CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, this story incorrectly named Erica Siverston. The article has since been changed to reflect this correction.
Two university alumni returned to the business school this month to launch their brand new company, MBA Cocktail – an online networking tool aimed at connecting business students and alumni of all alma maters.
Matthew Brown and Robert Goodman — who obtained their master’s of business from this university in 2010 and 2012 respectively — said MBA Cocktail strays from the cold and impersonal feel of other networking tools, such as LinkedIn. The service also caters exclusively to MBA students and alumni and aims to make the job search as painless and effective as possible.
“What I wanted to do is create a platform where the students, instead of going and creating Facebook groups or email threads, have a platform that lives on beyond school,” said Brown, the company’s CEO.
Brown said he first recognized the value of social media as an enterprise when he saw one of his 28-year-old colleagues sell his blog for $3 million. Through his work with Yahoo Groups, Brown also realized he could expand his idea to cater to students and graduates from all institutions rather than solely this university.
“Yahoo had its zenith in 2007 to 2008. LinkedIn has a lot of the functionality that we have, but what they don’t, and never will do, is cross-school communication,” Brown said.
Brown also noted Yahoo Groups are often fragmented in the way they connect MBAs, and the groups have the tendency to die off once the people who started the group graduate.
“You have to be in the Yahoo group to participate, and often times there is a lag,” said Eric Siverston, the company’s marketing adviser. “If someone graduated in 2004, you won’t be in the 1996 group.”
Goodman, who serves as the company’s chief technology officer and was not available for comment, worked with Brown for about a year refining and preparing the MBA Cocktail site for yesterday’s launch. Over the next few months, the company’s founders plan to host events at other campuses including Georgetown University, George Washington University and Duke University. They also plan to enter the company in the SXSW Accelerator Competition, a competition for upcoming social networks, in March to generate more buzz.
Siverston said the goal is for the site to reach 1 million users within two years. However, he added the larger purpose is to create a more effective community for MBA students and graduates.
“You go and you get your MBA to be in a class with people who are all equally ambitious, equally smart and hoping to do something with their degree,” Sivertson said. “The school does a good job to network while in school, but what they sell short is keeping people connected when they graduate. We’re hoping to be the next step.”
And that networking, Brown said, begins right on the campus.
“You really want to hang on to the relationships you’re creating in school,” Brown said. “You create this network while in school, and over time it starts to die off. Part of what we’re trying to do is preserve those relationships.”
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