Entrepreneurs in TOP 10 MBA Programs

I'm currently running an angel investor funded (non VC backed) internet startup in NYC which has 6 employees. I was hoping to use this experience later on when applying to some Top mba programs such as Cornell, UVA, Stern, Duke where there's still a chance to get in with a VC job afterwards. What other exit opps do entrepreneurs outside of H/s/w have? General management, Consulting, IB, PE etc?

thanks!

 

One question people who are interested in an entrepreneurship have to consider is whether an MBA makes sense at all. There are good arguments to make both ways. Here's a great discussion on this Mark Suster's blog http://bit.ly/2X9yrv

Entrepreneurs have lots of options after business school. You could go to an early stage venture backed company and get operating experience (the biggest asset in my opinion for a VC), you could go into equity research or investment banking from any of the schools you mention and develop skills that help you analyze companies, industries and build key relationships, or you could start your own company/grow your existing company. None of these are easy paths, but it's not easy to get into venture capital. I think going directly into venture capital after business school is really difficult. You've got an interesting background, but unless your startup is really knocking the cover off the ball, in which case you wouldn't go to b-school, it really won't make it easier for you to get into venture capital right away.

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eiffeltowered:
if you crack 680; go for h/s/w
would love to apply to h/s/w If ill be in that range. I took MGMAT prep courses earlier this year and was in the low 600s on practice tests however I never got a chance to take any real tests because I never finished studying the material and I had to shift all my focus to the startup. I plan to apply next year when I turn 25 which I guess is the sweet spot for H/S.

Thanks for all your inputs so far.

 

Talking about how you want to make as much money as possible in a University of Chicago admissions interview or application will insta-ding you. Even though UChicago sends a lot of people into finance every year, you have no shot at experiencing "the life of the mind" if all you want to do is make money.

Your best bet is applying to Wharton, where your accomplishments will actually help your application.

 

Just my opinion but if you want to be an entrepreneur and hope that your idea is going to succeed you shouldn't be thinking about bschool. You should think that your idea is so good that it's not going to fail, even if it does. The 5/6 year thing shouldn't matter because you have the pedigree to get into a top MBA regardless. But if you want to give entrepreneurialism a shot then you need to jump into the deep end and just do it.

 
Andrés:
Someone is going to ask this anyway so I might just as well go ahead.

Why would you as an owner of a "very successful" business want an MBA? Owning a successful business is usually a pretty strong medicine against craving for these 70-100-hour-workweek low-six-figures post-MBA gigs.

You do realize most entrepreneurs, at least the successful ones, put 80+ hours per week.

Robert Clayton Dean: What is happening? Brill: I blew up the building. Robert Clayton Dean: Why? Brill: Because you made a phone call.
 
Andrés:
Someone is going to ask this anyway so I might just as well go ahead.

Why would you as an owner of a "very successful" business want an MBA? Owning a successful business is usually a pretty strong medicine against craving for these 70-100-hour-workweek low-six-figures post-MBA gigs.

Limited future growth and I want to move on.

"Very successful" for 95% of the population and considering my age. Not enough to be done working.

I was wondering if business owners are given the opportunity to get a MBA or if it's just for people in the corporate world.

 

Just my .02, but at the end of the day MBAs want to admit the ppl that are going to go on to do the "best" (better donations, better name recognition- both in theory at least). If your business shows good potential (or even just if YOU do), I see no reason from their point of view why you wouldn't have more to offer than the bro just trying to land an IB associate spot like all the other lemmings

GBS
 

Hi! I went to a Top 10 school with an entrepreneurial background, and currently do interviews for them. It is more about fit than anything else. Entrepreneurs are always welcome, but tangible achievements and drive are important. An explanation of why you want to go to business school, how you will contribute to it (while in it as well as a graduate) is essential in your application.

 

Hi! I went to a Top 10 school with an entrepreneurial background, and currently do interviews for them. It is more about fit than anything else. Entrepreneurs are always welcome, but tangible achievements and drive are important. An explanation of why you want to go to business school, how you will contribute to it (while in it as well as a graduate) is essential in your application.

 
consultant2b:
Hi! I went to a Top 10 school with an entrepreneurial background, and currently do interviews for them. It is more about fit than anything else. Entrepreneurs are always welcome, but tangible achievements and drive are important. An explanation of why you want to go to business school, how you will contribute to it (while in it as well as a graduate) is essential in your application.

What % of a class is made up of entrepreneurs?

 
Best Response
historiclegend:
Hey everyone.

I'm looking for people with some knowledge on what MBA admission officers are looking for/expecting from an entrepreneur at the top schools.

I have a business that have been very successful, and am getting ready to move on to another venture - just in research and planning stages as of now.

So are they looking for innovation, employee size, revenues, potential growth? Can you tell me what they're looking for and what would be a turn off for them?

I guess this is pretty vague, so I'm asking pretty much what's the typical size of a company that you would need to be considered a good candidate.

I'm not inventing anything, just plan on doing a typical import and remarketing of an existing product.

Thanks for the input.

First, the top schools are looking for academic smarts. So if you can get the ball over the net in that area, then it's on to your work experience.

Yes, they like entrepreneurs, because anyone who has started a successful business shows leadership. If you have managed people and product, dealt with uncertainty, potential failure, worked long hours on hope and dreams alone, you will be a great addition to a class.

Size of company is irrelevant. They care about the type of challenges you face, the impact you have on your teams and your world, and how you've grown in the process.

Hope that helps.

Betsy Massar Come see me at my Q&A thread http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/b-school-qa-w-betsy-massar-of-master-admissions Ask away!
 

with b2...gross.

There is a big difference between having an entrepreneurial idea and being an entrepreneur (ie: seeing your idea to the bitter end or brilliant future). Honestly, you shouldn't just see the MBA as some credential (even though yes, I know it is). Obviously an MBA makes you very mobile, but not even the golden graces of HBS/Wharton/SGSB etc. can save you from producing high-quality work. If you are afraid of professional insecurity, you should focus on taking that normal analyst path.

I think it would also be the way you spin your story. Guy Kawasaki writes in his blog that working on a startup that fails is more valuable than a success. Assuming you alone were not the cause, the things you learn are more valuable than say, someone who strikes gold by luck. For your MBA app, it really is about who you paint yourself as and how you sell your story. At the end of the day they don't want well-rounded people, they want a well-rounded class. They want people who have done something, not many little things. If it makes sense financially/mentally/physically for you, don't let anything stop you from spreading your idea.

 

Up until now, your adult life has been dominated by others' expectations of you and your ability or inability to meet said expectations (whether you will admit this or not). This is revealed in the very structure of your question.

To put it another way, it would be like risking your life running across a street to save a child from a burning building and then worrying about whether or not the cops were going to cite you for jaywalking.

Once you're in the "real" world, and you're either a successful entrepreneur or a failure on your way to success (more likely, statistically), you'll find that you don't really give a shit what some middle-aged prof who has hid out in a university his whole life thinks about you.

The VAST majority of entrepreneurs in this country have no college whatsoever. Especially in your chosen field of real estate (look at all the soccer moms who have a real estate license). Ask yourself if you want the freedom of making your own rules and calling your own shots, or if what you really want is the prestige of calling yourself an "entrepreneur" coupled with the acceptance and admiration of a clueless college community. The more brutally honest you can be with yourself, the more likely you will succeed either way.

 

To hop on the same train as everyone else, if you want to become an entrepreneur, what is the point of getting a MBA? Seems pretty worthless to me, other than for the networking aspect.

My plan is to work in banking and then strike it out on my own, though I have my doubts regarding how well banking will prepare me to start something up.

 

If nothing else, the miserable hours and ritual floggings that are a part of daily life in banking will prepare you for the demands of the free market. I speak from experience.

Believe me, if you can handle 100-hour weeks working beside the biggest assbags on the planet, you'll find that the bar is set pretty low outside of Wall Street. Trust me, you'll be clearing it in street shoes...

 

I came in on the heels of Milken and Boesky in the late 80s early 90s. Great fun back then, if you had no moral compass. Back then it was still acceptable (even expected) to bang your hot secretary like a screen door in a hurricane.

Eventually, though, most of us grew up and moved on, leveraging what we picked up along the way. Those of us that didn't are now running your firms. If you knew what I know, that would give you great pause...

If you apply the lead-pipe thuggery you learn on Wall Street to everyday business transactions, you will almost always come out on top, get rich, and have a LOT more free time.

Of course, if you consider rubbing one out to the latest Victoria Secret catalog a social life, keep doing what you're doing.

 

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Leah Derus Independent MBA Admissions Consultant MIT Sloan Class of 2010 [email protected] Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCacB1ueqfkRVW5pcMZKAj5w
 

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Leah Derus Independent MBA Admissions Consultant MIT Sloan Class of 2010 [email protected] Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCacB1ueqfkRVW5pcMZKAj5w

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