The Most Disruptive MBA Startups Of 2022

THE BEST ADVICE OF ALL

Alas, you don’t have to lay siege to Sand Hill Road or Kendall Square to be a real entrepreneur.  Just ask Babson College’s Connor Harbison. In business school, he founded Atlas Urban Farms, which uses vertical farms to provide fresher produce to chefs. He doesn’t take his inspiration from Steve Jobs or Nikola Tesla. Instead, he looks back on the entrepreneurs he worked alongside in rural Montana. That’s because they practiced the unadorned fundamentals that enable businesses to thrive wherever they’re found.

“I think most people assume that a startup has to be a mobile app, has to raise venture capital, and has to be based in Silicon Valley,” Harbison observes. “I worked with some of the scrappiest, most resourceful, and most dedicated founders during my time in the Rocky Mountains. They showed me that entrepreneurship isn’t about shiny slide decks or raising capital; what it’s really about is solving a problem, building a sustainable solution, and most importantly being able to adapt when things don’t work out the way you’d planned.”

When it comes to advice for future MBA entrepreneurs, you’d be hard-pressed to top this nugget from Anna Shuford, who graduated this spring from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Here, she started BOOMROOM, which helps fitness professionals build their brands and client bases. With fitness centers shutting down during COVID, Shuford identified an opportunity for a group to strike out to the unexplored deep end and hoist their pirate flag. That means taking a leap of faith in themselves – their vision, values, and vigor – undeterred by risks, rejections, and recriminations. Or, in the words of Shuford…

“If something scares the hell out of you, do it.”

2022 MOST DISRUPTIVE MBA STARTUPS

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