Boston Startup School Launches | Education 2.0
As we continue this monumental year in the startup realm, we welcome a newcomer – Boston Startup School. Last week Boston Startup School officially launched and began with their inaugural class. The school aims to prepare recent college graduates for life working at a startup; and more specifically how to deliver and make progress in an environment filled with unknowns and various resource constraints. This is an area of which we’ve begun seeing great growth in as more graduates opt for the startup life, rather than searching out for the “corporate” job that could be less satisfying in most cases.
“There is a lot of energy around startups right now but not necessarily the same enthusiasm around the skills needed to be effective within one. That’s exactly where we come in: equipping individuals with real skills needed to have an immediate impact on the startup they join.”-says Shaun Johnson, Co-Founder and COO of Boston Startup School
Over the past few months Boston Startup School and it’s founders have reviewed hundreds of applications for their first class all while working very hard to get to know each and every candidate. (Something a “corporate” job would not do.) The diligence and tireless effort paid off and as a result came a hand-selected class 75 future entrepreneurs eager to begin their next adventure in life and to eventually join on with a local startup.
From their experience in TechStars Boston and Project 11 the founders of Boston Startup School saw a gap in the ecosystem: startups were looking for talent but struggled to find it. Boston Startup School set out to leverage the renewable resource of graduating seniors in Boston to fill that gap by adding to the education of entrepreneurial-minded Gen-Yers. The school has been designed to provide hard skills and develop soft skills that one would only receive on the job at a startup, and to do so well before being hired.
They’ve announced hiring partnerships with nine Boston-area companies (Brightcove, Dyn, Inc, Fiksu, Kyruus, Kinvey, Rue La La , Swipely, Trip Advisor, uTest) across a variety of categories, including: e-commerce, mobile applications, health care informatics, and advertising technology. Each company will engage with and screen Boston Startup School’s talented pool of participants from the software development, product & design, marketing and sales & business development tracks. These partnerships were designed to provide company-specific knowledge and evaluation opportunities over the six-week program to help students and partners identify the best match between great hires and
great jobs.
“The diversity we have at Boston Startup School is atypical in the average startup environment. Culturally, we are fostering a heterogenous mindset where it’s not just OK to be different, it’s encouraged.” – Shaun Johnson
To keep up with the upcoming fall class and Boston Startup School’s latest activity follow them on Twitter @BOStartupSchool or with hashtag #LearnToDo.
