Sparts1 wrote:
How influential would being co-founder of a Y Combinator company boost an application to an MBA program like Stanford GSB, HBS or Wharton? Also, what impact would a positive outcome (sale of company) vs. negative outcome (failure of company) have on the application?
It would be a plus in your application. Obviously the details matter, but especially at Stanford, it would help you. Your reflection on the outcome would matter as much as the actual outcome. What did you learn from the experience. If you succeeded, that's nice and would attest to business acumen, but the real plus would come from how you reflected on the event. The failure may not attest to business acumen, but it would probably be a tremendous learning experience and character builder. Again, what you learned from it and how you view it would be the deal breaker.
Best,
Linda