September 3, 2018. Shanghai – More than 100 MBA Class of 2020 students, alumni, entrepreneurs, and investors gathered at Maple Hall on the CEIBS Shanghai campus today to celebrate the kick-off of the MBA Entrepreneurship & Investment Camp. The 3-year-old camp, led by Director of eLab Professor Vincent Chang, is now ready for a new and exciting 6-months venture journey.

Professor Juan Fernandez, Associate Dean and Director of the MBA Programme, greeted the batch warmly and encouraged them to “Be the company’s heart.” Paul Tong (Global EMBA 2016) shared his own words of wisdom, “There is no need to be ashamed, if you fail, you go on with a new idea and new experience.”

One highlight of the evening was when two MBA 2020 students shared their experiences from own entrepreneurship journeys. For Sissi Chen, who dreamt of being a CEO since she was young, to “dream big, start small,” meant evaluating resources, driving courage, and executing persistence. Michael Chang also impressed the group with positive vibes after several business start-ups and exits. His story touched everyone as they were invited to take a step back and think about the origins of, “Why do you want to have your own start-up?” His own answer was, because “we want to make our life interesting; we want to make the world a better one.”

As Mike Ying (MBA 2017) said, “eLab gives you a platform to shape and complete your ideas.” Although MBA life was busy with assignments and club activities, Mike still managed to establish a sports and fitness tech company Smart Fit, with 15 employees, going from 0 to 1 fully incubated at the eLab. After all, “Anything can happen in CEIBS and in eLab.”

Jay Ha (Global EMBA 2016), co-founder of Persona and an eLab lecturer, encouraged students to ask questions and network as much as possible, both inside and outside class. From PE to multiple start-ups, Jay said he believes that entrepreneurship always comes from a deep thought of who you are, and “success is always defined as the realisation of a worthy idea.”

Towards the end of the opening ceremony, students were broken into four sharing groups led by entrepreneurship and investment mentors. The camp represents the diversity of the student body of the CEIBS MBA programme who have come to pursue their own dreams, but who are all eager to learn, to network, and to be inspired by the upcoming lectures and demo day.