Article from earlier in NY Times by Evelyn M. Rusli year on MBA students that launch firms instead of searching for jobs. Features Harvard and some other top tier business schools that are seeing students lead the charge to entrepreneurship.

Graduates from the class of 2010 started 30 to 40 businesses last year, a 50 percent increase from the previous year, said William A. Sahlman, a professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School.

“The level of entrepreneurship activity here, and I presume at other schools, is up dramatically over the last two years,” said Dr. Sahlman.

Baby.com.br is the second start-up for Mr. Thomas, 31, and Mr. Smith, 32. In 2004, the students started PoolTables.com, with about $20,000 scraped together from friends and family. The venture — which taught them the basics, like how to coordinate with vendors in China and how to run an e-commerce site — was profitable in its first year.

The article features the Startup Tribe at Harvard (@startuptribe) and the school’s Minimum Viable Product Fund.

Last year, budding entrepreneurs at Harvard formed the Startup Tribe, a student group. The organization, which has more than 150 members, persuaded Harvard to start the Minimum Viable Product Fund, a $50,000 fund for new start-ups. The program distributes awards of roughly $5,000 apiece to promising teams, including the nine winners announced in March.

“We’re a scrappy, adaptive community” said Andrew Rosenthal, a member of the Startup Tribe. The group has been gaining traction, because of a confluence of factors. “We have a new dean, an active network of recent graduates, who are providing mentorship, and there’s a strong demand for a student-run community,” he said.

This piece is well worth reading for those interested in entrepreneurship education and student entrepreneurs.

Looking forward to seeing what  2011 business school graduates decide to launch.

via Rejecting Wall Street, Business School Graduates Turn to Entrepreneurship – NYTimes.com.