Are we a friendly bunch or what?

I hosted a couple of prospective students last night at Happy Hour, including simple man, who has been reading my blog for a while now. I think they had a good time and I know that they met alot of CBSers. I shouldn't be surprised by this but I am still amazed (in a good way) at how damn social and friendly the people at this school are! Of course, the atmosphere at Happy Hour is festive, so I guess that helps...

Which leads to my point -- make sure you visit your prospective schools in the classroom and also in a social setting. I think the latter is where you get a feel for the diversity of experiences that are at the school, and also where you get the most candid views of the students.

Rugby gets rolling

It's rugby time again. The first practice is on Friday and from what I have heard, there is alot of interest from the 1st years. Tonight was the first guys/girls team social at Brother Jimmy's. I did not attend but I am sure it was (or is ... they're probably still there :) fun. This semester Wharton is holding a tournament, and we are also going to play a game against our alumni. I think I have mentioned this in previous posts, but rugby is definitely a great club to join (probably at any b-school). Even if you have never played, it's pretty easy to learn, fun, and you'll definitely have a good time (on or off the field).

Couple good things going on

(in no particular order)

1) It would appear I have lined up a part-time internship to help a venture firm do some deal sourcing. It's not a 100% done deal, but it is looking _VERY_ positive. This would be huge.

2) My fall break and schedule (I only have class Mon-Wed) is going to allow me to take a nice 10-day trip to Japan over fall break! My friend moved out there (he works for Goldman in IT) and lives in Tokyo. Even better, I was able to get the trip on American for only 50,000 FF miles! Now if I can only get a deal like that for the Chazen trip I'm taking to SE Asia at the end of the year, I'll be all set.

Launching New Ventures

We had our first Launching New Ventures class today. It is taught by a serial entrepreneur named Cliff Schorer and another entrepreneur named Brendan Burns. Cliff is the entrepreneur-in-residence at the school and Brendan was CBS '93 (I think) and now working on turning around a startup that was on the verge of failing. Both of them seem very accomplished and I can already tell they are going to be a tremendous resource to anyone who is starting a business while they are at Columbia (and after).

The class was a mix of introductions ("Hello my name is X and my business idea is Y"), lecture (business plan overview, course format, etc), videos (we saw interviews with the founders of Apple, Microsoft, and Fedex), and presentation of business ideas. The course TA is already operating an apparel company and ran us through part of his investor presentation, and another one of my classmates shared the pitch for his computer data backup service.

There were a bunch of interesting ideas, and many people in the room who were in various stages of the venturing process. There were also some students who were running multiple businesses, or who had started other businesses in the past. I'm looking forward to helping everyone in the class develop their ideas. I'll keep you all posted on this course as I am pretty confident it will be one of my faves this year.

Relief

It was a weird day. Our dog went to the vet for his yearly exam and vaccinations. Vet said he was fine, but when he got home, he started throwing up and whatnot. My wife rushed him back to the vet -- he's OK, but it turned out he had a VERY bad reaction to one (or the other) vaccine. Fortunately we live one block away so we were able to get him right back in there, but it was very scary. Now he is on meds and is his usual peppy self (although he's itchy with hives) so I think we're out of the woods. Phew.

Next week class really kicks off in earnest. Monday I'll have the same classes I had this past Wednesday, but will also have Launching New Ventures. I am going to use the class to complete the business plan for a software company that I am advising.

In other news, the PE/VC club list received an email from one of our alums who has just started a venture capital firm. He is looking for current students to help him source deals and I threw my name into the ring. Wish me luck on that.

Next Friday we are having a big cluster outing, organized by our 2nd year cluster chairs. We're starting at a classmate's co-op (which he was so kindly to volunteer) for cocktails, then hitting an all-you-can-eat sushi place in Koreatown, followed by Karaoke. I missed the first Karaoke outing, which I heard was pretty awesome -- I'm expecting the same out of this one!

Back in the saddle

I'm baaaaack...

I hope everyone in the blogosphere is doing well. The first week of school has come and gone, and there is alot to report.

My trip to Vietnam was great. My wife and I had a great time and we really enjoyed the country and especially the people. It's a great trip to make, especially if you are on a budget. Getting there is the most expensive part, everything else is _very_ affordable.

Tuesday was our first day of school. We didn't have classes, but instead had 'reorientation'. This consisted of some presentations, lunch, a reception (with the best food I've had at CBS since J-term orientation!), and finally a big party at the old CBS standby Evelyn Lounge.

Wednesday we started classes, although I only had two. Actually, that's part of the beauty of my schedule. I am done with classes by 2pm on Wednesday. Then, I can use the latter part of the week for working at my internship, or traveling.

Thursday night was the first Happy Hour, followed by the South Asian Business Association club party (at some club on Columbus).

The career craziness hasn't begun just yet but I think it all gets kicked off next week. I won't be busy with recruiting personally since I'm not going the i-banking/consulting route but I will do a couple of informationals and a couple of interviews during the semester.

Thanks for reading and I will be posting more frequently now that we're back in session.