Hello everyone,
I'm Varun, the co-founder of Mesa School of Business. We’re Asia’s first startup focused business school focused on fostering the next generation of startup leaders in India.
Prior to Mesa, I was a Sr. Product Manager at Amazon in Seattle, and did my MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
I'd love to chat with you folks about my journey in building Mesa, my thoughts on higher education, 0-to-1 building, amongst other things.
Ask me anything! :) I'll be back at 5 pm and start answering.
Hey @VarunLimaye
I’m @salt
Tell me about what do you feel about your competitors in a similar space? Do you benchmark against them?
Also, tell me what do you think about scalability of a business like this?
Glad you asked this @salt!
India's GDP is predicted to triple in the coming 12-15 years, but this can't be achieved without a strong workforce that gets things done! The existing learning methods are flawed in many ways, and it's very exciting to see a lot of really smart, driven minds solving this. India requires more institutions of high quality - not 5 not 10 but 100s of them!
We strongly believe the startup ecosystem will be a significant catalyst in India's growth journey. We are privileged to have the opportunity to nurture the next generation of startup leaders!
Coming to the scalability of the business model, the flywheel is straightforward - a great curriculum & pedagogy on a great cohort gets us great outcomes, which in turn gets us a great new cohort the next time around. Pretty simple right? :)
@VarunLimaye I completely agree on that if done in an asset light way.
best of luck🤞🏻
Hey Varun, What made you pick a startup-focus. Is there a similar example in the US?
If not, is there something that makes a startup-school more ideal for India?
@Babel Great question!
The startup ecosystem in India is growing very fast and if you think about it there are just so many learnings, knowledge and experiences that nobody has bothered to document and institutionalize. We believe this is a worthy enough problem to solve. [Think what Stanford did for the Silicon Valley]
Furthermore, startups face a lot of issues in hiring the right talent. I have personally experienced this with Mesa. Startups don't care about brands but care about skills and that is great for an emerging new business school. It's also the right incentive for the entire higher education system to be more skills focused (as opposed to brand/degree focused)
There are examples internationally of business schools focused on creating solutions for a smaller more focused ecosystem. And, that usually works really well because the a bschool then can really focus all its energy on delivering an experience tailored to a very specific employer and student.
Thanks Varun! Really appreciate your answer.
Just one more question- any foreign B School brands that are focused on startups? Just curious to learn and understand more about
Hey Varun,
@Zacksharma
We call ourselves a new age MBA because we are thinking first principles about solving a learning outcomes/job outcomes gap for our students. For almost 100 years now business education has remained unchanged. Nobody has challenged it to understand whether a certain component of it is really necessary OR if something new needs to be added, that is why business education is so theoretical, classroom based and remote from reality. New age MBAs have this amazing power to questions everything, un-bundle offerings, add new interesting experiences and delete age old practices that add no value to the main user.
My list - Communication, basic business fundamentals, agile solution development (launch fast, learn, repeat), ability to understand customers and ability to work/manage a team.
Anybody who is ready to invest in personal growth and wants to get a large delta in their personal and professional life. People who feel they are plateauing in their current position and feel they need a jump to break the ceiling.
Thanks, all the best @VarunLimaye
I'm also thinking about mesa school but my mentors are saying that this is also like startups so who knows it will uplift or not
@Pavi I get where you're coming from. It's a big commitment to invest a whole year and a significant amount of money, and it's definitely something you should take your time to think about. I'm glad to hear that you're reaching out to others and getting their perspectives, that's a great way to gather information!
Let's be real, we're a startup. That means we're here to shake things up and change how things are done. We're working hard to redefine what higher education can look like in the coming years. We're incredibly fortunate to have the support of many leaders and stakeholders in our ecosystem and are truly a business school built by the startup ecosystem for the startup ecosystem.
There's so much more I could tell you, but it might be a bit much for a message here on Grapevine. I'd recommend that you sign up on our website and come to one of our info sessions. It is personally conducted live by me. It would be a fantastic opportunity for you to get a more in-depth answer to your question. Looking forward to seeing you there :)
Definitely sir
Any plans to start mesa incubators?
Great question @proton!
We recently started the INR 5Cr Mesa Startup Fund. As part of the fund, we've created clear milestones that students need to complete: ideation closure, customer research, building the MVP, hitting 100 paying customers, and so on. At each stage, students receive mentorship and guidance, access to early-stage investors and past founders, and valuable one-on-one time with my co-founder Ankit and me. We also support them financially and give them an opportunity to pitch to VCs!
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