All About The Cornell Tech MBA

In this conversation, Harold Simansky and Gavriella Semaya discuss Cornell Tech, a school that focuses on technology and entrepreneurship. They talk about the facilities and resources available at Cornell Tech, as well as the unique experiences and opportunities it offers to students. Gavriela shares her personal experience at Cornell Tech and how it helped her gain skills in the digital economy and product management. They also discuss the types of candidates who would be a good fit for Cornell Tech.

Takeaways

• Cornell Tech is a school that is purely geared towards technology and entrepreneurship.
• The campus at Cornell Tech is cutting-edge and offers state-of-the-art facilities.
• Students at Cornell Tech have the opportunity to work on real-world projects and gain hands-on experience.
• Cornell Tech is a great option for anyone interested in technology and the digital economy.
• The school is known for its strong focus on product management and prepares students for roles in companies like Amazon and Google.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the mbaMission podcast
• 0:19 The Cornell Tech MBA
• 1:30 Roosevelt Island campus
• 2:32 An immersive experience
• 4:23 Pitch competitions
• 6:08 Gavi's background and decision to go to Cornell Tech
• 7:56 Who is a good candidate for Cornell Tech?
• 9:10 Work with mbaMission on YOUR Cornell tech application

Transcript

Harold Simansky (00:11)
Hi, this is Harold Simansky at mbaMission with the mbaMission Podcast.

I'm here once again with my colleague, Gavriela Semaya. Hi, Gavi. Hi, right now we're here to talk about a great school, a great school that you happen to go to and a school that's actually changed quite a bit over the last few years, and that's Cornell Tech. So tell me about Cornell Tech.

Gavriella Semaya (00:20)
Bye Harold.

Mm -hmm.

Yes.

So Cornell Tech, the first thing I should say is that when I attended, it was, we literally called it V1 because we were the first real cohort. So everything was very scrappy. There was no Roosevelt Island campus. We worked out of a little corner office that Google had kindly loaned us in their Manhattan building. But today, you have this incredible campus that was purpose -built with Verizon sponsors, Tata sponsors, it's cutting edge. So just from a facilities perspective,

It's an incredible place to be. But I think fundamentally why Cornell Tech stands out is because it's one of the few programs that is purely geared towards technology and entrepreneurship. You don't have to be an aspiring founder, but you do have to have an interest in technology. So that's kind of first and foremost what I would say about it. So anyone who's interested in technology, I think if you know that that's where you're headed, it's a great option.

Harold Simansky (01:33)
Gavi, I'm going to just interject for one second here. I was with my son traveling around New York City and there was an exit to get onto Roosevelt Island. So I took that exit in order to see the campus. And it's if I went through a time warp.

Gavriella Semaya (01:42)
Mm -hmm.

Harold Simansky (01:49)
It was like a wormhole in Manhattan. You go from the hustle bustle grittiness of Manhattan to this absolutely beautiful spacecraft from another land. And it was fantastic. And we stopped at Cornell Tech and really just the resources were so clear. The location was so clear. And I have to say, I was really swept off my feet when all of a sudden. sudden.

Gavriella Semaya (01:58)
Yep.

It's they were really thoughtful about how they designed it in terms of creating spaces that foster collaboration creative, you know creating spaces that Allow people to be hands -on. There's kind of a lot of flexibility and dynamism kind of built into it and you know, there are also companies that have you know, sort of What's the word I'm looking for satellite offices or stations there so there's like built -in integration with companies that you might be Targeting which is actually another

really strong point, I think, for Cornell Tech, which is that they build in that immersive experience into the program itself. So in the fall, students participate in what's called Big Co. Basically, it's a consulting partnership sponsored by any number of companies where they have a particular problem. Two MBA students are paired with two masters in computer science students, and you have to solve that problem. So you get that kind of.

Harold Simansky (02:48)
Yeah.

Gavriella Semaya (03:03)
corporate experience of intrapreneurship, as they call it. And then, you know, in the spring, it's big studio, where it's the same kind of two and two, two MBA students, two computer science students, and you're launching a startup. And they really put you through your paces. There's hackathons to get it off the ground. There are pitch competitions. I will never forget, you know, it was every week we all kind of had to line up and nominate someone from our team.

Harold Simansky (03:04)
Yes. Yep.

Yeah.

Gavriella Semaya (03:29)
to go up in front of, I think it was David Tisch at the time, who's one of the founders of Techstars, and give our one minute pitch. And we got, but you learn so much. I mean, at first it's embarrassing at first and you're awkward, but you learn so much from week to week and from other people doing it. And to me, it's the most realistic simulation. And then they bring in speakers from the industry every week and it's the most intimate panel. I mean, you're there with.

Harold Simansky (03:41)
You know? Yeah, it's just the worst.

Gavriella Semaya (03:58)
40, 50 students total, students lead the panels with our member for us, Eric Schmidt was there one day, it was Ariana Huffington, Evan Spiegel. So, you know, people who are really in the industry, leaders in their fields, and then they're in this unvarnished environment, they tend to get a lot more candid. So I think Cornell Tech brings a lot of unique experiences that if you're interested in those areas, it's so, so valuable.

Harold Simansky (04:04)
Wow. Yeah.

I just remember, I just remember I love pitch competitions. I really love them. I remember the first time I did one, hi everybody, I'm Harold. It was absolutely frightening. And at some point you're listening to people and you're like, this person's really good. This person isn't good. And then you realize this person was terrific. I just don't know what they're talking about.

Gavriella Semaya (04:29)
Mm -hmm.

Hahaha!

Yes. And there's, there's not always, you can have a lot of charisma and not a lot of substance and vice versa. I mean, I shouldn't, I probably shouldn't disclose what our startup was. We were four people who were not planning to be founders in life. And so ours was party in a box. True story. It was essentially what it sounds like, everything you need to host an off the cuff party. So let's say you want to throw a party tonight. We would, you would.

Harold Simansky (04:48)
Yeah.

Yes.

Okay.

Gavriella Semaya (05:12)
ping us and we would give you a box with all of the things that you needed to throw party decorations, cups, snacks, whatever it was. And we taped posters up throughout the subway in the city, you know, with our Twitter handle at the time saying, if you're interested in a free party in the box, you know, ping us. And then we literally went around and delivered them.

Harold Simansky (05:25)
Okay.

Okay. Did you really? So how many people did you end up getting pinged by?

Gavriella Semaya (05:39)
I mean, I think maybe eight or nine people all across the city. Yeah. One was David Chang's company, his food company, his corporate headquarters. So that was fun. He was not there at the time, but...

Harold Simansky (05:42)
Okay.

that's cool. That's fun. Yeah, yeah, that's a lot of fun. The reality is, man, if you can get one person to actually buy your product, that is more important than any PowerPoint you might do. So.

Gavriella Semaya (06:03)
Very true, very true. Not a lot of PowerPoints at Cornell Tech. I will say that.

Harold Simansky (06:07)
I can imagine, I can imagine. Great. So one thing that's important to note, Gabi, is you were not a technology person before you went to Google Tech. So what was your background and what was the decision? Clearly, it sounds like it would have been more natural in some ways to go to your traditional two -year MBA program.

Gavriella Semaya (06:14)
No. No.

Yeah. And I think I definitely considered it, you know, very seriously. And in some, there's a part of me that still wishes I had gotten that traditional program, which is kind of why I love this idea of the one plus one that they're now offering one year at the traditional MBA, one year at Cornell Tech. For me, you know, take you all the way back to 2014, e -commerce was still, you know, kind of blowing up at the time. Things like flash sales were blowing up and I was in retail at the time and I was running Kate Spade's

They called them flash sales back in the day. They don't really do that anymore. But back in the day, it was, you know, it had overnight, it turned into this hundred million dollar business. And I just thought, this is so interesting. And the way it, you know, the challenges of what product you have, you know, in that context, it's not going to cannibalize your full price stores and or your full price sales channels. And how do you position things differently online versus offline? What's the connection there? This concept of omni channel was brand new. And so for me,

Harold Simansky (06:58)
Okay.

I'm going to stay here.

Gavriella Semaya (07:22)
Going to Cornell Tech, it was sort of like, well, I know I want to be at the forefront of this digital e -commerce in retail, which was still evolving at the time. And so that's kind of why I wanted to be there. It wasn't so much that I wanted to be a tech founder or that I wanted to work for a tech company, but I wanted to better understand the digital economy and the different kind of levers that are going on. And I got skills that I don't think I would have gotten anywhere else.

Harold Simansky (07:29)
Yes, right.

Gavriella Semaya (07:52)
I know far more about startups now than I ever would have, and I went on to work for startups as a result.

Harold Simansky (07:57)
That's neat. That's really neat and when you have a client now comes to you, who do you think is a good candidate for Cornell Tech?

Gavriella Semaya (08:04)
I think, as we said, aspiring founders in technology, I do think that is a valid place to go and say, that's what I want to do. They want you to turn out startups. They want you to develop it there. The other piece that they're really, really strong at is product management, which is sort of when you are that person in between the engineers and the sales team, the marketing team.

Harold Simansky (08:13)
Okay.

Gavriella Semaya (08:29)
And so that's a really unique skill because you have to understand the engineering piece without necessarily being one yourself. And so much of it is learning to speak that language. So being paired with computer science students, you know, it really prepares you for that. And they have strong recruiting in those areas. A lot of people graduate into PM roles at Amazon, at Google, and so on.

Harold Simansky (08:50)
Yes. No, that makes sense. Great. Great. Well, Gabi, this was really helpful. Clearly, you're a big booster for Cornell Tech. As am I, having been there, having seen it, having clients who have gone there, it's just a fantastic place. Yeah.

Gavriella Semaya (08:58)
Hahaha.

Yeah, I hope it keeps growing. I think it's a really valuable additional piece in the MBA landscape, if you will.

Harold Simansky (09:10)
Yeah, no, that's great then. Well, Gavi, thank you very much. This is Harold Simansky with Gavriela Semaya at mbaMission. And by all means, give us a call. Everyone is entitled to a free 30 minute consult. Come talk to me, come talk to Gavi, come talk to one of our colleagues. Bye, Gavi.

Gavriella Semaya (09:27)
Thanks, Harold. Take care.