Find all the episodes of Planet Money Summer School here.
Planet Money Summer School is back! It’s the free economics course you can take anywhere…for everyone! For Season 4 of the Summer School, we are taking you to business school. It’s time to get your MBA, made easy!
In this first lesson: Everyone has a million-dollar business idea (e.g., “Shazam but for movies”), but not everyone has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. We have two stories of founders who learned the hard way what it takes to start a small business and make it work.
First, a story about Frederick Hutson, who discovered the problems and unique value propositions when he founded a company to help inmates and their families share photos. Next we take a trip to Columbia, Maryland with Chefs RaeShawn and LaShone Middleton. Their steamed crab delivery service taught them the challenges of bootstrapping to grow their business. And throughout the episode, Columbia Business School professor Angela Lee explains why entrepreneurship can be very difficult, but also incredibly rewarding, if you have the courage.
(And we should say we’re open to investors for “Shazam but for the movies”. I’m just saying.)
The series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Max Freedman. Our project manager is Julia Carney. This episode was edited by Jess Jiang and designed by James Willetts. The show is fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. The executive producer of Planet Money is Alex Goldmark.
Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
Always free on these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR One or wherever you get podcasts.
Find more from Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / Tic Tac / Our weekly Newsletter.
Music: “Lost Situation” and “Bad Scene”; Universal Production Music – “Better Luck Next Time”, “The Sky Was Orange”, “Moody Pop Guitars”, “El Flamingo” and “Growling Sax”
