Using The H-Bomb To Build A Business

A SITE FOR THE SOON-TO-BE-HITCHED

And so Riley & Grey was created. Gibbons had the marketing and business background and passion to create something better in the space. Her husband just happened to own a software development startup, working with some highly proficient designers. Gibbons was set.

Through Riley & Grey, soon-to-be-hitched couples can create a website with a custom domain name and design, organize guest addresses and collect RSVPs. The sites are, of course, compatible with mobile, tablets and desktops.

And now to keep her venture running successfully, Gibbons draws from lessons learned from her Harvard and summer camp experiences. “We take a lot of risks in a lot of the decisions we make,” Gibbons says. “We are very data driven. The co-founders are engineers and college huge amounts of data but it’s still difficult to be sure in any decision. I constantly have to get over any fear or hesitancy. The HBS experience helps me stay as confident as I can be.”

MORE THAN ONE WAY TO TEACH ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Still, Gibbons believes how entrepreneurship is taught at business schools could use a few tweaks. “In the MBA education I think that, especially some of the schools having close ties to the venture capital community like Stanford or Harvard, we are only shown one version of entrepreneurship,” Gibbons says. “And that’s the version that you raise a million dollars and scale and then focus on profitability. But that’s just one way and does not work for every type of business or person.”

Gibbons believes that there should be more content around bootstrapping and small business development. “Not everyone starts out the Facebook way,” Gibbons says. “Most businesses aren’t built that way. Tough decisions are made whether or not you have venture funding. And more needs to be taught on how to make tough decisions if you don’t have huge funding.

“There’s a misconception between building the next Facebook or having the restaurant around the corner,” explains Gibbons. “But there are a ton of other businesses in between those two levels. The case method is really good, but I think there needs to be different classes for different ideas and products. There are ways to build profitability without investors and those methods should be taught more.”

‘MY FRIENDS AND I CALL IT THE H-BOMB.’

However, when walking into an investor pitch, Gibbons admits having the Harvard label attached often leads to preconceived ideas. “I mean, I don’t know if it was more the MBA thing or the Harvard or a combination of both, but investors definitely have some immediate responses,” Gibbons says. “My friends and I call it the H-Bomb. When you say Harvard either people respond like you are the smartest person in the world or they roll their eyes and you’ve already lost them.”

Nevertheless, Gibbons says the MBA has helped her “hugely” in the startup world. “Sometimes even the most talented engineers can build a product but if they don’t know how to build around that product, you can’t invest in them,” Gibbons explains. “Having a baseline knowledge of how markets and businesses work is huge.”

As Gibbons continues to make tough market and business decisions—with or without a ton of investment dollars—she keeps her ideals in mind. “There’s a lot of ideas in the entrepreneurship community about where to place your personal life,” says Gibbons. “You have to be willing to starve and die for your business. But that’s a myth and a ridiculous ideal. It’s super silly. I’ve been with my husband for over a decade, we met when we were 18. And now I have a daughter. And I have to work really hard at it, but I’m super grateful for those relationships.”

DON’T MISS: HARVARD’S CASE METHOD TO BE USED IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS? or WHY BUSINESS SCHOOLS ARE STILL MISSING THE MARK ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP