Chief information officer and cofounder of a software company;
Providence, Rhode Island, USA

What I Do

I am responsible for the technology side of our software development company, which targets the insurance supply chain. My role as chief information officer (CIO) is to manage the product and technical development and bridge the gap between the domain (or insurance experts) and the technical staff. We deal with large commercial insurance risk data at the largest corporations; specifically, we offer tools to move data through the supply chain—from the corporate buyer at a Fortune 500 company, through their insurance broker, and ultimately to the insurance or reinsurance company.

I learned the technology piece, backed by years in the industry and a deep understanding of data supply chain issues.

The company is privately held and equity-financed. We have 35 employees.

What I Enjoy Most

I love a challenge. There is a new challenge every day with a company that is just three years old. We launched when I was getting my MBA part-time. There is no better way to experience how to manage a business and the people than to roll the MBA curriculum into real life.

What I Enjoy Least

By far, the most challenging piece of this now is the human resources aspect. There are a lot of ups and downs in a start-up, especially in this economy. It is a constant rollercoaster without breaks in between rides. We have to keep everyone motivated in that environment. One key thing I've learned is that you have to invest in getting the right people into the critical positions as quickly as possible. One place not to skimp is on key hires.

Why I Chose This Career

When I went back for an MBA, I didn't want to change my career overall, and I came into it knowing I wanted to start my own company. However, insurance was the industry I knew.

Along with a classmate of mine in the entrepreneurship course at Babson, I did a project about insurance and the Internet, which became this company eventually. All three founders had worked in the insurance domain and, together, we had touched all sides of the supply chain—suppliers, buyers, and intermediaries. We realized how we could solve insurance data problems for the world's largest corporations, like the energy giants.

Desirable Traits to Be Successful in This Career

You have to have the industry expertise or the technology (product) expertise to launch a company effectively—and preferably both.

I had 15 years in the industry, and I was able to learn the technology piece well enough to drive the development from the business side. Then I hired the key management and development staff to deliver the technology.

You have to reinvent yourself and your product concept regularly—and it's a little easier to do that in a smaller firm. For example, we started the concept thinking we would be a global insurance exchange (Internet-based), and instead we're selling software that solves the same original problem. We are now on our eighth version of the business plan in three years.

The traits I think are critical for a role like this are—

A willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. For example, we didn't have the software expertise right away.

A commitment to trying to hire people who are smarter than you are. You can't be the sort who is intimidated by that—after all, it's your own company and future at stake, so you have to leave your ego at the door.

Focus—set your goals and objectives and drive hard toward them. It's easy to get distracted, so you have to constantly reevaluate the business to make sure you're not losing sight of where you need to go.

Words of Advice If You Are Considering This Career Path

If you are looking to start a company, you have to have a very realistic business plan, particularly in this economy. Gone are the dot-com glory days of free-flowing financing, huge marketing budgets, and expensive office space. From the very beginning, you have to plan carefully and manage your resources very efficiently. You have to find creative ways to extract the most value from each dollar and individual because it will be a long time before you have all the resources you want or need.

Pay attention to your financial statements and make sure you manage your cash flow. If you aren't hitting your goals, make adjustments sooner than later—it will almost always take longer to get where you're going than you originally predicted.

Be prepared to make sacrifices—mostly personal, some professional. You have to be willing to make less than the big MBA salary for a while. In fact, you'll likely pay people who work for you more than you pay yourself. You have to be very committed to that reality for at least a couple of years, but likely a lot longer. Your success and compensation are tied very directly to the success of the company you start, particularly where stock and external investors are concerned. And you will almost always be the first person in and the last person out of the office every day (including weekends).

Last, many people do risk/reward evaluations when deciding if they'll start a company. If you constantly try and weigh every angle and option, you won't take the leap. In fact, I've always viewed starting a business as a low-risk, high-reward opportunity—particularly considering the lack of job security these days. The experience you get from building a business from the ground up will almost always outweigh the risks you take. Even if you don't succeed, you'll be better off for having tried.

What I Did Before This (Including Pre-MBA and Post-MBA Jobs)

I had 15 years in the risk management and loss prevention side of insurance. I worked my way up from an engineering representative for an insurance company and eventually became a corporate director in charge of safety. Later, I started a consulting firm with two other people, where we initially focused on Internet strategies for the insurance industry. We found that this concept was too early for the industry, so we ended up consulting to start-ups. We focused primarily on developing strategies and processes for generating revenue from e-business initiatives. One of my partners from that venture is one of the cofounders of our current company, too.

Educational Background (Undergraduate, MBA, Other)

MBA, Babson, evening program, 2001
Bachelor of science, Clarkson University, engineering and management, 1986

In MBA Programs, I'd Suggest You Look For...

A match of skill level and a knowledge of how you need to build on your expertise in class and in your career. I was looking for a part-time program in an entrepreneurial school. Starting a company while in a part-time MBA allowed me to digest and apply everything I learned in a course to my company's pursuits.

I chose the part-time evening program because I had 15 years of experience and could bring that to a classroom of people like me, then immediately apply it at work. In class, I found value in being able to say, "I did that a certain way and it did or did not work out." Then, I could see other approaches that might have worked better. Perhaps the drawback of a part-time program is that it doesn't allow for connecting courses that might be advantageous when taken simultaneously. And you aren't living the MBA thing every day, but that worked for me because I wasn't looking to reinvent myself entirely with the degree. I was looking to be better at moving this company along.

I also believe it is important that professors have real-world experience and that the student body is diverse. I found that I had to really seek out diversity in part-time programs. Because they feed from the local business community, you might end up with less cultural diversity in a part-time program, but you gain a whole lot of work diversity and depth of experience in your classmates. Consider the trade off and which is most important to you.