Using the MBA to Pivot: School Teacher to Bain

Using heart-courage to fuel an entrepreneurial dream – Rod Paolucci on a tech journey

18 year-old Rod Paolucci (and his co-founder) set out to ‘conquer the world’ and bring joy to others through products. Fast forward 12 years later, his companies raised over U$8MM in investments and released products that became market leaders, reaching over 52 million unique users per month. Rod shares his journey back to B-school and his internship where he joined Setter Home Services (poised to be a Canadian startup that could be a billion-dollar breakout according to Macleans)  following his desire to work in a B2C startup. He shares the key elements of courage, passion, mission, and joy and the importance of a global mindset when following your dream to build something massive.

Boutique Consulting; Dan Gerharts on providing value to Early-Mid Stage Start-ups

Failing beautifully towards success – Dan Gerharts uses his own journey to share how he moved from exploring options to finding a dream role working with one of Canada’s top ranked entrepreneurs, Michael Hyatt, providing consulting services to early to mid-stage ventures. Dan shares his distaste for the traditional coffee chat and how he changed it to make it work for him. And make it work he did! Super motivating story as we cover courage, passion, and a willingness to ‘hold on tight and see where it goes’!

Chess Grandmaster turns FinTech Master with Mark Bluvshtein of Wave Financial

This guy isn’t playing around. Mark Bluvshtein became the youngest Canadian International Chess Grandmaster at 16. He took that passion and curiosity and transitioned from professional chess to IB, completed an MBA, and is now the Director, Business Operations for Wave Financial, a hot Canadian fintech start up. Mark shares, among other things, how to take that coffee chat and turn it into a troubleshooting session where you can demonstrate how you think real time and get hiring managers excited on the spot!

Goodbye Corporate – Hello Entrepreneurship with Melita Cyril

Meet the unstoppable Melita Cyril. Hailing from corporate giants such as Citi, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, and A.T. Kearney Melita completely switches gears and writes a children’s book and launches an apparel company . In true consultant form, the problem she solves is mismatched socks for both her and her kids. At www.qforquinn.com [http://www.qforquinn.com/]  you’ll find certified organic cotton socks that are designed to be worn mismatched ; every collection comes with 3 pairs of socks for 9 possible pairings. Hear Melita’s advice on going all in or testing the side hustle. Either way you’ll be inspired to at least to take a deep breath and consider your next step.

Using the MBA to Pivot: School Teacher to Bain

Two time transitioner, Alison Hyodo moves from school teaching to advertising to landing at Bain post MBA. Listen to what it’s like to work within the private equity practice at Bain and what makes a successful consultant in this organization. Learn how coffee-chatting has been instrumental in how she learns about what roles are really like, and how to frame a ‘clear ask’ for someone’s time.