Meet Milkana Brace, a Foster School TMMBA Alumni

The technology management MBA at University of Washington’s Foster School of Business is a unique program that offers co-curricular sessions for students and alumni to interact. During these sessions, both sides learn from business leaders about how to manage, grow and change their career. And, in many cases, entrepreneurialism becomes a major topic of consideration. During a recent event, Milkana Brace shared her experiences and her ultimate decision to join the Seattle startup community.

Milkana is the founder and CEO of an early stage company focused on developing mobile applications for education. Before starting her own company, she worked in leadership roles at companies such as Expedia, Groupon and American Express Travel. However, after earning her TMMBA in 2008, she started to think about going in a different direction.

“Today, my professional life is very different,” Milkana told the Foster School. “Earlier this year, I founded a company developing a mobile product in the education space. We have an initial version of the product, which we’ve been user testing and are currently working on the next version, which we plan to commercially launch in the upcoming months.  It has been an exciting journey so far!”

However, going from a corporate career to an entrepreneur wasn’t an easy decision or journey. For her, it started with a single step. She knew it was going to be a risk, but she began methodically and started preparing years before making the switch. And the first thing she did was save money.

She knew she would need initial capital to get her company off the ground, so she scaled down her lifestyle. Next, she tried to learn as much as she could from other entrepreneurs who’d gone before her. Finally, she spent a long while mentally preparing for the upcoming journey.

In the end, her decision to begin a startup boiled down to a simple idea. She wanted a life experience that was intellectually challenging and offered an opportunity to do things her way. And she knew, that no matter what happened, she wouldn’t regret it.

To learn more about her journey, what she learned, and the advice she offers, check out her full response on the Foster School website.

regions: Seattle

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