Anthony: My experience with the multicultural lab…
I was a little nervous in the beginning you know, they don't play when it comes to diligence. In the beginning I was really filled with anxiety. Am I gonna get in? Am I not gonna get in? And they were really drilling down on all the details.
Claire: The application process was rigorous. We went through several rounds and several interviews and the due diligence and financial statements and… it’s harder to get into this program than it is to get into Harvard.
Dennis: And then once the program started, you quickly realize day one, that there's going to be accountability because the first meeting you have as part of your weekly meetings, is goal setting.
Anthony: It's a nerve wracking meeting, because you're meeting with all these smart people at a table every Monday, and they're all zeroed in and focused on you. And every detail of your company. What did you do this week? What revenue did you bring in?
Tammy: I've really been able to share with them the good bad, the ugly and the super ugly. And they've been able to help me think through what makes sense in terms of next steps and plan in order to reach our goals.
Claire: Having people truly look at your business, offer advice, think about ways that you can conceptualize what you're doinG. They really are invested in your success.
Dennis: Everyone in the MCI lab wakes up every day, and thinks about how they can help me be successful. And that's a powerful thing.
Sheri: The thing that surprised me the most the amount of resources that we had access to, from introductions to executives to HR to classes and education on sales and marketing.
Claire: The access that we have to people in our industry who are really doing it and doing it well, who've raised several rounds and who've gone public, and having them available to you to either ask them questions or set up one on ones, I think that was the most surprising part.
Anthony: Carla Harris has been a phenomenal mentor to us. She was able to give us advice about a deal that we lost, and then how to carry ourselves out of that deal, how to respond to the client. We ended up winning that client back and it was arguably one of the largest deals that we've ever done in the history of our company.
Dennis: My mentor, she's made introductions and open doors for me from a partnership corporate standpoint that I certainly didn't have before.
Anthony: Being at MCIL definitely boosted my confidence on how smart I am about the business that I'm running, which is really important for any founder to be able to walk into any room or talk to any investor and know that you're the smartest person that can talk about this thing. This thing being your business.
