Building a venture while finishing your MBA

Three student founders currently run ventures out of the Udyam incubation desk while completing coursework. We asked them the only question that matters to anyone considering it: what does the week actually look like?

The week, honestly

All three described roughly the same split. Mornings belong to the programme and are non-negotiable — attendance and coursework are not something the cell can protect you from. Afternoons are fragmented. Evenings and Sundays belong to the venture.

The thing nobody tells you is that customers do not care that you have a submission on Thursday.

The founder running a logistics venture put it most bluntly: the calendar conflict is permanent and the only real skill is deciding quickly which side loses this week.

What the programme gives you that you could not buy

• A free customer panel. Ninety classmates who will tell you your pricing is wrong before the market does.
• Faculty with operating history. Several teach precisely because they have run companies; office hours become a de facto advisory board.
• The mentor bench. Industry Connect mentors include founders who have raised capital in this region and will say plainly what is fundable.
• A deadline structure. The annual pitch day forces a version of the product to exist by a specific date.

What it costs

All three were candid that their grades are not what they would have been. Two said placement preparation was the real casualty — a rational trade if the venture works and an expensive one if it does not. The cell's standing advice is to decide early which outcome you are optimising for, because trying to do both at full intensity produces a mediocre version of each.

If you are considering it

Start in the first year, not the second. Use the club structure before the incubation desk — a case competition is a cheap way to discover whether an idea survives contact with people who are not your friends. And tell your faculty early; they are considerably more accommodating when they are not finding out from your attendance record.