Summer School 1: Planet Money goes to business school

Find all episodes of Planet Money Summer School here.

Planet Money Summer School is back! It's the free economics class you can take from anywhere... for everyone! For Season 4 of Summer School, we are taking you to business school. It's time to get your MBA, the easy way!

In this first class: 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 about founders who learned the hard way what goes into starting a small business, and getting it up and running.

First, a story about Frederick Hutson, who learned about pain points and unique value propositions when he founded a company to help inmates and their families share photos. Then, 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 really difficult, but also incredibly rewarding, if you have the stomach for it.

(And, we should say, we are open to investors for "Shazam but for movies." Just sayin'.)

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 engineered by James Willetts. The show is fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Planet Money's executive producer is Alex Goldmark.

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Music: "Lost Situation" & "Bad Scene"; Universal Production Music - "Better Luck Next Time," "The Sky Was Orange," "Moody Pop Guitars," "El Flamingo," and "Growling Sax"