From Contacts to Office Space: EMBA Students Find Entrepreneurial Resources at Wharton in San Francisco “Incredible”

To help overcome those obstacles, she decided to pursue her EMBA degree at Wharton in San Francisco. Within three months of starting the EMBA program, she took steps to turn her dream into reality. Merchant, who was self-sponsored, left her consulting firm job and turned her own business into a full-time project.

She explains, “Students might not realize how much Wharton has to offer entrepreneurs, but so many contacts came through Wharton that it was just incredible. For anyone planning to start their own company, I recommend exploring their entrepreneurial ideas as early as possible in the program to allow them to take advantage of all the resources.”

She launched Angiologix, a cardiovascular diagnostic company, through Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program (VIP), a program that assists Penn students in taking their business ideas from conception to implementation. Based in California, Merchant participated in VIP’s monthly advisory meetings by phone or set up one-on-one advising calls. She was even given use of office space at the San Francisco campus.

Wharton San Francisco EMBA alumnus Scott Hilton, executive vice president of operations at Diapers.com, says, “I can’t think of a better environment to help in moving a business idea forward because there are other students and professors in the program looking to help out or invest money, as well as the ability to get your business going with all those fresh ideas from the program.”

His classmate Marc Lore, who founded Diapers.com a few months before starting the EMBA program at Wharton in San Francisco, agrees. “There are huge advantages to starting a business while going to Wharton. The classes are very relevant, there are a lot of smart people in the program, and there are plenty of opportunities to leverage the knowledge of the professors because they eat lunch and dinner with the students.”

Merchant adds, “I felt this was the only time I would have to really give it a chance because of the opportunity to take advantage of all the new contacts, the knowledge of the professors, and all of the other resources — the VIP,  the Wharton Business Plan Competition and the Wharton Venture Award. I felt like if I didn’t do it then, I might not ever try.”

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