Summer Internships!

What's one of the best things about MBA summers?  Internship season!  Below are a few pics from our Questrom MBAs this summer. 

The Questrom (QuestProm) Formal Happened This Weekend

Graduate school prom?  Yup, graduate school prom.  If you're curious as to what this entails, just imagine if high school prom and adulthood had a baby.  Picture fancy dresses, nice suits, good drinks, good food, and better company.  Oh yeah, there was a photo booth.  I'll just show you a bunch of those pics so you can get the idea of what to expect at #QuestProm2K18.

Innovation Ecosystems: 10 Questrom MBAs + 9 Days in Israel = 1 Amazing Spring Break Elective

Due to its increasing popularity, the annual student-led Questrom iTrek to Israel was recently transformed into the Innovation Ecosystems Field Seminar, a 3-credit elective course with a focus on Israel as an entrepreneurial ecosystem.  Dubbed “Start-up Nation,” Israel provided the perfect setting for ten first-year and second-year MBA students to learn about start-ups, their various funding sources, and the settings that allow them to grow and thrive.

With visits to Israeli start-ups, venture capital firms, incubators, and educational systems in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, we met with new and established leaders in the Israeli start-up ecosystem, learning about what sets Israel apart from other countries and leads to its high per capita rate of entrepreneurs. 

We visited companies such as Nano Dimensions (a leader in 3D printing technology) and GenCell (a leading provider of innovative fuel cell power backup solutions), incubators such as MassChallenge Jerusalem and Startup Nation Central, and educational systems such as Tel Aviv University and Technion Technology Transfer.  In addition to the various site visits, we had the opportunity to visit the City of Jaffa, the Western Wall, the Dead Sea, Masada, and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, among other sites.

Follow @QuestromGrad on Instagram!

#questromaroundtheworld is also very good at ruins impressions. This picture came in from #mexicocity #teotihuacan . . . . . . . #questromlife #springbreak2017 #mexico #boston #bostonuniversity #questrommeansbusiness

A post shared by QuestromGrad (@questromgrad) on Mar 13, 2017 at 10:49am PDT

^We are traveling the world. Frequently.

I'm sounding the alarm, folks. We need to build the @QuestromGrad Instagram account into a social media juggernaut. I'm talking Kardashian levels of inexplicable popularity. And it starts with YOU. Yes, the person reading this. Actually, in fact, you. I made it exceptionally easy by tossing a picture up top for you to not only ogle, but to also interact with by smashing the "Follow" button on the top right of the picture. If you're interested in the comings and goings of the Questrom Graduate community, this is the Instagram account for you. We may even throw up a cute puppy/kitten picture to pander to our fledgling audience, but that's more of a "break in case of emergency" type of thing.

*Point* --> "Follow" --> *Click* --> Thanks!

BU's VCIC MBA Team Wins Northeast Regional Competition: An Interview With Kenneth Hall

Another week has passed and that means it's time for another Questrom Blog Series.  Luckily for me, interesting things keep happening every week and the blog is able to stay fresh.  This week is no exception and I'm pleased to highlight a good pal of mine, Ken Hall, as he explains how his VCIC team was able to come out on top in the Northeast Regional competition.

1. For those that don't know, what is the VCIC and what drew you to the competition?

The Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) is the world’s largest venture capital competition and essentially puts students in the shoes of a venture capital firm. In the MBA division, there are 75 schools competing through 12 regional competitions for a spot in the global finals. The teams receive the decks of 3 actual startup companies that are raising capital (typically Seed or Series A startups) and have roughly 36 hours for due diligence before the morning of the competition. On the day of the competition, teams meet with each entrepreneur for Q&A, decide which firm they’re investing in, prepare a term sheet for the investment, present their investment decision to the judges, and, if selected, negotiate with the entrepreneurs. What drew me to the competition was just a passion for VC, the amount of learning in such a short time period, and, yes, being competitive. I’ve interned or consulted for a handful of VCs, but I feel like this has been the best learning experience I’ve had in the industry. Leading up to the competition, we were meeting with leaders in the industry and experienced partners in venture. And then, in 48 hours, you’re gaining experience and demonstrating understanding in valuations, term sheets, market research, due diligence, negotiations, presenting to partners, building rapport, and more. It was like drinking from a fire hose.

TechConnect: The Fringe Version (An Interview with Lauren Finkelstein)

Week 2 of the Questrom MBA blog series kicks off with an interview with Lauren Finkelstein, President of the MS-MBA club (now the MSDi club) and the head woman in charge of the TechConnect conference.  My aim is to keep these interviews fun, fresh, and not stuffy.  Since Lauren is basically the funniest person in the entire class, her interview did not disappoint.  Check it out:

1. This year's TechConnect was called the "Fringe Version" - can you explain what that means and how you guys came up with this theme?

With Boston being one of the nation's tech hotspots (pun intended), conferences on topics like security and cloud computing are aplenty. Our goal for TechConnect was to do something a bit different- we wanted to explore fringe technologies and focus on where tech could be going as opposed to where it currently is. For this reason, we focused on topics like machine learning and virtual reality. Here’s a fun insider fact for you – when we started planning the conference about ten months ago we knew we wanted to focus on emerging technologies, but the original theme name was Not Yo Mamma’s Tech Conference. However, as we reached out to potential speakers and moderators (including our own professors) we found ourselves explaining our ask with the phrase fringe technologies, a slightly more professional version of Not Yo Mamma’s Tech Conference.

The MBA West Coast Networking Club Presents: The West Coast Trek

*Hey readers, my name is Winston Jones. I'm a 2nd year MBA student and I will be starting a weekly blog series of cool events and happenings around the Questrom community. The first one up is a brief interview about the West Coast Trek - one of the cooler events in the MBA program. I interviewed fellow 2nd year MBA student and the President of the West Coast Networking Club, Jason Marmillion, about the event.*

1. Can you briefly describe this year’s West Coast Trek?

The West Coast Trek is a student-led trek to the San Francisco Bay Area. We visit companies to learn more about their unique cultures and to try to get a sense of what it's like to live and work in the area. It's also an opportunity for trek members to make connections with business people, BU alumni, and local MBA students, as well as build stronger relationships with the other BU students that attend.

2. What companies did the group visit during the trek?

Netflix, Amazon 126 Labs, Pandora, IDEO, DJI, Google, San Francisco 49ers, Founder's Institute, Plug and Play, Autodesk, Zynga, CBS Interactive

Choose Your Own Adventure:

Dual Degrees, International Field Seminars, Cross-Registration, and More -

First-Year MBA Student Shironda White Reflects on the Many Opportunities Questrom Has To Offer

“I couldn’t decide between Israel and Latin America,” Shironda White said of the International Field Seminar options.  “So I’m going to both.”  Shironda, a first-year MBA candidate, is gearing up for a fourth module (quarter) of jet setting around the world as part of her MBA experience.  With the eventual goal of eradicating food deserts in the US, she chose the Israel Field Seminar for its focus on entrepreneurial ecosystems and the Latin America Field Seminar for its focus on supply chain sustainability and corporate social responsibility (with trips that include wine tasting and learning about agriculture and aquaculture).

Questrom’s MBA offerings are unique in that they provide students with opportunities for outside study, whether it’s across the campus or around the globe.  Cross-registration and dual degree programs at other BU schools are common, as are the international field seminars in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and other regions.

"This is one of the reasons I chose Questrom" Shironda says of the options she has to choose from.  "I wanted to study abroad, but not necessarily in just one place.  I'm also interested in cross-registering at the Law School and the School of Public Health, and not every business school allows cross-registration.  Questrom truly gives me the opportunity to chart my own path.”