I want to start a business: Wharton vs. Booth vs. Haas vs. Cornell ($$$) vs. Columbia (WL) vs. no school?
I was accepted to Wharton, Booth, Haas, and Cornell for MBA class of 2022. WL at Columbia. Wharton, Booth, and Haas offers don't include any scholarship. Cornell offered a full-tuition scholarship. Pre-MBA experience is management consulting and a cross-functional, CoS-like role at Series A/B startup, reporting to the CEO. Post-MBA: I want to find a co-founder in business school and start a business.
When I began applying to schools, I had a singular focus on starting a business as my next career move - regardless of admission to an MBA program. Thus, I'm open to skipping business school altogether. If I am looking for an entrepreneurial network, I might instead apply to YCombinator or TechStars with a cofounder and/or one of my side projects (very small, but profitable in the proof of concept stage). However, I now find myself considering Wharton/Booth/Haas and postponing business ownership to pay off loans in a salaried job after graduation (would look for a startup job in an industry of interest or in a skill-relevant role, ultimately in service of starting my own company). It seems counter-intuitive to put myself in debt if my ultimate goal is to start a business and work for myself. After lots of thinking, reading, some basic calculations, and conversations, I'm still undecided.
I am sure that my final career destination is to start a business. To me, the feeling of ownership/equity is unparalleled by any other job situation. Since ownership and freedom are what I'm primarily after, I don't need access to large amounts of funding to feel like I'm making an impact. I'd rather build slowly and take less institutional funding to retain ownership and control.
I'm curious how you folks would evaluate this decision or any questions that might come up.
The answer is Wharton or Haas, and I'm leaning Haas. Haas is #3 of the 'Big 3' tech schools of GSB/MIT/Cal, and will likely have myriad resources for you as a founder. Wharton *does * have an incredible VC community, but my personal opinion is that it is better suited for students who want to go into VC itself versus founders. The great news is that there is really no wrong answer here.
The connections and access you get in business school are really unparalleled. For example, at CBS there are multiple school funds which exclusively give seed or pre-seed money to CBS students starting ventures. Furthermore, you will have a much easier time getting 5 minutes to pitch an alumni VC.
Furthermore, there are so many hackathons and chances to meet engineers and other MBAs to build something in business school.
If you were already in Ycomb I would probably feel differently, but that is unknown at this point. I think you should go have a blast at MBA and build something really cool while you are there.
Thanks for your input, you brought up some good points. A few followup questions.
Well, you need more than just money to start a company, you need connections. My point is that the MBA gives you that in droves - you can literally email any alumni with "I'm a current student", and your hit/reply rate will be far far higher than if you're just another founder. This is effectively what you are giving up 10% of your company to YC for - the connections and access they provide. The benefit of the MBA is that some of those school-sponsored funds have far less restrictions (and some even give grants) in terms of the terms they demand to buy-in.
I think you are going to be able to find high quality technical cofounders no matter where you go among these schools.
I don't have the answers to all your questions, so I would encourage you to reach out the schools and ask to be put in contact with people who went the entrepeneurship route to get their take on things. One other thing you could do is reach out to all of them and say something like "I am very very eager to come, but I received a full scholarship at Johnson that is tough to turn down, can you offer anything?" This can sometimes work, especially with a school like Haas which is closer in rank (albeit still a ways above Cornell).
Sorry...not to rain on your parade, but Berkeley CS isn't "not far behind" - it beats Cornell CS by a mile and a half. Not saying that Cornell CS is much worse but the caliber of students who are able to sharpen and refine their technical skills by virtue of being in the Bay Area and having access to countless working opportunities is way ahead of their competition elsewhere. You'll find it'll be a lot easier to find a technical cofounder if you're in the Bay Area.
I think you may also be interested in "search funds", which is a path available at certain top business schools. In short - a group of investors will fund (and advise) you to search for a small company that is for sale... upon acquisition, you'll grow the company as a young CEO with a freshly minted MBA and (hopefully) sell it at a higher value.
If you're absolutely sure about going the startup route, then Haas.
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