Alternatives to College: Get Paid to Learn

As part of the research for my book, To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear, I’ve been researching alternatives to college. Given how COVID impacted universities, I think people are being forced to reconsider the real value of traditional college. A traditional 4-year college is not the right choice for everyone. It...

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How universities can help students and alumni work in the tech industry

“CEO is the new Analyst.” My former Partner John Frankel of ff Venture Capital observes that 20 years ago, the defining movie of the generation was “Wall Street”.  Everyone wanted to work in finance. But now, the defining movie of today’s twentysomethings is “The Social Network”. Everyone wants to work in tech startups.   So...

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How K-12 education will improve and what to do in the meantime

(This is an essay I wrote while doing background for my book, To University and Beyond: Launch Your Career in High Gear.) Public K-12 education is, on the average, abysmal. Higher education is becoming hugely expensive without a corresponding improvement in services. While the best US universities continue to dominate international rankings, the rest of...

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How ff Venture Capital works with universities and students

I meet with a lot of people from the academic world, so I thought it would be helpful to summarize how ff Venture Capital works with universities.  Our main goals are: to understand the cutting edge of new disciplines; meet potential founders/employees; and also to help the broader technology and research community. Currently, our relationship works along...

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Free Video: How to Hack Your MBA

Evisors just posted the video from my recent webinar on “How to Hack Your MBA”. Since 1992, I’ve been working on a book tentatively titled “Hack your Education: How to Squeeze Maximum Value from College or Graduate School”. I’ve posted on my site the expanded slides from the webinar and a draft of the book....

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America’s educational system is broken

I was fortunate to attend Wednesday the CED’s Postsecondary Education Summit on Business Leadership for 21st Century Education Policies, as well as their annual fundraising dinner.  The CED is a leader in leveraging the business community to promote rational economic policies; I was very impressed by the people they have on their team. After opening remarks...

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