One of the extra special things about Cambridge MBA is to be embraced by the larger University of Cambridge platform. Once you become matriculated at your College, you meet students from multidisciplinary backgrounds at formal dinners, specific college events, as well at the official clubs that span the University itself.
I met my life-time long entrepreneurial partners from both my MBA Class of 2017/18 as well as from the larger university community.
As a team, we were invited to the final round of the China national level entrepreneurial competition – 2018 “Ubest Cup” 16th China MBA Entrepreneurship Competition. The competition has been running since 2002 and our team was listed as one of the top two teams from the overseas competition area.
Most importantly, it was the first time a Cambridge team had made it to the final round of this prestigious competition. More than 1,000 people came to the venue to watch the presentations, and the whole competition was broadcast by the State TV and other major media in China. We are proud that we won the Bright Excellency Prize after solid teamwork, robust analysis and novel solutions. We hope that this competition has not only helped our start-up idea move forward, but also enhanced the impact and reputation of the Cambridge MBA programme in China.
At events like “Entrepreneur Tuesday” and other Cambridge Judge Business School led lectures, we were strongly encouraged to collaborate with students coming from other departments, to make further impact. The two Cambridge PhD candidates (Chemistry & Computer Science Departments) in our team I had met during my pre-sessional course. We kept in touch, continued discussions and came up with the idea of leveraging the most advanced scientific research outcome, to resolve problems in the healthcare. Robust business plans are also the ‘sine qua non’ for success. Our team combined the knowledge of both Cambridge MBAs and Cambridge PhDs. This competition was a great opportunity for us to examine not only the learnings from our core MBA studies, but also the result of academic sparks between both Cambridge MBAs and other Cambridge departments, to see how it resolves real-life problems.
At the competition event, we were introduced to the major VCs and angel investors in China. This was a great opportunity for us to build relationships with potential investors, improve the reputation of our team and ensure the essential funding needed for further company establishment.
