MOVEGuides.com Takes The Hassle Out Of Relocation For Expat MBAs

Here's an update from a very impressive BusinessBecause member, who set up an online business and raised funding for it while completing a full-time MBA at one of thr world's toughest schools!

 

Brynne Herbert is the founder and CEO of MOVE Guides, a one-stop-shop for international relocation.  She founded MOVE Guides during her MBA at London Business School, after a career in finance that took her to live in six cities and work across 10 countries.  

 

Brynne raised £400,000 of funding for MOVE Guides from top European angel investors Sherry Coutu, Tom Hulme, Kevin Eyres and others, all before graduating from LBS.  MOVE Guides has been featured in TechCrunch, The Next Web, The Wall Street Journal, Thirllist, Springwise, Entrepreneur Country and BusinessBecause!

 

Brynne will be speaking about her entrepreneurial journey at London Business School on Wednesday 28 November at 7pm and at Hub Westminster on Wednesday 5 December at 6pm.

 

What's more, MOVE Guides is recruiting! They're  always looking for exceptional people to join the team and are currently looking for contributing writers for paid projects covering Dubai, Dublin, Shanghai, Boston, Seattle and other major cities.  Contact Brynne at brynne@moveguides.com or follow her on Twitter @brynnespeak.

 

MOVE Guides - a one stop shop for international relocation for professionals, including MBA students

 

I am originally from the US, where I grew up doing elite level gymnastics...not thinking about business!  I attended Yale and graduated in 2006, where I studied History and Chinese.  Immediately after graduating, I moved to Asia, where I worked in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and then real estate private equity at a fund owned by Standard Chartered and Dubai World. I lived in Hong Kong, Singapore and India, and also worked across about 10 countries giving me a total bug for global careers!  

 

MOVE Guides is a one-stop-shop for international relocation.  We help professionals and business school students plan an end-to-end move with expert city guides, unique move planning tools, and comparison and booking for a range of services like moving your personal goods, finding a flat, and opening a bank account.  We want to bring the transparency, convenience and choice of the consumer web to international relocation.  At the moment, we cover full relocation to London and San Francisco, and shipping to or from anywhere in the world.  We'll be rolling out across the US, Hong Kong, Singapore and other cities very soon.

 

I always found it far too difficult to move internationally, both as an employee and a student.  The real 'tipping point' came when I moved to London to do my MBA at London Business School.  I was sitting in a Foxton's sublet without any hot water, internet or bank account, and with the fake wood peeling off the dining room floor.  In a moment of utter organizational despair, I said to my husband 'Why is it so hard to plan an international move and so easy to plan international travel on the internet?'  And he said, I should change it.  So I did!

 

My original idea was to create city guides, but as all startups do, MOVE Guides quickly grew into a much wider one-stop-shop for international relocation! 

 

I was very lucky to be at London Business School when I was testing my ideas (Incidentally, I think an MBA is a great place to test an idea!).  LBS has a very international student body and many of the students move to London to study and have worked abroad before the MBA.  It provided a great place to test ideas, get feedback and iterate.  I also spoke to a lot of personal friends around the world who are expats and got their feedback.

 

To some extent, I think you always have to be a "gut instinct entrepreneur".  But I would say it's more about having judgement than "gut instinct", although they are probably related.  Being an entrepreneur involves taking a lot of different ideas and opinions, and distilling them into an actionable vision.  This takes a lot of judgement and confidence in your decisions.  To me, judgement is one of the most important elements of starting or running a business.

 

It was really difficult, but looking back totally worth it!  I had a very good time during my undergraduate studies, so for me doing an MBA was less about the social element, than really using it as a platform to start MOVE Guides.  I started with a very keen focus to make that a reality and was rewarded by recruiting a great founding team, closing a £400,000 funding round and launching the MOVE Guides alpha website, all before graduating.  I went to MBA classes and worked on MOVE Guides in every spare moment, and during weekends and nights.  I generally worked from about 7or 8am to midnight, which to be honest, is not very different than now!  

 

On MOVE Guides you can find all the services you need to get set up in your new city

 

Mrs. Moneypenny is a very close friend and mentor of mine.  She is an exceptionally driven and inspiring woman, who has really helped me as a professional.  She runs a head hunting firm as her day job so I did some consulting work on global talent from MOVE Guides.  We are experts in helping companies work with global talent pools and Gen Y, and have lots of data.  I still see her regularly and she introduced me to one of my investors...and we all had dinner this past week at Mansion House! 

 

Currently, MOVE Guides can help BusinessBecause members can do one of two things: 

 

(1) Plan their full international move to London or San Francisco, including reading city guides, planning their tasks and comparing and booking six to eight services, or 

(2) Ship their personal goods to or from anywhere in the world with transparent price comparison, reliable suppliers and customer service support.

 

We are focused on rolling out 'destination cities', like London and San Francisco, and have an aggressive pipeline going forward.  New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Chicago, Seattle and more are all on the horizon!  We're also recruiting for writers who are experts in other major cities like Dubai, Shanghai, Dublin or Boston.  We have paid projects of various lengths, so if any BusinessBecause members are

interested, they can contact me directly at brynne@moveguides.com.

 

On MOVE Guides you can also meet other expats in your city!

 

That's a hard one!  My personal favourite is actually London because I think it has so much to offer as a city.  But if you're looking for a crazy expat lifestyle (think work hard, play hard!), I'd definitely say Hong Kong or Tokyo!  Reputedly Sao Paulo now has the highest salaries and Singapore has the most wealth, so there are lots of things to consider.  I also have a special place in my heart for San Francisco, Shanghai and Paris, so who knows where my husband and I will end up next!