreneurial vibe of both the School and the City and found myself attending more and more entrepreneurial related events. The pivotal moment was when one day, I asked myself whether I should pursue this idea – now tryll – that I’d had for a few years and I remember saying to myself … “why not?”
That’s how the tryll journey began and since it’s been an exciting roller coaster. I have learned and am learning all the time, it’s definitely hard and challenging but I absolutely love it and am glad I made the decision to give it a go.
MBASchooled: Tell us about your company
It’s called tryll and it’s an experience based recommendation platform that allows our wonderful tryllers to track, share experiences and access their friends’ – think of an Instagram meets Yelp, but just centered around you and your friends.
I started working on it full time this Summer and after our first mini-pilot with Columbia Business School, we’re now very close to having our new version that we will soon be beta-testing! Check us out, see what we’re up to and sign-up for the beta :–)
MBASchooled:Many business schools have resources for entrepreneurs and students who are interested in starting companies. What resources did you take advantage of that Columbia provided?
1) The Lang Centre – an entrepreneurial hub at the School that provides excellent resources to student founders e.g., mentorship, accelerator programs to name a few
2) The Columbia Entrepreneurship Organisation – a student led club that connects students with the entrepreneurial world
3) Entrepreneurship classes – there are several that are specifically dedicated to founders
MBASchooled: What were some of the ways your classes were helpful to you in starting your company?
They were very practical. As an example, I took a class called “Launch you start-up” and throughout the whole semester we worked towards developing a thorough business plan for the company – from idea evaluation, to customer discovery, to financial modeling etc.- that we then presented to the class.
Not only did my thinking on tryll evolve, but it was also really interesting to hear about other ventures that my classmates were working on!
MBASchooled: What are some of the challenges of starting your own company in business school?
The main challenge is managing time well. There is a lot going on at Business School, from classes, course-work, social events, club responsibilities etc. And so, this makes it even more important to prioritise as much as possible. It’s hard to say no, but if you don’t, then making everything work and progress as much as you’d like becomes challenging – so prioritise, prioritise, prioritise would be my advice.
MBASchooled: What does success look like to you?
With regards to tryll, success looks like creating a product that tryllers feel adds value to their lives not only in terms of usefulness (of course) but mostly in terms of experience – tryll is about having fun, approaching life with a lightheart and curious mind so if we’re able to do this well, I’d be very happy.
MBASchooled: What advice do you have for MBA students who are thinking about going to business school to start a company?
First of all, I’d say it’s a great idea. Second of all, my advice would be to make sure you become aware of all the resources (which are typically many) that are available to you. And once you do, focus on those that are going to be pivotal to your company. As mentioned earlier, time management at B-School is really crucial, so just make sure you focus and you’ll be fine!