Realising my dream career on the Imperial Full-Time MBA

Hi everyone, my name is Ivy Chen, a Full-Time MBA candidate in the class of 2022. I received my BBA degree from the University of Michigan, Ross School of Business. I then worked mostly as a management consultant and business development and strategy manager in the financial services industry, in both the US and Singapore. While I am grateful for the diverse professional experiences I had, I knew deep down I was still searching for my true purpose. 

The turning point came when I became a first-time mother two years ago during the pandemic lockdown in London. I had a traumatic birth, and we did not have much family support, so the first year of our baby’s life was extremely hard for us. Due to the hardship, I unfortunately suffered  post-partum depression. It took me tremendous efforts, many counselling sessions, and mental strength to climb out of the dark space, which also got me thinking that there must be a better way to parent new-born babies.  

I came to the MBA programme, equipped with some entrepreneurial ideas in mind, ones that I thought could help parents in the first year of their baby’s life. So, despite that I have never been an entrepreneur before, I aspire to become a “mum-trepreneur”. This is because I believe with technology and a deep understanding of parenthood, I can help ease new parents struggles, helping them enjoy a smoother transition into a new phase of life. 

At Imperial College Business School, MBA students are trained and encouraged to think like an entrepreneur, challenging the status quo by always looking for a better solution to long-standing problems. To realise my aspiration, I have chosen and enjoyed many entrepreneurial types of modules, such as Entrepreneurial Journey, Imperial Innovation Challenge, AI ventures, Entrepreneurial Finance, and the Global Digital Opportunities elective, which was taught in Israel as a collaborated module between the Business School and Tel Aviv University. Imperial has helped me tremendously as it is a school that promotes science and technology, encouraging business students to support and lead the commercialisation effort and solve global problems through science and technology.  

In addition, at the Business School, I was able to find like-minded fellow entrepreneurs and together we are now working on an AI powered parenting app called “Baby Don’t Cry”, that aims to proactively decipher why baby cries with a course of recommended action for parents. Our mission is to promote a world with less cries, a tighter family bond, and peace of mind for everyone! We have put countless hours into the customer discovery, business model design, and business plan. With our hard work, we are honoured to be awarded the “Grand Challenge Prize”, as part of the MBA Entrepreneurial Journey Module with a grant of £1,500 to further advance our venture.  

We also have been actively engaged with the Imperial Enterprise Lab and have been selected to participate in the highly competitive Summer Accelerator programme. We are currently working closely with industry experts, startup mentors, and business coaches to test our hypothesis, refine our solution, iterate the business plan, and craft our “demo-day” pitch. By the end of the accelerator, we hope we will be able to launch our MVP and test it with our first customers.  

Special shout out to our amazing Baby Don’t Cry Team, Daren Tan, Michelle Tang, Afifah Ayub, Valentina Tobon!