Tony Lee wanted more than just an MBA.
He wasn’t looking to simply add three letters to the end of his email signature. He wanted a comprehensive experience with pioneering classmates, robust networking resources, and a world-class academic experience. After searching through all of his options, he decided on Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley and began the top-ranked Evening & Weekend MBA program in 2022 as part of the inaugural Flex class.
Initially, one of the driving reasons for selecting the Flex option was live online classes and immersive experiences. The opportunity to get so many brilliant minds learning, sharing, and growing together was too enticing to pass up.
Little did he know that one of these connections with his classmates would prove to be nothing short of life-changing.
Tony had always been interested in business, but he first decided to pursue pharmacy school for job security. After years of rigorous clinical training, Tony graduated in 2019 and began work as a pharmacist.
Soon after that, he decided to pursue his interest in business and started to look for an online MBA program. Now a third year student, Tony enrolled in the Flex option in 2022 with the initial idea to either work in a pharmaceutical company, consulting, or investment banking. Before beginning the program, he was preparing to do quite the “hard pivot.”
With so many programs available, we wondered what tipped the scales toward Berkeley Haas. When deciding on a program, Tony wanted to attend a state-of-the-art school that was academically rigorous. But beyond academics, he also wanted a true network. He loved that all Berkeley resources would be available to him, even as a Canadian. Another big draw was the live classes. “Unlike recordings, it’s engaging. You’re actually learning as multiple people’s brains are clicking and brainstorming solutions together.”
And so began the start of Tony’s Berkeley MBA journey.
Berkeley’s Flex option strategically opens with the in-person WELaunch immersion experience to jump-start personal connections. Tony reflected on that experience and shared a little with us about how his classmates immediately bonded at the event:
“That was just a great way to meet my future cohort-mates face-to-face. And what was amazing is that we all came with the same intention: we wanted to have the best experience and do everything we could do to make that happen. All these people are go-getters and want to pioneer and challenge the status quo. WELaunch really helped us feel each other out and realize these were people we would hang out with even if this wasn’t within the program.”
In the digital age of automation and AI, it turns out that real connections with real people still matter— and they matter a lot. Interacting with like-minded peers sets a solid foundation for students as they head home to begin the distance learning portion of their online MBA. In one weekend, their classmates have turned into their friends.
After the WELaunch experience, Tony has been able to continually deepen relationships with classmates through live class discussions, study groups, and a group called Friday with Friends. This group of classmates meets on Fridays through Zoom to connect with each other on a personal level. Tony said this group is specifically not a study group, but rather an opportunity for them to connect on a personal level and support each other.
We loved hearing about all of these classmate-to-friend connections. But Tony had one more connection up his sleeve to tell us about: a classmate to business partner connection.
About one year into the program, Tony returned to campus for the second immersion experience: Leadership Communication. One of the activities that weekend was to write a letter from your future self.
As part of his letter, Tony described “how the health care delivery is changing where it’s not just physician-centric. Gaps are being filled by nurse practitioners, nurses, and pharmacists.” Within this change, he saw a potential business opportunity. “I wanted to provide them with tools to accelerate that change.”
And then one of his classmates, Ike Ma, an AI engineer for Google, began to read his letter. His presentation was about exciting possibilities within generative AI. He told his classmates about his own business aspirations and that he had a goal of making $1,000 by the end of the year.
And that’s when something clicked: Tony had an idea and a connection that would drastically change the next years of his life. He approached Ike during a break and said that he had an idea of how the two of them could work together to create a lot of impact and make a lot more than $1,000.
The two students were officially in business together. Together they created AidRx which is a healthcare technology startup with a mission to build a remote work platform for pharmacies. We enable pharmacies to hire and manage remote pharmacists, solving staffing challenges in rural areas, reducing burnout, and improving patient access to pharmacists, ultimately enhancing patient care.
Tony, Ike, and their other Haas student partners were able to leverage Berkeley’s resources and do an accelerator program through UC Launch. They just finished the 500 Global Program in Alberta and are continuing to fundraise and build.
As Tony was sharing all of this, it struck us that he was doing quite the juggling act: he is a student in an exceptionally rigorous MBA program, working 12-13 hour pharmacy shifts, caring for his son as a single dad, launching a new business…and trying to get some sleep whenever possible.
I had to ask: how can he possibly get it all done?
In a word? Intentionality.
Tony says, “intentionality is probably the most important thing. There are a lot of hours that you spend in the day that could be optimized for productivity.” He gave the example of how he listens to pre-lecture recordings while driving or during lunch breaks—listening to them like he would a podcast. He shared it’s also important to be aware of when you’re spending time on something unproductive, like “doomscrolling.” You can replace that time with even just an hour or so of studying time.
Something that helps him stay motivated to study when life gets busy is that he finds the classes and material so enjoyable. Dedicating time to study is a lot easier when you love what you’re learning and have such engaging discussions with professors and classmates.
We wondered how often these courses were immediately applicable to his new business. Tony said that while all of the classes were applicable in some way, there are two that really stood out: an operations course and an entrepreneurship course. He said that learning how to make a process diagram and figuring out the capacity and throughput from the operations course “really helped us to optimize some aspects of our product.”
The entrepreneurship course provided an invaluable experience that served as an accelerator course. It helped them validate their ideas and fill in their knowledge gaps. And the opportunity to learn from “industry expert VC’s, in Silicon Valley, was phenomenal.” The new entrepreneurs were able to gain pitch experiences, collaborate with industry leaders, like a Product Manager at Amazon, and fill in the skills gaps needed to run a company.
Right now, Tony and Ike are in the middle of fundraising with the goal of turning their new business into full time jobs post-graduation. But Tony’s not done dreaming. He hopes that someday their business can get to a point where someone else can take over and he can transition into being a pre-seed or seed venture capitalist where he can help other dreamers.
He says, “you hear stories about doctors or dental students dropping out and building billion dollar companies, but you never hear about pharmacy students doing that. So I’d like to empower them. That’s my long-term goal.”
That being said, he knows he doesn’t have to wait until that time to start making a difference in other’s lives. At the close of our conversation he talked about how he loves chatting with prospective students on LinkedIn. He enjoys giving advice whenever he can and cheering them on as they begin to pursue their MBA dream.
It seems in many ways Tony is living the dream of all those who enter an MBA program. He has built an amazing network, is super engaged with professors and peers in his classes, considers his classmates his friends, and began an exciting startup due to a kismet moment in an immersion experience.
How can other aspiring dreamers follow in his footsteps?
Tony encourages all future Haas students to seize opportunities to reach out. It can definitely feel intimating, but Tony says that “all the students are super approachable and down to earth. You can just Slack them. Everyone is very excited to talk to you and just hear about the journey. For example, I slacked a random alumni who graduated from a dual degree of Masters of Public Health and MBA and we talk every couple of months, catching up on how our businesses are doing. And it all started with one Slack message.”
In a world full of online MBA degrees, the Flex option at Berkeley is the perfect way to create a world-class network with flexibility: “A lot of people are in the mid-career stage where they just can’t drop everything and move to California. If it wasn’t for this program, I don’t think I would be where I am at.”
To those in similar shoes—mid-career, perhaps with a family, and dreaming of more—Tony says the Flex option at Berkeley Haas is the best path. “If you are a person who doesn’t want your life circumstances to get in the way of accomplishing your dream, then this is it.”
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. To all the business dreamers out there…this is it.
The Berkeley Haas flex option offers some unique advantages and allows you to get the same top-ranked MBA without compromising your lifestyle.