Welcome to iRent2u.com all Pepperdine MBA alumni!
In the ongoing efforts to reach 1000 respondents to our survey, the wonderful faculty at Pepperdine has agreed to send out our survey request to all graduating MBA classes as far back as the year 2000. This will be a great help, as we have stalled a bit around the 480 mark, and can use the help.
If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please go here to do so. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d
This is just another example of the wonderful help Pepperdine University has been in launching our business. In case you are interested I will tell you a bit about how Pepperdine has really helped us along the way.
To start off, if it wasn’t for Pepperdine’s excellent study abroad program to Spain, I never would have met my business partners. Without that I never would have heard of the idea or had a chance to participate, even though one of my partners was right next door in UCLA Anderson.
Besides the study abroad program, there were many opportunities Pepperdine facilitated that really helped prepare us to launch a business. One of the most impactful was my participation in T.E.C. (The Executive Committee – now called Vistage ). Vistage is the world’s largest CEO network, and is a program where you create a personal board of advisers. Here we got the chance to have very personal and candid meetings with extremely successful businessmen & women from the LA area. Speaking and learning with them helped me realize that my true calling was starting my own business. This also helped me to recognize the opportunity when it presented itself, by keeping me in the right frame of mind. There were many other great learning opportunities before I went to Spain, but Vistage was the most motivational and inspirational of them.
A special Thank You is due to Gary Brinderson of Brinderson Construction who made this experience a reality and gave such valuable insights. The things I learned while working with you were invaluable, and will stay with me the rest of my life.
Great benefits came after I returned to Pepperdine with my new team and business plan. Obviously winning the Business Plan Competition was incredible in helping us validate the concept and obtain startup financing, but we received so much other help that it is hard to quantify. You can’t know how many people coached me, brainstormed with me, mentored me, and assisted me with every part of the business. It was this help that turned an incredible idea into a tremendous opportunity, and it was the people from Pepperdine who made it happen.
Now that my partners and I have all graduated and started the business, the relationship has continued to help us tremendously. We were invited to attend a black-tie event, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Ceremony, where we got to network with highly successful local entrepreneurs. We got 7 different volunteer interns to work with us on varying projects of great importance. Just this last weekend we were invited to speak at a Pepperdine Entrepreneurship Forum where we met other motivated entrepreneurial students who gave us great feedback and others who are interested in investing.
Overall our relationship with Pepperdine University has been a huge help with the launch of the business, and for this we simply want to say thanks!
A special thanks to the following:
Charles Morrissey – for giving us great insights into the crazy entrepreneurial world
Molly Lavik – for connecting us with incredible mentors and advisors
John Mooney – for a couple really great brainstorming sessions that helped remind us the best help doesn’t always come with a price tag
Dean Livingston – who has been ever supportive and has offered the help of Pepperdine many times
Michael Magasin – for his incredible “Scared-Straight” business law class which has motivated us to do everything correctly while forming the business
Doreen Shanahan – who gave us such great feedback after the second round of the business plan competition
Andrea Scott – also willingly gave excellent feedback on the concept during the competition
Geri Jabara – for getting me to Spain and being one of the most positive and supportive persons I have met in my life
Kristin Strange – for approving my intern request forms =^)
Nicole Hall - for putting up with my repeated emails asking when she was going to send out the survey to the alumni. =^)
Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole University has been behind us. I haven’t even begun to mention all the incredible fellow students who did the bulk of coaching and assisting, but I will leave them for a post another day.
For now just let me say thank you for all your help, and we, at iRent2u.com, appreciate the support!
And if you are also a Pepperdine alumni, don’t forget to utilize the excellent resources available to you through the staff and other students & alumni. They can have a tremendous impact on your business.
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