This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Sam Perry, 40, who is based in the UK. His employment and redundancy have been verified by Business Insider. This piece has been edited for length and clarity.
I’d always wanted to do an MBA. Job listings asked for them, colleagues seemed to get promoted because of them, and I came to see them as a cheat code for reaching the top of the corporate world.
But when I was laid off in 2022 from a tech job in my late 30s, I used my mid-five-figure severance package to launch a startup.
I 100% believe that I’ve learned more from my startup experience than I ever could have in a classroom.
Work seemed to be going well, then I got laid off
After graduating with a degree in Sports and Business Management in 2005, I knew what I wanted: a corporate career, a skyscraper office in London or New York, and to one day make the C-suite.
I spent three years at Anheuser-Busch and then nearly nine years at FedEx, where I learned the fundamentals of running a business.
In 2021, I joined G-P, a private equity-backed HR technology company, where I started a side project in my spare time: building an HR tech marketplace, mostly as a learning exercise.
Courtesy of Sam Perry
At work, things seemed to be going well. In October 2022, my team won a major industry award. A month later, I was laid off.
I seriously considered using my severance money to pursue an MBA, believing it might give me an edge in job interviews.
First, I looked at the Rolls-Royces of MBAs: Harvard and Wharton. Costing more than $100,000 a year for two-year programs, it quickly became clear that they cost considerably more than my payout, with no guarantee of a job at the end.
I looked at cheaper UK and online options, but spending thousands of dollars on a program without a big Ivy League name attached felt like too big a gamble. I also questioned what an MBA could teach me after 15 years in the corporate world.
I chose to launch a startup over an MBA
A family friend suggested I use the payout to start my own company instead. It would cost a fraction of an MBA, he said, and I’d learn how to build a business from the ground up. I might even make some money along the way.
By that point, the idea for a startup already existed: the HR tech marketplace that I’d started as a side project while at G-P.
I invested about a fifth of my severance pay into getting it off the ground. Most of the technology was off-the-shelf, which kept costs relatively low, and I used free online courses from places like MIT to make basic changes to the platform.
As a founder, I learned about business, resilience, and myself
I launched the company, Ensemble, in late 2022, and we saw some early but limited success selling access to the marketplace. We later pivoted to procuring HR software directly for customers.
Becoming a founder taught me so much about business — from marketing to product development and hiring — and about myself and resilience.
After years in the corporate world, I thought I knew how to sell, but nothing compares to sitting alone with your laptop and phone and calling strangers to persuade them to buy something you’ve built. It was a real education.
Courtesy of Sam Perry
In the summer of 2024, Ensemble was acquired by a competitor. Nowadays, I work as a group vice president at Sphera, a supply-chain risk SaaS company.
I’m not convinced I’d have reached this level at 40 without my startup experience. Now, when I review CVs, I’m drawn to candidates who have started their own companies.
In a crowded job market, I believe that having worked toward a successful acquisition is the single biggest differentiator you can have. Many people have MBAs; far fewer have built and sold something.
If you’re choosing between an MBA and starting a company, the degree will still be there later, but a startup can be done for a fraction of the cost, with the bonus of possibly making some money along the way.
