Every January, MIT students embark on IAP (Independent Activities Period). This is an entire month off of traditional schooling designed to be a time to learn about new things, take classes or seminars around the Institute, or work at one month (or even one week) "externships" with participating companies or alumni.
January is also the time for interviews on campus at MIT Sloan. Before I came to Sloan I decided that the traditional MBA recruiting process, and in fact, traditional MBA jobs (consulting, banking, finance, etc.) were not for me. Instead I came here to learn how to start companies, learn how to grow companies, and meet people that could help me do that, or that I could help do that. Therefore, I chose to use IAP as a time to pursue that goal. Instead of case interview prep and mock interviewing with my classmates, I took an externship in San Francisco working for a company I had never heard of called NBT Ventures.
Well, it turns out that NBT is the brainchild of a very cool and interesting MIT PhD, Robert Poor. Rob is the co-founder of Ember Networks, a developer of Zigbee wireless networking technology (the communication language of the "smart" grid... simply put, the way devices "talk" to each other). He has been a great resource and educator, as well as fun to work with.
NBT is an extremely early stage venture. Rob's vision is to change the way people and small businesses think about energy efficiency (or, just get them to start thinking about energy efficiency) by using advanced data analytics presented in a super simple and intuitive manner. Basically, make it easy, and even fun, to save energy and money.
I worked with Rob, and another really cool MIT extern from the applied math department, Sara, to answer questions like: what exactly will the product be? who will we target? and why are we special? In addition, I worked to define the current market in energy efficiency, and establish our strategy going forward.
It was a great experience, and nice to learn from a great resource like Rob. He taught me a few things that I want to share, since I think they are relevant to any entrepreneur:
- There is a difference between value created and value captured. Understand the difference. A great entrepreneur does both. But first and foremost, always try to create value. It is more gratifying long term.
- An entrepreneur needs to be able to take the resources available and apply them to those projects that best increase the company's probability of success.
- Fundamentally, the founder is a storyteller. He or she should be able to articulate the story of the company to customers, employees, and investors, in such away that makes them want to follow.
NBT stands for "next big thing". Let's hope Rob is right.
Finally, I realized that my blog has been extremely visually boring so here is a picture of my occasional mode of transportation to work. It is great to be back here in San Francisco (where I was living before Sloan). What an amazing city...
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