MBA for X…

When I first got involved with Lambda school, I went through a phase where I looked for any business applying the Lambda approach to their industry. Ultimately, I invested in two, SV Academy, training entry level sales people, and FourthRev, training DevOps folks. Those have been very good investments. I also looked at a couple of hundred others that couldn’t quite make the online + pay when you get a job model work in their industry. Most notably, I have not found the right company in health care, though I think one may happen.

One of the areas I have gotten very interested in is business training for all kinds of people that don’t typically have MBA’s. Doctors moving into administration would be a good example of people that need a more focused program than the ad-hoc coaching they get as they begin to manage people and budgets. Someone running a restaurant is another good example. If you can’t market and you don’t understand spreadsheets, it doesn’t matter what kind of cook you are. I think there are about 1000 areas where people are under-trained in business fundamentals — management, finance, marketing, the things you learn at business school.

The question of course is whether these need to be accredited programs with all of the bells and whistles to serve their markets. I don’t think so, but I do think making them stackable so that someone can earn an MBA over time is a big plus. And getting your school accredited, or getting other schools to take transfer credit, is still a lot of work, but getting easier. And wikipedia says there are over 1,000,000 restaurants and several times that many doctors.

If this is an area you have been exploring, please send me a note. This is an area I want to invest.