Ryan Lupton says the Johnson Cornell Tech MBA has opened his eyes to what life is really like as an entrepreneur
The entrepreneur ship can be a lonely place. Leaving port, the captain is often alone, and if he doesn’t pick up a couple of mates on the way, and perhaps an engineer, he could struggle to make headwind.When Ryan Lupton embarked on , he had little idea of what life as an entrepreneur was like. Although he’s always been an independent thinker, it took the entrepreneurial environment at Cornell to open Ryan’s eyes.
Ryan credits David Tisch, an experienced venture capitalist and head of Cornell Tech’s Startup Studio—part of Cornell Tech’s curriculum for all of its graduate degree programs—for teaching him the key lessons he’d need to launch his own venture.
“One of the takeaways I had was how lonely entrepreneurship often is,” Ryan explains. “You associate it with being glamorous […] so when I first started hearing the reality from VC investors and startup founders, I started to feel that in a very real way.”
Bringing in people from outside the university helps students gain a real-life perspective of how to make a success of a startup, Ryan asserts. It’s the knowledge that allowed him to develop his own business, Full Plate NYC.
This, he says, was the crux of his MBA application, and the key reason he wanted to pivot to the after 10 years as a management consultant for Deloitte.
“I wanted to shift from solving large, organizational business challenges to what a lot of startup culture over the last 10 years has been—how do we use tech to create new value for lower-income customers,” he explains.
“In the last couple of years of my professional work I wanted to do something that had more of a social focus.”
Full Plate NYC is a meal delivery service which aims to combine the convenience of a fast food joint or corner store with healthy nutritional meals to provide for society’s most underserved. The idea, says Ryan, was to create a digital platform to share the burden of last mile distribution with the customer. Come online, order a meal, and then pick it up at a specific time and place.
Investment has been an issue, he admits. VCs are loath to invest due to the economic magnitude of overcoming the identified problem. Ryan is convinced pursuing the idea is the correct decision though, and continues to work part-time on the venture out of the office space he has access to as a Cornell Tech student.
“This is a lot bigger than me being passionate about it,” he explains. “I need a lot more people and support to do this; I can’t drive it by myself.
“I couldn’t have learned that without trying to pursue the path through Cornell Tech. Cornell Tech gave me the platform to take an idea and invest myself fully in it for more than a year.”
East not West
Ryan (pictured) is East Coast born and bred. He’s lived in Atlanta and Durham, and his wife got her MBA at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.
Embarking on the was a no-brainer. Though Ryan admits he’s never had experience out on the West Coast and in Silicon Valley, he says that no other school could offer what Cornell Tech has.
“No other MBA program is designed the way Cornell Tech is to give you the opportunity to collaborate across programs in your classes and projects,” he explains.
Ryan took classes with data science and design students—his cofounder, Chris Stuart, is an MFA student in Design and Technology at Parsons School of Design in New York City.
“New York is a global powerhouse,” asserts Ryan, “there’s no topic you could want to embark on that you can’t find experts in the city.
He adds that almost everyone he has encountered at events across the city know about Cornell Tech and its mission.
Ryan says that his plans long term are to lead an organization, most likely his own. He’s willing to be patient, though, he explains—he’s currently a father of two with a third child on the way.
“I can’t financially support it today, so I will need to wait […] to pursue the startup path,” he concludes. “There is more personal risk and reward to strike out on your own, and that is still my expectation.”
Student Reviews
Cornell University The Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Outstanding facilities
Cornell University is widely renowned for its esteemed reputation. It boasts remarkable educators, well-stocked library resources, and efficient administrative services. The university offers outstanding amenities that cater to the needs of all individuals, with ample computer facilities and study areas. Moreover, students benefit from excellent educational communication and writing support, as well as guidance from highly knowledgeable education professionals.
Gaining knowledge
Cornell is an amazing school with tons of opportunities for future careers. The campus is beautiful, and the professors are awesome. I feel like I'm getting a great education, and it's tough but rewarding. It's pushed me to grow and improve myself, and the competition here is healthy, not cutthroat. I'm learning to work with others and to help them, just like they've helped me. This is the best school I could have chosen.
LLM Program at Cornell Tech
The LLM program at Cornell Tech offers a transformative educational experience, seamlessly merging law and technology. Its innovative curriculum, exceptional faculty, and proximity to New York's tech hub provide an unparalleled learning environment. Another plus I could think of is the close relationship between programs - as we did our classes in one relatively small complex, so I could easily interact with colleagues from Computer Science or Business programs. Such an experience allows me to gain fresh perspective in many matters.
However, one downside of doing the Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship program is the insufficiency of the curriculum to allow the students to sit for the bar (not that this would matter to people with common law background). But, if taking the bar is your goal, Cornell provides you with the option of taking an additional semester in Ithaca that will fulfil the required courses for NY bar.
All in all, I love my Cornell Tech experience. Would do it all over again 100%!
Evident
I'm thoroughly impressed with the courses and the people at Cornell. The variety of unique and captivating courses is exceptional, and it's evident that the majority of the staff and faculty are sincerely invested in your success. Additionally, forming friendships with fellow students has been a delightful experience, as they hail from diverse backgrounds and consistently support one another.
Diversity driven
It's an amazing place to be, populated by a variety of individuals from different origins, all motivated by their interests and goals. You can explore a wide array of subjects, and we're skilled at both working hard and enjoying a lively social life.
Various fields of study
The university provides a great opportunity to delve into new fields of study, with its wide range of majors and options for pursuing unique career paths. Participating in extracurricular activities and building friendships can help reduce the stress and competitiveness that often come with academics, fostering a more balanced and healthier experience.
Social life
It's an incredible location to be in, filled with a diverse range of people from various backgrounds, all driven by their passions and ambitions. You have the opportunity to study virtually anything you can imagine, and we certainly know how to enjoy ourselves. Balancing hard work with an equally vibrant social life is our specialty.
Friendly environment
I liked being able to meet so many different people from all over the country and the world, and Cornell has always been welcoming to me since the day I arrived in freshman year. Cornell's community is very supportive; students are encouraged to work together to solve problems and really support one another in every situation, and professors are always willing to assist students in need.
Masters in CS, practical learning program
I studied MS CS at Cornell Tech. It is an intensive 9 months program which focuses on practical learning. The highlight of the program is the studio based curriculum where students learn how to build ventures from scratch.
Open to any kind of view and ideas
I spent time training abroad at Cornell University (Ivy League University), Ithaca, USA, working on a project entitled “Characteristics of Packaging films made from whey proteins”, under an ‘International Student Exchange Program’. Although I was simply enrolled in an undergraduate program, I took a keen interest in undertaking a challenging food science research project, which demonstrated my independent thinking at an early stage. I worked on the feasibility of preparing edible packaging films using whey protein isolates. I demonstrated scientific and analytical skills in carrying out the experimental work, while working in a research laboratory. In a very short time span (6 months), I was able to demonstrate my experimental, interpretation and analysis skills. As a result, my research work was accepted for presentation in the annual meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists, Dallas, Texas in the year 2000.I demonstrated intellectual/problem solving/management judgements and good communication skills. It was stated that the work was carried out with “great care, paying particular attention to detail”. Enjoyable campus landscape.
Global Experience
As one of the leading universities in the world, one would expect to get lost or forgotten in the sea of highly talented students and scholars. However, that wasn’t the case in my university, where I constantly felt supported by the best faculty to achieve my goals. It was amazing to see that I was able to access learning scholarships as well as work abroad opportunities in just a period of 3 years. Be warned that the weather is unforgiving in the winter time, but nothing that a true winter coat cannot withstand.
