Phew, made it to St. Petersburg. Waiting at Costa Coffee with fellow classmate Maggie Barrett who is from the Portland Ore, cohort. Here is a business opportunity waiting for development. There is no retail at the St. Petes airport. Invest now. Unlike Maggie who seems have left from her house at 4am Seattle time and now has been up for nearly 2 days, I have been awake only 36 hours. (turns out maggie is in charge of the software operating system for the HP 210 at Intel that I am typing on.)
20 degrees F here vs. 45 degrees yesterday in NY.
Sizewise the airport terminal is about the same as White Plains in Westchester county NY, but needs ambiance. The people are nice, they speak many languages. We had advice not to use the ATMs here from the tourist person.
My goodnesss we (actually Maggie Treated) are having $20 worth of coffee and water. Seems a bit higher than JFK or Logan. Have to work on the money matters.
Please check out the Financial Times on Monday March 15th. Wrote about my experience at Babson. More later.
Showing posts with label Late Stage MBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Late Stage MBA. Show all posts
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Monday, April 27, 2009
Late Stage MBA-Josh Moritz- Plotz to You Drop-Saving the Economy One Challah at a Time
Three comments on Yvonne and Felice, ranging from get a cup of joe to musings of wondering if people are concerned about their jobs, making the mortgage payments or that their house dropped from $5 million to $1.5 million. I think I am going to do an interview with them on the subject of the economy and AIG.
Moving on. The real entrepreneur in the family is Jane Moritz now the owner of http://www.challahconnection.com. Jane bought http://www.challahonnection.com from sales guy about 6 years ago who had developed a business delivering challah every Friday morning via newspaper delivery people. Stuffed into postal service boxes, sometimes eaten by squirrels and deer with occasional protests from local postmasters, www.challahconnection.com is now a totally online business in the great tradition of catalogers stretching back to Sears and through Kati Muldoon, REI, Smith and Hawkins and even IBM.
Inventory arrives by UPS, USPS, FEDEX and delivery dudes in the morning and picked up as Jewish gift baskets by UPS, USPS, and FEDEX in the evening. Shiva baskets -- the event that marks a Jewish death for seven days after a funeral--are the big sellers, followed by Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa (go figure), Jewish High Holidays, Purim and Passover. Working with Sherry, her underemployed Columbia MBA mom (she should have gone to Babson) and several high school girls who know how to tie a ribbon, the business has grown a great deal through Search and PPC and social media and live chat. Direct mail and advertising are duds.
Over the years she has taken over a few competitors who could not adapt to the new way of the web catalog. They plotzed.
Now I know the goods are good because when I leave little tastings around Babson as bribes to professors and administrators and fellow students, they just kvell. He who shall go nameless even said it reminded him of his mother's baking.
Todays promotion will make you plotz (see it in full living color on her website):
"Mother's Day is May 10! It's the day to make her kvell, plotz and see what a mensch you
are. Free shipping on all orders over $75. Use code FS09. Follow us on Twitter!
For Mother's Day, Give Your Mom Something to Plotz About!
Shop Now and Get Free Shipping!*She'll be so proud of you for getting a deal. Why not make
her proud?"
While you got to love it --she is my wife afterall so I do love it-the real question is who is going to get us out of this economic mess? She and probably the 20 million new small business start-ups who like my wife who come up with a game changing idea that actually makes money, rather papers it over with derivatives, accounting changes to GAAP and the next form of credit default swaps.
Mind you I wish I had the brains to think up a legal and moral form of CDO's. That is why I am in MBA school to make me a more creative thinker -- I am seeing signs that might actually happen, but from a moral point of view, let's hope that some of the financial types out of work come back with some tangible substance buttered on challah.
Meanwhile, Jane is saving the economy one challah at a time.
Note: This is not a paid political announcement, all views herein are mine and not my wife's, the local caterer, customers, prospects or anyone connected with any government agency. But it could be a sales message.
Moving on. The real entrepreneur in the family is Jane Moritz now the owner of http://www.challahconnection.com. Jane bought http://www.challahonnection.com from sales guy about 6 years ago who had developed a business delivering challah every Friday morning via newspaper delivery people. Stuffed into postal service boxes, sometimes eaten by squirrels and deer with occasional protests from local postmasters, www.challahconnection.com is now a totally online business in the great tradition of catalogers stretching back to Sears and through Kati Muldoon, REI, Smith and Hawkins and even IBM.
Inventory arrives by UPS, USPS, FEDEX and delivery dudes in the morning and picked up as Jewish gift baskets by UPS, USPS, and FEDEX in the evening. Shiva baskets -- the event that marks a Jewish death for seven days after a funeral--are the big sellers, followed by Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanzaa (go figure), Jewish High Holidays, Purim and Passover. Working with Sherry, her underemployed Columbia MBA mom (she should have gone to Babson) and several high school girls who know how to tie a ribbon, the business has grown a great deal through Search and PPC and social media and live chat. Direct mail and advertising are duds.
Over the years she has taken over a few competitors who could not adapt to the new way of the web catalog. They plotzed.
Now I know the goods are good because when I leave little tastings around Babson as bribes to professors and administrators and fellow students, they just kvell. He who shall go nameless even said it reminded him of his mother's baking.
Todays promotion will make you plotz (see it in full living color on her website):
"Mother's Day is May 10! It's the day to make her kvell, plotz and see what a mensch you
are. Free shipping on all orders over $75. Use code FS09. Follow us on Twitter!
For Mother's Day, Give Your Mom Something to Plotz About!
Shop Now and Get Free Shipping!*She'll be so proud of you for getting a deal. Why not make
her proud?"
While you got to love it --she is my wife afterall so I do love it-the real question is who is going to get us out of this economic mess? She and probably the 20 million new small business start-ups who like my wife who come up with a game changing idea that actually makes money, rather papers it over with derivatives, accounting changes to GAAP and the next form of credit default swaps.
Mind you I wish I had the brains to think up a legal and moral form of CDO's. That is why I am in MBA school to make me a more creative thinker -- I am seeing signs that might actually happen, but from a moral point of view, let's hope that some of the financial types out of work come back with some tangible substance buttered on challah.
Meanwhile, Jane is saving the economy one challah at a time.
Note: This is not a paid political announcement, all views herein are mine and not my wife's, the local caterer, customers, prospects or anyone connected with any government agency. But it could be a sales message.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Why Do A Late Stage MBA? Renewal and Recasting
It ain't all about mergers and aquirsitions and IPOs. Its about education, renewal and recasting onself for the next 50 years.
I started this epic just after my father died in August 2006 at the age of 82. I had been thinking about graduate school for many years and decided I was not getting any younger, so it was time to get on the stick.
I am also looking at potentially a long life. My grandmother died last year at 104. My other grandmother at 94 and my great-grandfather died at 96. Early deaths in the family are clearly attributable to smoking and I don't smoke.
While I had been well known in the mid-90s through very early 2000's as a direct marketing expert, that is now "so last year." Direct and database marketing guru's had become dinosaurs, the new hot ticket was internet, social networking, search engine optimizers. Catalogers were now multi-channel merchants. Even my wife morphed from being a well known direct marketer to a search optimization queen and started a successful e-commerce site: www.challahconnection.com.
I figured if I am going to be a successful entrepreneur for myself, another company, VC's or non-profits, I had to take a radical approach for a guy entering his 50s. That approach is MBA school.
I started this epic just after my father died in August 2006 at the age of 82. I had been thinking about graduate school for many years and decided I was not getting any younger, so it was time to get on the stick.
I am also looking at potentially a long life. My grandmother died last year at 104. My other grandmother at 94 and my great-grandfather died at 96. Early deaths in the family are clearly attributable to smoking and I don't smoke.
While I had been well known in the mid-90s through very early 2000's as a direct marketing expert, that is now "so last year." Direct and database marketing guru's had become dinosaurs, the new hot ticket was internet, social networking, search engine optimizers. Catalogers were now multi-channel merchants. Even my wife morphed from being a well known direct marketer to a search optimization queen and started a successful e-commerce site: www.challahconnection.com.
I figured if I am going to be a successful entrepreneur for myself, another company, VC's or non-profits, I had to take a radical approach for a guy entering his 50s. That approach is MBA school.
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