How A Harvard MBA Started A Company to Pay for His Degree

He took back over as CEO when he returned and righted the ship for his company. Then he took another break as he worked for California-based Applied Ventures this past summer. In September, after returning from his first-ever taste of a “real job,” Schiller decided to push hard to release a premium MacBook storage upgrade. The result was a new product called TarDisk – a memory card that fits into the SD slot and holds up to 256 gigs of additional space.

At about that time, John Osher, the creator of the SpinPop battery-powered lollipop and the SpinBrush low-cost toothbrush – which Procter & Gamble had bought for nearly half a billion dollars in 2001 – spoke in one of Schiller’s classes. Schiller was blown away. “This guy was the real deal,” Schiller says. “I got his email address and cell phone number immediately.”

Schiller gave Osher a call to talk about TarDisk.

“I told him I wanted to do this and told him my idea but that I didn’t know how the hell to do it,” says Schiller. “He took an hour or so out of his day and I imagine he was sitting by a pool in Florida or something and gave me a game plan to make this company a success. First, he said I needed to actually go to Asia and meet the manufacturers face-to-face because it was all about building relationships.”

A POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGH AND INEVITABLE BREAKDOWN 

Schiller bought the cheapest plane ticket possible when leaving pretty much immediately. He called his contacts in Taiwan and told them he would be there the following Monday. In the days leading up to the trip, the topic under study in professor Kevin Mohan’s Negotiations and Deals class was doing business in Asia and business tactics with foreign manufacturers. And by coincidence, another course was covering similar material.

“The last class I went to before going to Logan to get on the plane was Bill Solomon’s Entrepreneurial Finance class,” Schiller says. “My suitcase was literally right outside the door so I could leave immediately after class and he was lecturing on young startups manufacturing in Taiwan.”

Two good omens, perhaps? Maybe not. Clearly, he was not the type of person officials at the Chinese company were accustomed to dealing with.

“That culture is very patriarchal and I think they were expecting a seasoned businessman,” Schiller says. “Instead they got a bright-eyed 20-something who looks like he is 16.”

Nevertheless, the negotiations went well and Schiller left with a handshake and agreement to have the product made in Taiwan. Disaster arrived a few days before the product was supposed to ship. “I wanted to hit the holiday shopping season and have the product ready in November,” Schiller says. “When I sent an email to check, they came back with that they didn’t want to work with me anymore and sent my money back. It was cold water to the face.”

A STEP BACK AND A KICKSTART

Schiller took a step back to reevaluate. And look closer to home to manufacture the product. He found out about a firearms maker in Massachusetts that used a fully automated manufacturing method known as “lights out” because in theory it can be done in total darkness. There’s little or no human influence or potential for human error. It’s a good way to cut costs and get the exact results required for making guns, and little cards to slide into laptops.

Three TarDisks (256, 128 and 64 gigs) were created and a Kickstarter campaign was launched a couple weeks ago. Within a week 100% of the funding goal of $32,500 was met. Total funding now stands at $81,353. Still, Schiller insists his work is not about the money and never has been (sans the amount needed to fund his MBA).

“The road trip was the first time I realized I could influence things much bigger than myself,” says Schiller. “The TarDisk was the first time I realized I could build a machine that would do things without me cranking it. I think it’s easy to keep track of the score in life when there are clear metrics to keep score with. Especially when you think about salary or dollars earned.

“These metrics are associated with success. But it’s not what we’re driving towards. Life is not about making money. Life is about experience and is a collection of experiences. We get a whole career to go out there and make experiences for ourselves and I’m excited every morning to make these experiences.”

DON’T MISS: 15 QUESTIONS FOR EVERY STARTUP MBA