MIT Entrepreneurship Center in New York - Jo Malone and Google

July 24: Boston to New York City


1. 7:30am: The 4 hour ride into NYC on the Bolt Bus was supposed to be a quiet, sleep filled ride along I-95. I had specifically avoided the Fung-Wah for the extra air-conditioning and Internet access. However, once my laptop wireless hit the Bolt Bus WIFI, there was no sleep to be enjoyed. Ken's email regarding Thursday's dress code was still inviting responses via email. There was a hint of concern in the emails of those writing to confirm their "Wicked Sharp and Sophisticated" dress requirements. I even received a call from a traveling Venture Capitalist flying into NYC, from California, informing me that he was without a tie. VCs don’t usually wear ties to work and the email worried him. Did I have a spare to lend him for that evening? Anticipation of the 2008 "Celebration of Entrepreneurship in the Big Apple" had put a few hundred guests on high alert. I had no idea that we had set the bar as high as we did. I was anxious to make sure that the events were well executed.

2. 4:00pm: Exiting the 23rd Street Train station, I spotted Gaetan Bonhomme. We greeted each other as if we were lost brothers who hadn't seen each other in years. Gaetan had just graduate in June with the class of 2008. The loud and fast-paced environs of New York can remind you how MIT Sloan is such a small and intimate community, tucked away on the Charles River. He was dressed as a "wicked and sophisticated" as possible, ready to network. My phone was ringing as we crossed Broadway. Gaetan was prescient and said it was Ken calling to verify whether we had arrived. It was indeed Ken. He was on 34th street trying to decide how he should tackle the 11 blocks and 2 avenues from Penn Station to 23rd Street. Gaetan and I stood laughing in the gentle afternoon sun and gaze of New York's Flatiron building. Yes and what a beautiful sight to take-in a new MIT entrepreneurship adventure.

3. 4:30pm: As we entered Jo Malone, I spotted the Daya Fields, Estee Lauder Presidential Management Associate and former MIT Sloanie, class of 2007. My last memory of Daya was during the prospective MIT Sloan student of color weekend, November 2007. Then, she helped introduce me to Sloan and encouraged my application to MIT. All that changed in little over a year. Today, she was on location, in her store, Jo Malone, and in full control of the execution of the first event of the evening. I smiled to Daya and introduced her to Gaetan. Gaetan asked whether she was with Estee Lauder, but did not remember her from the class of 2007. Daya had completely transformed and was no longer a student. She was what I dreamed I would be in another year: A confident Presidential Management Associate building a successful brand as a leader in a world-class organization.

4. 5:00pm: Chase Behringer, MBA 2010 arrived and so did Reshma Alva. The student team that put together the event was now on-location and ready for a wickedly sophisticated evening. Where was Ken?

5. At 5:15pm: Guests were beginning to arrive and all the Sloanie volunteers moved into action to welcome guests. Daya had given us instructions to facilitate introductions between Estee Lauder and MIT Sloan. It was a thoughtful note that reflected her strategic and tactical understanding of human interaction. Did she ever miss a detail? No. After all, there was a raffle for Jo Malone products and business cards were to be used for the drawing. Wicked smart.

6. 5:30pm: Champagne in hand, the networking had begun. About 20 people had already arrived and more were quickly checking-in. Ron Kurtz had arrived early with his wonderful wife. In his hand, he had secretly folded an artist photographer's picture of the Flat Iron building in the early 1900s. It was a beautiful picture and Ron, the perpetual salesman, was hoping that he find an interested patron for the piece. I informed Ron that he'd find a buyer, but first needed to share with Gaetan and I a story or two from his work at Commerce Graphics. Ron laughed. He shared with us that he was the class of '54 and graduated with a chemistry degree. He had successfully led his company Commerce Graphics during many difficult business cycles of the 70s and 80s.
7. 6:15pm: Ron and his wife, Carole, were soon looking at the amazing Jo Malone products. She had informed me that she liked citrus flavors for Ron, but that Jo Malone had quite a few interesting items she wanted to look at. As we parted, Gaetan and I met with Nadja Pinnavaia, PhD and managing partner at Principalis, an Asset Management company in New York. Nadja was a Chemical Engineering PhD who had worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs before leaving to launch her own firm. Gaetan and I were deeply curious. Does the aura of Goldman Sachs make entrepreneurship any easier? The urban legend is that Goldman Sachs bestows upon its alumni the "golden touch" in all industries. Nadja let us know that The GS initials did give her a strong launch into building a successful team. However, it was her determination and adaptability that allowed her to build a successful company. Nadja begged that we talk about ourselves, but I told her that it was her story from which we could learn the most. As Nadja began to talk to us about the importance of building a quality team, her eyes flitted to the door and a tall gentleman was soon by her side. I apologized that we were interrupting and she laughed embarrassed. It was her husband, Daniel.

8. 6:30pm: Daniel had a very warm smile and joined our group, standing a very tall 6’4 above us all. We made sure to get him a champagne flute as soon as possible. Daniel and I began to chat about his work in New York. I learned that Daniel was working in education at his own startup company. Wow, a husband and wife entrepreneur team. There’s hope for us entrepreneur guys, after all! Daniel had spent 9 years successfully building his education software company that served both private and public schools. As a former Brooklyn public school student, I asked Daniel whether he knew how tough it was in the urban schools for African American youth. He not only understood, but topped my high school experience in Brooklyn. Daniel had been a teacher in a Bedford Stuyvesant Middle school. He told me that sometimes the middle school students were in fact more dangerous than the high school students. He had seen all that one could see in the difficulties kids faced in such schools. I was impressed with his passion for education and wished to ask him more, but spotted two Estee Lauder managersI had not as yet met.

9. 6:45pm: At about 50 guests, Jo Malone was now a very intimate experience. I caught up with Ahn and Stephanie. They had both come from Tiffany's and were now forecasting product demand for Jo Malone stores. As a data mining student at MIT Sloan, I had spent the past six months building predictive models based on data. As such, it was such a welcome experience to learn how beauty companies build forecasting models that were accurate, yet centralized and built away from the local stores.

10. 7:00pm:? The speeches began! Daya was first and made a wonderful introduction to Estee Lauder’s Jo Malone and her work in the organization. She kindly introduced us to the entire team and invited us to enjoy the hand massages. Although I was on my 3rd glass of champagne, I distinctly recalled a moment when Daya shared that she would be a millionaire contributor to Sloan. A brief and deliberate pause accompanied the statement and my eyes widened. Was Daya going to write a check for a few million dollars to Sloan? The Sloan MBA was more powerful than I could dream. However, Daya laughed and made clear that it would be in the future. However, who could doubt her. With a quality event as we were hosting, I wouldn’t be surprise that a few millionaires were among us, connecting with Sloanies and Estee Lauder staff. Ken then took the chair and introduced Jo Malone as a true entrepreneur who launched her brand in her very own kitchen. Ken’s command of historical fact was, as always, inspiring. How did he get all the fine details? He then introduced Ron Kurtz who shared with us his passion for Sloan. Charlie Harris then spoke and reminded us that the business cycle of low IPOs was not unique and had been seen as recently as 1978. Unfortunately, since I was only 4 at the time, I could be forgiven being shocked that there was a time when there were no IPOs for more than a month.

11. 7:20pm: A few signals from Reshma and Chase. We had to head to the GOOG to prepare for the next event. I was not ready to leave. I had targeted yet another individual in the crowd. A grey-haired gentleman in a grey coat and large glasses was moving through the crowd, slowly and comfortably. I knew he was someone important with whom I should introduce myself. Chase was quick to understand my intention and motioned that the team would wait for me before heading to the GOOG. That was very kind and I took note. Chase was an astute networker.

12. 7:30pm: Mr. Piedmont was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Piedmont Mining Company. On his card, in the upper right corner, was a bright, yellow ingot. He asked me if I knew anything about gold and, in the same breath, bemoaned that he was not a fit for the event. He did not have much to say about high-technology and felt out of place at the party. Fortunately, Mr. Piedmont was not aware that I was deeply interested in gold and mining, in particular. I had spent April reaching out to the executives at Glencore, in Switzerland to secure an internship on their commodities trading desks. I shared with Robert that I considered “data mining” as interesting as “mineral mining”. Commodity markets had always been a deep area of interest, particularly precious metals that were used in high-end electronics. Meeting Robert was pure gold in itself and I was lucky to pepper him with questions about his role in the gold markets.

13. 7:45pm: Looking for Chase and Reshma, at the door of Jo Malone, I informed Robert that he should come to MIT Sloan and speak about the gold markets and entrepreneurship opportunities there. I asked if he would be at the GOOG event and he confirmed. I quickly informed him that I had to meet my teammates and head to the next event to assist with the setup.

14. 7:45pm: As we exited Jo Malone, I caught up with John Watts of Fischer Francis Trees & Watts. He asked me what areas of work in which I was engaged for the summer. We talked about his exposure to health care and how data mining opportunities fit into the information management opportunities in that industry. I would have preferred to spend another hour talking about his work, but Reshma and Chase were already ahead of me. I had to run to catch up.

15. 7:50pm: Walking with Chase and Reshma from 23rd street to 16th street and across to 9th avenue, was a joy. We were all happy at the success of the Jo Malone event and were eager to setup for the GOOG event. At GOOG, we walked through a maze of corridors and corners until we found our way to their roof deck-cafeteria. There was food and more drink. The open-bar for the event had just moved the entire evening a few notches further upward.

16. 8:10pm: Connecting with Sloanies of 2007 through 2010 was the perfect GOOG event. Rick Moore, my classmate and I talked at length with incoming Sloanies about life at Sloan and how they could prepare to conquer the Core.

17. 9:00pm: Manhattan’s darkness now falling over the sunset, we were ushered outside to see Ken rise up on table to introduce our GOOG hosts and to highlight MIT’s relationship with GOOG. It was great to see David Spector on table smiling and happy of the success of the event. He had done an amazing job.

18. 10:00pm: I had found my “gold mine” Mr. Shields again. We spoke about his coming to speak at MIT in September to share with us his thoughts about the importance of minerals in the US Economy. I then introduced him to Hassani and Kristen, new 2010 Sloanie students who were also in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation program.

19. 10:30pm: It was getting late and I had to leave to catch the 11:00pm: bus back to Boston. I wanted to stay longer and continue to meet with Sloanies who I had only had an opportunity to briefly share a hello for the entire evening. I spied Malaika Thorne, a Sloan 2008 E&I classmate. We had both agreed that we’d catch the last Fung-Wah bus back to Boston and look after each other. We ran out of the GOOG cafeteria catacombs downstairs to catch a taxi. Once on the street, I could feel the pulse of New York’s Thursday night life coming alive as we worked our way from the congested 16th street and 9th avenue gridlock. I felt a tinge of regret that I was racing back to Boston. How better to celebrate a great MIT event on a Thursday evening than some partying in New York?

20. 11:30pm: On a Mega Bus with Peter Kurzina¸ Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan! Amazing, yet more Sloan even at the close of the night. Peter and I hadn’t had a chance to chat at Jo Malone or GOOG, but at 12:00am, Friday morning, we spoke at length about the great events we had enjoyed in New York. When was the next event going to happen? It had to be soon. Everyone had enjoyed the event and we were curious about the next. I settled in to sleep on the ride home. There was no Mega Internet and I had a 2:30pm presentation to prepare later that day.

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