Mesa: India's startup-focused Business School
Info Session with MSoB (Mesa School of Business) with the intent to understand about their post-graduate learning program
What's this about?
Today I attended Info Session with MSoB (Mesa School of Business) with the intent to understand about their post-graduate learning program specifically relevant to the upcoming cohort starting from July 2024.
Okay, but what is Mesa?
Mesa is positioned as an alternative to traditional MBAs for those who aims to become startup leaders of India & looking to work at the top startups or found one.
Mesa offers a Bengaluru-based 12 months full-time in-person program to people with work experience b/w 6 months to 6 yrs. It's supposed to be an intense learning experience divided into 7 terms of 7 weeks each.
Each term, Mesa wants to teach the following:
- Business fundamentals - In-class learning experiences on 150+ case studies:
- 17 Bootcamps - Build practical skills:
- 14 Workshops - Prioritize personal growth above all:
- 6 Immersive Hackathons - Unlock the near real-life experience:
- Out-Class Sessions - "Learn by doing" (this it IT for me!) with intense exposure to BYOBs (build your own 4 businesses) & Startup Accelerator Experience in groups:
- Personalized Career Prep - Prepare to win:
What does it take to get in?
Net Expenses - INR 25 Lacs in a year
- Course Fee - INR 17.45 Lacs
- Min. Accommodation Rent (for Bengaluru) - INR 25K * 12 = INR 3 Lacs
- Food & Utilities - INR 8K * 12 = INR 1 Lac
- Others - INR 3-4 Lacs
Expected ROI for job-seekers - INR 30-40 Lacs per year
Expected ROI for entrepreneurs - Team or/and Funding for their ventures
My hope - General Merit Based Scholarship to bring down the cost from INR 25 Lacs to INR 10-12 Lacs (my 4 yr undergraduate expenses).
Don't forget about the Info session!
Info session was pretty tightly packed & ran with true professionalism by Mesa. However, I could only find the repetition of the marketing collateral during the whole session (probably for the sake of candidates?) except the final 15-20 mins of Q&A which was good but not really helpful (hypothetically, a short case-study session in groups of 4-5 would have been better to understand what's in there for the candidates). Right after a quick talk by Varun (Co-founder of Mesa), a short link was shared to re-confirm the interest & show intent (One question that bugged me was "Do you think you are a right-fit for Mesa?" - I really don't know. The proof of burden was supposed to be on the other side, right?). During Q&A, the questions I actually wanted to be answered:
- Founding cohort is only 4 months (2 terms) old so following metrics won't be applicable.
- What % of Mesa graduates start-up right after the college?
- How much revenue have the mesa-originated startups generated?
- What's the p(X time period retention of employees on the mesa-placed jobs) where X can be from 6 months to 2 years?
- What's the placement ratio & package?
- Mesa will be an untested experience for the first 3-4 cohorts & will be riskier (from trust-borrowing aspect) so I would like to evaluate the program based on the following:
- What's the average work-ex of the founding cohort? Mesa is targeted for people with 4-5 work-ex (ideally but open to all if the applicant is intentional).
- Mesa offers a lot to unpack in just 12 months. Can we see the jam-packed year-long hour-wise schedule which is missing in the online content? Couldn't ask during Q&A
Reference for what I would like to see more in detail & entirety (Mesa collateral which is close but not enough):
- How many & what kind of touchpoints are designed for student interactions with the potential employers, mentors & investors? If there are any anecdotal instances, would love to hear about that.
- Classes/workshops by professionals - Yes
- Case studies from real startups as capstone projects Couldn't ask during Q&A
- Demo Day - Yes
- What's the topmost thing Mesa has planned to minimize risks for the first 3-4 cohorts who are willing to believe in Mesa's vision & learning approach? - Couldn't ask during Q&A but got the answer with the specification on the generous scholarships of up-to 40-80% for the early bird candidates. My only hope would be a scholarship.
- Are there any internal plans at Mesa for keeping access to Mesa resources ON even after the program? - Not right now (Opportunity for building that for Mesa?)
Takeaway(s)
- I am still not sure about the true-value Mesa brings to the table as it's still very early to say but it seems an exciting program with solid curriculum, diverse cohort, experienced hands-on faculty, driven founders & all-in investors.
- Why did I looked into Mesa? - I am in search for something which can help me develop conviction & decisiveness on 1 idea followed by required social skills to pull people into what I choose to do.