networking galore in Boston

Up in Boston area today. Met with a couple of venture firms, one of whom I did a project with last semester. Good conversations and we'll see where things go. Also met with a great guy from Sloan (2nd year student), who is looking to get back into the venture business (he worked in venture before b-school), traded notes, strategies, etc. It's really great to know I'm not alone in this job search!

Otherwise, planning on having dinner with my folks tonight and then head back to Boston tomorrow in the late morning. I'm looking forward to Spring Break (which officially starts tomorrow) - gonna get organized, pick up around the house, and, oh yeah, keep looking for a job :)

Open House report

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent Friday afternoon at Open House helping out on behalf of Hermes Society.

The first event I attended was the E Awards. E meaning entrepreneurship. Cliff Schorer, a great guy and great teacher of entrepreneurship at CBS, led an awards show of sorts, where he gave big E trophies to CBS alums who had started businesses. Recyclebank received an award, as well as Blow, and Tabula Digital. It was a great little event and the prospective students that I spoke with really enjoyed it.

The second event was the club fair, where all the clubs set up tables in Low Library, and prospective students can talk to the club officers about their clubs. For me, it meant chatting with a couple of prospectives, but mostly talking to my friends who were working the tables :)

Change of plans?

Been interviewing with a startup here in NYC. Sort of stumbled upon them and it looks like they are a strong fit for my background, and are very early stage (I'd be employee #7, or something like that). This is the first startup I have seriously considered (since I have been so focused on VC), but it has an incredible core team and great investors. Anyways, we will see where it goes. Hope to see some of you at open house tomorrow (if you're not already here).

Open House for Admitted Students

This Thursday and Friday CBS is hosting several hundred admitted students for Open House.

There is a full schedule of events and I'm going to be at a couple of them, so if you're going to be there as an admitted student, come up and say hello. I'll be wearing my nametag and a Hermes Society vest.

The events are both on Friday :

Entrepreneurship Open House: 2p @ Lerner Hall
Club Fair and Coffee Break: 3p @ Low Library Rotunda

Hope to meet a couple of you in person. If not, there is another Open House in April - so maybe our paths will cross there. Drop me a message here if you think you'll be there so I can keep an eye out.

Going public

Not that people couldn't have figured out who I am by looking at my recent blog post to CBS's site, or by other hints I've dropped along the way, but I figured now was as good a time as any to add some more transparency to my blog. To that end, I have added a LinkedIn badge on the upper right of the blog, which if clicked on will take you to my public LinkedIn profile.

Originally, when I started the blog, I wanted to remain as anonymous as possible, but now I'm interested in seeing how opening the kimono a bit more will change the level and type of interactivity on the site. Plus, I'm almost done with business school, so I'm running out of time to do this little experiment.

Social Enterprise Fellowship Program @ CBS

This email just came in related to the social enterprise program at Columbia. Basically, the school helps to subsidize students who spend their summer working with non-profits, NGOs, etc. Pretty cool...

Are you interested in working for a nonprofit, NGO or government organization this summer? How about with a social entrepreneur or a social venture capital firm?

Join us to learn about the Social Enterprise Summer Fellowship Program which provides support to students pursuing internships in these fields. First-year and second-year students graduating in the spring can apply for summer fellowships, and J-term students can apply for full-time 2-week mini-internships. This program is available to all Columbia MBA students. To learn more about the program please visit http://www4.gsb.columbia.edu/socialenterprise/careers/internships.

Last year we supported 37 students in the US and around the world. Students have contributed their business skills to organizations including:

Acumen Fund | Agora Partnerships | Alzheimer’s Association | Ashoka | Asian Development Bank | Blue Ridge Foundation | Clinton Global Initiative | Committee to Encourage Corporate Philanthropy | Community Development Venture Capital Alliance | Community Resource Exchange | Dalberg | Department of Health and Human Services | Echoing Green | Education Pioneers | Endeavor | Environmental Defense | Fate Foundation USA | Freedom From Hunger | Investors Circle Foundation | National Resources Defense Council | New York City Economic Development Corporation | Planet Finance | New York Philharmonic | Nonprofit Finance Fund | Robin Hood Foundation | Sesame Workshop | Terra Nova Advisors | Teach for America | United Nations Development Program | United Way | Women’s World Banking…and many more!

If you have any questions about the program, are considering applying for funding, or are in the midst of pursuing other opportunities but might consider a social enterprise internship please contact Larcy Cooper at ldc2106@columbia.edu.