The Twenty-Something Entrepreneurs Fast Tracking Business Success with an MBA

This article is sponsored by EU Business School. Learn more about its MBA in Entrepreneurship.

"I don't believe that you study to become an entrepreneur – you have it in your blood," asserts Rodrigo Crespo. EU Business School (EU) MBA alumnus Crespo, although barely into his mid-twenties, is the co-founder of two successful startups. “I decided to become a businessman when I was 15,” the young Honduran recalls. “I had organized a fundraising event for the earthquake in Haiti, managed a team of over 30 people and raised US$20,000 – this is when I knew that I was good at management and leadership.” 

It's difficult to not be impressed by Crespo’s dynamic altruism; especially at such a young age.

Ricardo Gómez, also an EU Business School MBA alumnus, is cut from a similar cloth to Crespo. Aged just 27, he's currently managing a team of 48 people and running a company whose main mission is to advise and launch small startups. “We are in charge of 12 separate projects at the moment,” he reveals.

Crespo graduated with an MBA in Entrepreneurship from EU Munich, while Gómez chose to study an MBA in E-Commerce at EU Barcelona; but to what extent does business education enable, promote or accelerate entrepreneurial success? Crespo laughs when he states that he has the genes of an entrepreneur, but he also admits that the MBA in Entrepreneurship at EU Business School taught him a host of vital skills. 

EU Business School's English curriculum and international outlook

“I spent all of my life wanting to study in Munich” says Crespo. “I also wanted to continue pursuing my studies in English, as I had done at high school in Honduras.”

EU Business School ticked all the boxes, offering a choice of four campuses: in Barcelona in Spain, Montreux and Geneva in Switzerland, and Crespo's city of choice, Munich in Germany. “The Munich immersion was perfect – 120 nationalities represented, a multitude of different people and cultures; plus, classes were taught in English. These were the main reasons I was attracted to the school,” he explains.

Gómez echoes Crespo in his appreciation of EU Business School's international outlook. As a Barcelonan, he admits that he is a home-bird, preferring to remain close to friends and family. “I effectively want the best of two worlds,” he says, “to stay close to home, but to also be able to study in English and to speak English during my day-to-day.”

English is of course the international language of business. Being in a very diverse environment enables MBA candidates to fine-tune their soft skills, which are key when conducting international business. Business schools that embrace a strong global outlook provide the ideal microcosmic environment, with the allowance of trial and error, to prepare students for the real-world complexities and nuances that lie ahead.

The MBA in Entrepreneurship offers the essential business toolkit

“Right now, I think that it's very difficult to teach management and stay relevant, because the ecosystem and whole business environment is changing so rapidly," says Gómez. "We'd need to spend an entire week in the classroom just to keep pace with developments which will change in the seven days following.”

Gómez and Crespo agree on two fundamental benefits of the EU Business School MBA program: in addition to teaching essential skills (accounting, finance, marketing, leadership, strategy, etc.), the EU MBA specifically focuses on real business cases, leaning less on theory, and more on experiential learning.

“Accounting, marketing, and knowing the best practices are helpful, because in the startup world you find yourself doing so many things on your own – you don't have a team of six or ten experts in their field," says Gómez. Crespo also shares this view, but points more to his appreciation of the experiential aspect of learning. “My method of learning is by seeing, doing and being with people – I don't like it when universities only teach you from a book.”

At EU Business School, most professors are not only academic theorists, but businesspeople as well. “They talk about their own experiences running business, their failures, how they handled failure, the risks they faced, and how these were managed,” says Crespo. Real-world cases are also an integral part of the MBA curriculum. Gómez alludes to these, stating that, “Over the lessons I studied, the cases we covered really stood out; how Proctor and Gamble dealt with crisis management, how Walmart introduced a new product, or decided to purchase a new line of cosmetics, for example.”  

On confidence and steep learning curves: We're here now

Crespo has now left Munich behind to build a new universal digital currency platform in Mexico. “I have a lot of investors backing this project,” he says. “Digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash and Steem are the future and, in Latin America, where financial systems can experience volatility, this sort of software offers a very important solution. Look at Venezuela – people can't buy their goods or exchange money, plus there's a money spending cap. Employers can't pay wages – our new app is therefore revolutionary, and will allow people to move their money easily.” Returning to the MBA in Entrepreneurship, he says, “My experience gave me a good push to succeed, motivation and confidence, plus those very essential skills – how to tackle a financial case, for example. When push comes to shove, entrepreneurship really is about perseverance.” 

Gómez also acknowledges the foundations that an MBA can build. “The MBA helped, but as an entrepreneur I was also getting myself into something completely unknown. The steepest learning curve for me has been in the actual field, every day.”  He talks about having to stay one step ahead of the companies he's trying to launch. “It's a real immersion in knowledge and understanding.” Asked about the future, he responds, “I want to reach a point where someone buys one of my companies – not so much for the money, as for the recognition; that someone bigger and more powerful sees the value in your project.” 

This article is sponsored by EU Business School.