Value of an MBA after the Financial Crisis - Come Hear Me Speak at Stanford

This is late notice...only because I wasn't ready to announce it until I had my speech written. That's the way I operate. Anyway, tomorrow night (Tuesday 5/12) I'll be speaking at Stanford, discussing the impact of the financial crisis on both business school and life after.

While applications are certainly up this year and many people are espousing a business school bubble, I'm here to say that no matter how you slice it, an advanced degree is worth it's weight in gold, both immediately and throughout your career. Nobody can tell me that two candidates of similar work experience won't be differentiated because one has an MBA. Bull. Up, down, any economy... an MBA is a ticket.

Look back thirty or forty years when a college education was a differentiating factor. Well now that's what graduate school is. Sure you can succeed and excel without one, but the doors that an MBA opens are too numerous to count.

Come and join me. It's free and refreshments will be served.

Nickel and Dimed... Anyone Else Getting Tired of Being Screwed?

Think about the last time you bought a plane ticket. You probably went to Orbitz, Farecast, Kayak, or some other airline aggregator. Maybe they even showed you a fare which was fairly reasonable. In reality, it was far from what you ended up paying. It's not entirely their fault. See, they don't include the taxes and fees in the price they show you. And the taxes and fees can be exorbitant. And they can vary widely from carrier to carrier and route to route. It's actually becoming ridiculous how they keep tacking fees on. Like that fuel surcharge last year. Do you think they even thought about rescinding it now that fuel is half the price? Not a chance. They've become dependent on it.

It's not over there though. Then you go to the airport and want to check a bag. A frickin bag?! God forbid you want to bring something with you! That will be $15. Two bags... Jesus. It can be 10 percent of your plane ticket.

My roommate was on a flight a few months ago and they wouldn't even serve him water without charging him. Food? $10 a pop. Beers are as expensive as at a baseball game.

Unfortunately the airline industry has started a trend that is rippling through the service industry. Auto rental fees can now account for a whopping "30 - 35% of the rental". There's a facility fee, a tire surcharge, and an energy fee. But here's a tip for saving some money on renting a car. Rent it OFF airport. In fact, in Phoenix, it's half the rate if you rent it off the airport. Just take a cab or bus...it'll save you plenty.

Anyone else notice that Ticketmaster fees just keep climbing? They can be 26% of a ticket price and more. In fact, "Ticketmaster’s convenience fees defy logic — and should be publicly explained. Not only do the percentages assessed differ from show to show, they vary with differently priced tickets at the same show"(here).

Then, there was my issue with Wells Fargo last week - whereby they tried to screw me for allowing them to invest my money to make more money.

And how about those damn credit card fees?

As our economy is mired in a recession, I just wonder what tacking fees onto prices is really going to do? It's certainly not going to endear the public to these companies. In fact, it's going to create resentment, like its doing with me. It's going to eventually bring these companies down. I assure you. Companies like Virgin America and Southwest will continue to thrive and continue to create goodwill while overpriced, behemoths try any which way to survive - in the face of government bailouts and incompetent management. And they're not using the money to restructure or improve their operations. They're using it to survive just a little while longer.

Is The Recession Over?

There's a lot of talk this week about the recession possibly being over. About how we may have hit bottom and we're looking up. That's hardly the case. Unemployment has hit a 25 year high this week. Banks are still closing. Restaurants are empty. Houses aren't selling. We're a long way from a recovery.

I still don't feel like it's hit the Bay Area like the '01 crash did... but there's still time. People have been leaving San Francisco. Rents are down. I just don't buy the argument that this small stock market rally is a sign that the economy is all of the sudden looking better.

If you think about it... nothing has changed. The psyche of the American people is still in the crapper. America keeps pumping money it doesn't have into the markets. People are still getting laid off. I think we're going to be in this for a while. So strap in.

Wells Fargo Sucks! I Hate Them!

I love Mint. It's such a great service. A few days ago it sent me an email telling me that I incurred a service charge on my Vyoo business account. As is customary, I'd go down to Wells Fargo and have the charge waived. But this time was different. Not only was I sick of having to go down to Wells Fargo to deal with this crap, but I had also had them agree to waive this fee indefinitely the last time I was there. So I went down with a bone to pick.

See, Wells Fargo claims they're start-up friendly. They claim they like to help small business owners. What's so helpful about a $14 monthly fee for not having tons of money in our account.

My issue was a much larger issue though. I've been a Wells Fargo customer ever since I moved to California ten years ago. My business partner has been a customer for 10 years as well (he's linked to our business account). He also has an equity line, a personal account, and a mortgage through Wells Fargo. So when I went to speak with them about this ridiculous nickel and diming, I figured they'd be all ears. Boy was I wrong. I got stonewalled. "There's nothing we can do." And the guy was a dick about it.

Apparently it doesn't matter if we've pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into personal accounts and home equity lines... all that matters is that our business account doesn't have much money. So they charge us a $14 fee every month. We're a damn startup. We don't have revenue. But we need a business account to pay bills, to receive payments, and god forbid, to accept money if we raise financing. The fact that these accounts can't be linked to our personal accounts or that they can't waive these fees is beyond me. Like my roommate said...their left brain doesn't talk to their right brain. I'm gone...never again to return to Wells Fargo. Screw you Wells. Hope it was worth your $14.

That Damn Algorithm Is Plugged In!

Last week I finished plugging in the Python algorithm into our Rails code. I had to add error handling this week. But all is looking good now. I also loaded our survey data from the survey we sent out last year. The reason for this is that the answers actually help calibrate our algorithm. With that done, the only pressing issue is getting our frontend up to par. I'm still struggling with what will bring people back to our site. There needs to be some draw. I think part of it is going to be how people use the site. But I guess we won't know until we kick this thing out to more people.

So there's that...and there's getting our Flash map to play nicely with Rails. It's a bit more difficult than I thought. That's my task for this week.

Things have been considerably slowed as I've taken on more consulting work and GMAT tutoring to help pay down my debt. If anyone is curious. Debt sucks.

Berkeley Business Plan Competition Final Results

If you've followed Vyoo, you know we entered the Berkeley Business Plan competition last year. We made it to the semi-final round and that was it. I had a problem with the competition. I felt that it didn't live up to its billing as the "competition [that] provides entrepreneurs with the best possible resources to help convert ideas into reality". In fact, the only thing I think the business plan competition does is help take companies that already have products and/or users and helps them grow. Yes, this is a useful service, but not one that I feel a business plan competition should be providing.

Basically it's become a filter for VC's, or so it seems. Just another way for them to evaluate companies without having to take a huge risk. I was speaking to a good friend the other day. We were talking about the fact that there haven't been any homeruns for VC's in quite a while... and related it to the fact that VC's just don't invest in homeruns anymore. They invest in copycats. Or companies without a chance for revenue. I mean...Facebook is a great example. Maybe they'll figure out their revenue. But I just don't see it happening any time soon. Not after they flush more money down the tube. And how about YouTube. They lose about $500M/year. I love YouTube... but unfortunately there's no money there.

So if you look back at the Berkeley Bplan competition - and look at the 3 winners - they were all med device companies. Not only that, two are diagnostic devices - a TB device. And an HIV detection device. And one anti-bacterial solution. Not a single web company. Not a single energy company. Maybe it was the current "hot" topic with swine flu and all. Whatever the case...a business plan competition should be for aspiring entrepreneurs. It should cover different topics. It should give entrepreneurs the feeling of inspiration. That they can succeed with whatever they're doing. That they should take a chance because anything is possible.

Holy Crap! The Apocalypse is Here! H1N1!

I long realized that I don't buy into hype. Now I realize it annoys me when other people do. This swine flu thing is getting pretty out of hand. Not because I don't think it's an issue. I do. It's because people are going so overboard about it.

I was watching the news last night and this guy was talking about how he hasn't been feeling all that well the last few days. The anchor asked his symptoms and he said he's been tired. So what's this 35 year old guy do? He goes to the emergency room to get checked out. He wants to be safe and make sure he doesn't have swine flu. And he wasn't alone. There were lines of people like him. This is just clogging up the ER so people who really need help can't get it. And it's wasting money. Imagine if we had socialized medicine. Everyone would be there. And... what this guy doesn't realize is that he's exposing himself to more germs than he would have if he had stayed put. A hospital? Germ central.

I just don't get it. I mean, the regular flu has killed thousands of people this year. The swine flu has killed less than a hundred confirmed. Egypt just decreed that they're culling all of the pigs in their country even though there's no link and no reported cases there. If it arrives, it's arriving on the back of humans - so that's 300,000 pigs killed for seemingly no reason. Just overreaction.

Now if we actually analyze why it's been deadly in Mexico and not here, let's just use some common sense and compare the health care system in Mexico to that of the United States. Enough said.

But let's really look at the issue. What do we do about this? It's long been known that flu strains move from species to species. In fact, even the regular human strain of the flu mutates from year to year, making vaccinations useless from year to year (Time Magazine). Part of the problem, according to the article, is that multiple animal species have lived in close proximity to each other and squalid conditions for years. And the body that oversees flu outbreaks doesn't monitor animals. Just humans. So this is a good lesson to setup some better monitoring.

Let's be happy the flu isn't more deadly. And let's relax a little bit. If not - just head down to the ER and get yourself checked out. Maybe you'll catch it down there if you don't already have it.