Rick Dude

The University of Texas at Austin, McCombs School of Business

“A technologist and entrepreneur, I plan to manage my own private equity fund after school.”

Hometown: Northport, AL

Fun Fact About Yourself: I am the current Treasurer, and player, for the Austin Huns Rugby Football Club.

Undergraduate School and Major: American Intercontinental University, Information Technology major.

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Rocket Dollar – Co-Founder and CTO

What makes Austin such a great place to earn an MBA? UT Austin, nestled in the city, is at the convergence of business, entrepreneurship, and technology, with a very strong get-it-done culture, typical of Texas. Austin is currently in the midst of explosive growth, giving so many post-graduate opportunities to UT Austin MBAs.

Aside from your classmates and location, what was the key part of Texas McCombs’ MBA programming that led you to choose this business school and why was it so important to you?  The McCombs program is well known for entrepreneurship and finance. Given that my goal is to support entrepreneurs through growth equity investments after school, I felt the school would give me the tools and network to be successful.

What course, club or activity excites you the most at Texas McCombs? I am extremely excited to recruit for Venture Fellows. The program gives students a unique opportunity to work the VC and PE deal process while also earning class credit and would give me an excellent foundation for my future life.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:  My largest accomplishment has been launching and supporting the growth of Rocket Dollar’s self-directed IRA product from infancy to its current level of 360MM in assets. This achievement led to the closing of an $8MM Series A investment for growth.

How did COVID-19 change your perspective on your career and your life in general?  COVID gave me time to reflect that I needed to take a more active approach to achieving my goals. I have been around finance as a technologist for 10 years, but COVID motivated me to push through the process to pause entrepreneurship and pursue my MBA.  It gave me the space to self-reflect and understand what I needed to do to grow.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point and what do you hope to do after graduation? I have been on the entrepreneur’s side of the table with institutional investors for most of my career. As an entrepreneur, you have the opportunity to drive change through your vision, and that’s exciting. However, as an investor, you have the opportunity to find and partner with entrepreneurs of all kinds, and that gives another level of perspective and engagement that I think is hard to achieve as a founder. I am excited for my transition into finance and believe that I can be a meaningful part of the next 20 years of technological transformation we will experience as a society.

What other MBA programs did you apply to? I applied to Harvard, Wharton, and Stanford due to their reputation in the VC and PE world, and I applied to MIT as I had an affinity to the school as a technologist.

What advice would you give to help potential applicants gain admission into Texas McCombs’ MBA program?  Be yourself. McCombs values authenticity over all else and takes students of all kinds.  Take pride in your achievements and have the self-awareness to know where you can grow, and how McCombs can help you get there.