Summary:
Welcome to another great episode of Startup Junkies!
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley and Jeff Amerine sit down with Luke Owings, VP of product at Abilitie, a leadership development company that provides team-based simulations. In 2020, Luke left his corporate job and decided to lean into his mosaic career, pulling together a disparate set of experiences to create a fulfilling and impactful picture of work. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Jeff, and Luke discuss the history behind Abilitie, how Abilitie is influencing education, and Abilitie’s vision for the future.
Show Notes:
(1:12) Introduction to Luke
(6:10) How Being an Athlete Affected Luke’s Career
(9:26) About Abilitie
(12:40) Driving Change in How Education Is Delivered
(16:35) Bringing Faculty to the Table
(19:57) What’s Next for Abilitie
(22:12) Advice to Younger Self
(23:14) Closing Thoughts
Links:
Quotes:
“With tools like ours, we run our entire MBA virtually to create an accessibility that never existed in the past, and of course there’s the pricing accessibility as well.” – Luke Owings, (13:40)
“What we strive to do when we create our cohorts and our classes, is to have some diversity. So, the entrepreneurs are one group we have in there, and we also like to have some people who are transferring from one thing to another.” – Luke Owings, (14:58)
“From our faculty perspective, we opt toward practitioners, people who have been there, people who have experience…who are coming together and saying, ‘I learned a ton over the years. I want to help the next generation.’” – Luke Owings, (16:58)
“Our goal is to grow. Our goal is to continue to create an opportunity for people to have conversancy in the language of business connections around the world and confidence in how they build and run their company.” – Luke Owings, (20:33)
Changing the Trajectory of Accessible Education
On this episode, hosts Caleb Talley and Jeff Amerine sit down with Luke Owings, VP of product at Abilitie, a leadership development company that provides team-based simulations. In 2020, Luke left his corporate job and decided to lean into his mosaic career, pulling together a disparate set of experiences to create a fulfilling and impactful picture of work. Throughout the episode, Caleb, Jeff, and Luke discuss the history behind Abilitie, how Abilitie is influencing education, and Abilitie’s vision for the future.
Making Education Readily Available
With companies like Abilitie offering development courses and mini-MBA programs, it raises an important question: Are individuals going to keep getting full-time MBAs? The answer is simple. There will still be individuals who obtain full-time MBAs because there are specific benefits to receiving one from a university. However, the majority of perks that used to be associated with receiving an MBA are getting dismantled.
In the past, the paradigm was to go to school, learn all you can, then work right away. Now, with programs like Abilitie’s, entrepreneurs can step away for a period of time and still have access to learning tools when they come back. The time in people’s lives when they are receiving an education is shifting to later in their careers, and Abilitie caters to that perfectly.
“With tools like ours, we run our entire MBA virtually to create an accessibility that never existed in the past, and of course there’s the pricing accessibility as well.” – Luke Owings, (13:40)
Who Can Benefit from Abilitie?
Entrepreneurs are the ideal students for receiving a mini-MBA. Abilitie loves having entrepreneurs as students because they’re incredibly practical and phenomenal at putting the skills they learn to use. Nevertheless, Abilitie aims to have not only entrepreneurs complete their simulations and courses. They like to have a variety because a good mix of individuals leads to richer conversations.
Other than entrepreneurs, one group of Abilitie’s students are military veterans and teachers who are transitioning into business. Abilitie helps them understand how the skills and experiences they have gathered so far are transferable to the world of business. The second group of students is people who work for a company that wants them to do more, but that company doesn’t have the opportunities in place for them to develop.
“What we strive to do when we create our cohorts and our classes, is to have some diversity. So, the entrepreneurs are one group we have in there, and we also like to have some people who are transferring from one thing to another.” – Luke Owings, (14:58)
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