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Entrepreneur Applying to Business schools-Some apprehensions

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FuzzyLogic
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Entrepreneur Applying to Business schools-Some apprehensions [#permalink] New post   02 Jun 2013, 22:37
I run my startup and some of our products are fairly popular in our space. I'm doing this startup for the last 4 years. We are just two cofounders and have currently $50k in annual revenues in INR. Scaling up is becoming a major issue though and I intend to take a step back and go to a business school this year, run the startup on the sidelines and also explore new business opportunities with peers. Yes, I am a very entrepreneurial and I won't be surprised if I end up becoming a serial entrepreneur :)

The biggest advantage that I have is that we have actually built products and have had more than 15000+ customers so far and have a lot of interesting things to write in my essays.
I know business schools value startup experience but I'm getting very paranoid about the following two things

a) Would adcoms be any impressed by the fact that we are just two co-founders running the show? I ask this question because adcoms are looking for leadership experience, the size of the teams that directly to report to you etc. We do have a lot of freelancers working for us .

b) Whom should I get recommendations from ? We are purely a product company so our clients don't know us that well. How about taking a recommendation from the co-founder ? Would it look bad ? Also how about taking a recommendation from a mentor who knows me quite well and has been occasionally advising us.
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Re: Entrepreneur Applying to Business schools-Some apprehensions [#permalink] New post   02 Jun 2013, 23:25
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FuzzyLogic wrote:
I run my startup and some of our products are fairly popular in our space. I'm doing this startup for the last 4 years. We are just two cofounders and have currently $50k in annual revenues in INR. Scaling up is becoming a major issue though and I intend to take a step back and go to a business school this year, run the startup on the sidelines and also explore new business opportunities with peers. Yes, I am a very entrepreneurial and I won't be surprised if I end up becoming a serial entrepreneur :)

The biggest advantage that I have is that we have actually built products and have had more than 15000+ customers so far and have a lot of interesting things to write in my essays.
I know business schools value startup experience but I'm getting very paranoid about the following two things

a) Would adcoms be any impressed by the fact that we are just two co-founders running the show? I ask this question because adcoms are looking for leadership experience, the size of the teams that directly to report to you etc. We do have a lot of freelancers working for us .

b) Whom should I get recommendations from ? We are purely a product company so our clients don't know us that well. How about taking a recommendation from the co-founder ? Would it look bad ? Also how about taking a recommendation from a mentor who knows me quite well and has been occasionally advising us.


Hey there,

a) Actually it is more impressive when you lead more people (rather than going alone). Use your freelancers for leadership stories (being honest of course about their position), but you can write things like "For project XX I lead a team of yyy people to do zzz"

b) Good question! A recommendation from your co-founder would not be worth too much, after all what is he going to write??? You need to look for two things 1. Someone who has the possibility of being objective b) Ideally someone who "oversees" you in some way. I don't know your entire background, but one you may be able to pull from your non-start up experience (meaning from community service, volunteer work, etc. if you had some sort of "boss" there). A second one should be someone within your business circle who could be objective, and has something impressive about them, as well as knows your work. I'm not sure who that might be (some sort of partner client, collaborator, but who you do not hire). Any thoughts?
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Re: Entrepreneur Applying to Business schools-Some apprehensions [#permalink] New post   03 Jun 2013, 00:05
JonAdmissionado wrote:
Hey there,

a) Actually it is more impressive when you lead more people (rather than going alone). Use your freelancers for leadership stories (being honest of course about their position), but you can write things like "For project XX I lead a team of yyy people to do zzz"

b) Good question! A recommendation from your co-founder would not be worth too much, after all what is he going to write??? You need to look for two things 1. Someone who has the possibility of being objective b) Ideally someone who "oversees" you in some way. I don't know your entire background, but one you may be able to pull from your non-start up experience (meaning from community service, volunteer work, etc. if you had some sort of "boss" there). A second one should be someone within your business circle who could be objective, and has something impressive about them, as well as knows your work. I'm not sure who that might be (some sort of partner client, collaborator, but who you do not hire). Any thoughts?


Thanks Jon. I liked your point about the person being "objective", something that a co-founder wouldn't be considered because it will be a biased recommendation.
Would a professional adviser/mentor who is at the VP level position in an MNC bank and knows me quite well be considered as a good choice of recommender ?
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Re: Entrepreneur Applying to Business schools-Some apprehensions [#permalink] New post   04 Jun 2013, 00:09
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Maybe. It's hard to say without knowing what your other options are. Usually, when I help clients choose recommenders, we brainstorm together all possible options, write down the advantages, disadvantages of each one, "Rate" them for various things (like how well they know you, how great a recommendation they would write, etc. etc.) and usually, this helps us figure out who might be the best. You can try and doing this yourself, and see what ideas you come up with.
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Re: Entrepreneur Applying to Business schools-Some apprehensions [#permalink] New post   04 Jun 2013, 20:51
JonAdmissionado wrote:
Maybe. It's hard to say without knowing what your other options are. Usually, when I help clients choose recommenders, we brainstorm together all possible options, write down the advantages, disadvantages of each one, "Rate" them for various things (like how well they know you, how great a recommendation they would write, etc. etc.) and usually, this helps us figure out who might be the best. You can try and doing this yourself, and see what ideas you come up with.


Thanks Jon for really honest advice. Appreciate it.
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Re: Entrepreneur Applying to Business schools-Some apprehensions [#permalink]
04 Jun 2013, 20:51

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