Colton Margus, Maria Iliakova, Steve Wang, Doc Doc Go, NYU Stern
IMPROVING HEALTHCARE
Not surprisingly, the healthcare industry is ripe for disruption—and MBAs were quick to answer the call. At the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, Alfred Landik created Cell Mind, whose AI capabilities can increase a patient’s eligibility for the CAR-T cancer therapy. The firm has even been given access to patient data by Johns Hopkins’ cancer center to better hone its AI algorithm. To combat Lyme disease, MIT Sloan’s LymeAlert is marketing the industry’s first early detection testing kit. After experiencing how difficult it is to apply for temporary physician positions, Colton Margus and Maria Iliakova launched Doc Doc Go.
“Our solution allows physicians to easily store, access, and update all their credentials in one place, accessible anytime and anywhere,” explains Margus, a ’24 grad of New York University’s Stern School. “By transforming the lengthy, multi-month onboarding process into a seamless, near-instant experience, we help doctors start work faster, boosting the supply of physicians available to hospitals, and ultimately enabling better patient care.”
While Doc Doc Go helps physician find their credentials, CLARA is designed to be “air traffic control” – a mapping solution where users can locate hospital staff, patients, and resources in real time. Conceptualized by Melinda Yormick, a RN and MBA graduate of the University of Washington’s Foster School, CLARA was inspired by a tragedy – and designed to reduce such events in the future.
“[It was] a patient who lost his life not due to his procedure but because essential equipment and clinicians couldn’t reach him in time. This is not an isolated issue, but a global standard that leaves patients at risk daily. CLARA exists to change this, providing real-time, precise location data for people and equipment.”
THE NEXT eBAY?
Let’s not forget finance and insurance startups. That includes CoFund, a microlending platform started by a University of Virginia Darden School MBA that pairs borrowers with local community investors. For insurers, Henk van Biljon has built Fount, courtesy of a $1.1 million dollar injection of capital. Using AI to tap into actuarial science and marketing data, Fount enables insurers to target the right people using the right strategies. The genesis of the startup, van Biljon admits, originated from coding actuarial software – and seeing how ineffective it invariably was.
“[My co-founder and I] saw every day how disconnected data silos and a clutter of software systems led to inefficient decisions, wasting millions of dollars in the process,” adds van Biljon, who earned his MBA at MIT Sloan in 2024. “With the latest advancements in AI foundation models, we could clearly see a future where insurance marketers have access to a single system that allows them to quickly make hyper-informed strategic decisions.”
Annie Xu, Pairfect, Wharton School
While many disruptive MBA startups may only be two or three years old, they are quickly racking up impressive milestones. Encore is an online reseller of high-end collectibles out of the University of Chicago’s Booth School. The founds aspire for Encore to someday replace eBay. Not only has the firm reeled in $2.15 million dollars in investment, but it has also processed over 400,000 transactions. ANNDERSTAND is a fashion brand founded at the Cambridge Judge Business School by Ge Yu. Last year, it was featured at London Fashion Week, along with garnering media coverage from the likes of the BBC and Vogue. While matchmaking is considered an oversaturated market to some, the Wharton School’s Pairfect continues to attract opportunities and accolades.
“Pairfect has received over $100K in funding through grants from the University of Pennsylvania, being a finalist in the University of Pennsylvania’s Start-Up Challenge, participating in an accelerator ran by University of Pennsylvania’s Venture Lab, and winning a consumer-centric pitch competition hosted by Maveron and Contrary Capital,” writes Annie Xu, a consultant and counselor before business school.
“Our biggest accomplishments have been seeing our clients enter long-term relationships, with some who have been dating since the time we first piloted our service almost two years ago.”
OVERCOMING THE TOUGHEST HURDLES
Besides the successes, these startups have weathered the usual obstacles that have doomed lesser ventures before them. Babson College’s Aleksandr Malashchenko launched ReviMo, a robotic assistant to help with independent living. To pinpoint the right customer segment, Malashchenko conducted over 150 interviews, from patients to nurses to insurers. At Arizona State’s W. P. Carey School, Jeff Watkins started Proper Pack, a sustainable plastic packaging solution. His biggest challenge? Focusing his time on the business aspects with the highest possible returns. That meant wading through all the competing priorities, adds Skuling’s Yudha Pratama Situmorang.
“In the startup world, it’s not just about cracking the market—it’s also a race against time. You have countless ideas for growing your product, but with limited budget and resources, you can only develop one at a time. Learning to prioritize the most impactful features.”
Like every firm ofNthe Disruptive MBA Startups list, there is the perpetual “need for cold hard cash” – in the words of NYU Stern’s Colton Margus. Ruben Antonio Quesada’s launched Sabana, a construction tech platform, at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School before landing a spot at TechStars. For him, the biggest challenge was finding a co-founder – “someone who is as invested in the business as you are, can complement your blind spots, and believe in the same vision.” Regulatory hurdles bedeviled Maximilian Martin as he built his FinTech, CoFund. All the while, Kiro’s Alisha Chowdhury struggled to shed the “non-technical” label since her background was in investments and not engineering.
“Many people questioned if I would be able to build an AI product without having that expertise,” admits the ’24 London Business School grad. “However, the technical acumen and expertise gained as an investor during the first part of my career has been invaluable in allowing me to build a product focused on financial education and planning. To learn the technical side of the product, I started building our solution on low code solutions, took online courses on AI, ML, RAG, and NLP, and networked extensively in the AI space to learn from subject-matter experts. I built a team of AI and deep learning engineers who now work with us part-time or as advisors and mentors.”
Alisha Chowdhury, Kiro, London Business School
DEEP SUPPORT FROM THE BUSINESS SCHOOLS
MBA students faced additional stumbling blocks in building their businesses. LymeAlert’s Erin Dawicki points out that all of her MIT classmates had strong job offers before graduating – meaning everyone had to commit fully to the venture. This reality, however, forced founders to have those “difficult conversations” and establish company culture and norms early on. Beyond rallying around a cause, says Georgetown McDonough’s Dumi Mabhena, MBA founders had to set priorities as the demands of classes and extracurriculars weighed down on them.
“Juggling academics with startup responsibilities was incredibly demanding,” Mabhena acknowledges. “We solved this by leveraging our partnership as co-founders. By dividing tasks based on our strengths and supporting each other during intense academic periods, we managed to keep Shanda moving forward. This approach not only helped us navigate the dual pressures but also strengthened our partnership and company foundation. It taught us the critical importance of teamwork and adaptability in entrepreneurship.”
In every case, these MBA founders had the backing of their business schools. Mabhena broke down the benefits of the McDonough MBA into four buckets: access to capital, expertise, space, and networks. His Disruptive MBA peers would agree. At Babson College’s Olin Graduate School, Tina Lee built Petch, a platform that reduces veterinarian administrative duties while fostering better communications with customers. While revealing that entrepreneurship can sometimes be a lonely path, she adds that Babson College brought together an “amazing” community to “co-work, share ideas, and learn from each other.” Even more, explains UC Berkeley’s Ghazaleh Sadooghi, the faculty list often features seasoned experts in their fields.
Ghazaleh Sadooghi, RUMI, UC Berkeley Haas
“Pricing is a common challenge for early-stage startups. When we faced difficulties in this area, I easily arranged a meeting with our marketing strategy professor, Bill Pearce. With experience as the former CMO of Del Monte and Taco Bell and marketing director at Procter & Gamble, his insights were invaluable, guiding us to think about pricing strategies in innovative ways beyond simply lowering prices.”
At the same time, faculty were happy to open their rolodexes to their student founders. Case in point: Bill Vrattos, a finance professor at Harvard Business School. “He was the first professor I spoke to about my idea,” says John Maslin. “He instantly connected me to people in his network who I would not have been able to otherwise access. Several of our past and current advisors were from his direct help and willingness to share his network.”
ALUMNI TO THE RESCUE
Tapping faculty members isn’t the only way to make connections in business school. At USC’s Marshall School, Andrey Chabanov, the founder of RampMeDaddy, gained audiences in the Asian banking community during a school-sponsored trip to Singapore and Thailand. Others found a welcoming alumni community. That’s particularly true at Notre Dame University, a purpose-driven university where students connect over shared experience like faith and football. At the Mendoza College of Business, Simba Mubvuma developed Day1 AI, which connects non-profits to sources of support – and each other too. And Mubvuma is quick to credit the alumni for his startup’s success.
“My professors and alumni connections have been invaluable—from helping refine our pitch to introducing us to potential funders and mentors. The Notre Dame community genuinely has your back. And honestly, Notre Dame is probably one of the only places where, if I ever needed to talk to Tom Mendoza (the person our business school is named after), he’d likely take my call. That kind of accessibility and support is just unmatched.”
In some cases, business schools offer specialized support in certain sectors. Look no further than the Tangen Hall on the University of Pennsylvania campus. Here, MBAs can take advantage of the Food Lab, a space where they can develop concepts related to food and beverage and enjoy support needed to build infrastructure. The building even includes a pop-up store where they can test various marketing and product concepts. For Megan Burton, co-founder of BrainFood Industries, the Tangen Food Lab served as a critical resource in getting their venture off the ground.
“It’s far more than a community kitchen—it’s a space where Penn students can test and develop their CPG product ideas. Under the leadership of Lauren Hooks, a former chef and restaurateur, the Food Lab became an integral part of BrainFood’s early development. Lauren’s industry knowledge and connections led me to my current co-manufacturer. Beyond that, the Food Lab provided a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, navigating the same challenges and offering support along the way.”
COMPETITIONS, COURSES, AND ECOSYSTEMS
Yudha Pratama Situmorang, Skuling, Boston University Questrom
Of course, there are competitions that require MBAs to ask themselves the tough questions so they can hone their models and strategies – not to mention their pitches and slide decks. For Dhinil Patel, the INSEAD Venture Competition provided feedback that helped him identify weak spots in their approach. More than that, it “stress-test(ed)” the co-founders’ relationship.
“Going through the challenges of the competition—working long hours, making high-stakes decisions, and managing the pressure to perform—gave Simon and I a unique chance to build trust and understand each other’s strengths and working styles,” explains Patel. “It confirmed that we could effectively navigate the inevitable ups-and-downs of a startup journey together, and it cemented our shared vision for the venture.”
The coursework provided another advantage to MBA founders. From Entrepreneurial Selling to New Venture Development, students received a mix of research-tested practices and hard-won experience that revealed the pivotal moments and common mistakes that define a venture’s longevity. Best of all, students could apply this expertise in real time to their ventures. Outside of class, the entrepreneurship programming would often toughen up their students. Just ask Yudha Pratama Situmorang, whose school’s Build Lab initially declined to fund his venture.
“It was tough being turned down by my own school. However, this experience made me more resilient. I went on to meet with 7-8 VCs, learning that rejection is a normal part of the process. That persistence paid off when we successfully raised funds from our investor, ADRA Canada, which was a major milestone for our company.”
Off campus, the local ecosystem can be equally vital to student founders. In Austin, Texas, Sean Finney loved how there was never “more than two degrees of separation from someone who could help” – be it a legal, marketing, or operational issue. St. Louis welcomes entrepreneurs, says Franklin Taylor, who started his Sustain-a-Plate grocery inventory management solution at Washington University’s Olin School. He loves how regional players sponsor “meetups, industry talks, pitch competitions, and happy hours” – not to mention maintain a variety of accelerators and funds to support founders. Of course, there is the vaunted New York City ecosystem, which seemingly offers something for everyone.
“Being based in New York City [at Cornell Tech] has allowed us to conduct market research and talk to our customers, most of the time in person,” explains Faris Bseiso. “There aren’t many cities that have the pool of industries, demographics, and perspectives that a startup can tap into. From diversity-focused ad agencies to the world’s major music labels and production companies, we’ve been able to learn from the best of every vertical we’re tackling…Many think New York City is hyper-competitive, but we’ve found the people here to be extremely supportive and willing to help the ambitious.”
Next Page: Profiles of 41 Disruptive MBA Startups
