what to talk about your startup companies in your mba app?

I also had a startup before bschool.

I'd focus most of your effort on using your "story" to portray your entrepreneurial drive, your willingness to take risks, your comfort with ambiguity, the broad professional skills you developed during the process, your ability to learn on the fly, the multitude of failures you've likely experienced while starting a company, your creativity, your leadership, etc. I could go on and on.

When telling your story, focus less on your business plan and your initial "vision," and instead ingrain your story with anecdotes that show how you evolved during the process.

Thanks MDF! Excellent points!

but may I ask you why you suggest to focus more on the story rather than the business plan and initial vision? I thought they were equally important?
Would you please elaborate?

Thanks again!

This is the feedback I received from bschool grads on my app essays. Focus on your personal development rather than outlining the business plan. 10% milestones/failures 90% how that experienced affected you. Adcoms would rather know how that entrepreneurial experience shaped you personally

I created 3 different company with 3 different majors in less than 4 years and they're still working well, is it good to put all of them in the essay? or because of word limitation in essays just focus on 1 or 2 with more details ?

Hi nayuop

I am an alum of a top 5 global mba program. And an entrepreneur too. Amazing job for creating 3 companies that are doing so well!!Well done.Are you running them all together? Or sold one and move on to another? Here is my advice:

- it is really valuable for the Ad coms to see that you can take an idea and make it into a workable product/service that adds value and ppl are willing to pay for it. This is a knowledge that you can share with your future classmates and help them on their entrepreneurial venture.

- each business school essays are different so you want to be able to articulate effectively and efficiently in each scenario.

- for each of these companies you founded summarize your impact, achievements and your motive behind each to start them.

-make sure you have a very compelling reason for the motive, something that is profound and shows your value/ personal experiences that you want to create change in our world by building these companies.

Hello GotInMBA
I'm so glad someone with a lot of experience answering my questions. I appreciate it
Yes im still doing them and they are improving very good.all of them are at the top of their field in the city and even in the province (all of this are in my country)
the first company that I founded about 3 years ago is a Real Estate company which was started from the balcony of my father's office and now is the biggest Real estate office in the city (compare with more than 1000 offices) with 2 real estate office in 2 location and one development group in another office (as a joint of real estate) . invested to one multimedia advertisement start up and etc... Im still CEO of all of this
the second one is an educational LLC, constitute, prepare and make seminars and workshops in several areas. I'm Co-Founder and project planner of that, we made 2 non-profit seminars and we have 3 upcoming ones till next 6 month.
the last one is urgent care which is just started after 1 years preparing. it is the best unique and modern health care system as an urgent care in the city. I planned created myself.I found 3 doctors as investors and then made it even bigger than what I planned before started. I did manage whole the project from 0 to 100(marketing, planning, creating, developing, designing, hiring and then launching).it has more than 30 employees and going to be so bigger soon
I definitely have my team to do all this job or other ones, it was not easy to do all of this together in past but I love business and I will do it more in future
my problem is I have too much experience to write in essay in different categories and i don't know how to explain them. should I focus on one of them? or maybe don't elaborate them with details? which career is more important for them? should i talk more about how did I create team and leadership or about improving businesses ...
thank you for responding

Which experience should go into the essay should be determined by the particular essay prompt.

But what would happen to these companies if you pursue an MBA? And what gap would an MBA fill? You need to consider these questions as well.

nayuop

First, I must mention that by reading the paragraph on your businesses, I was really really blown away. You are someone that we MBAs would love to have as a classmate and soak up their knowledge and wisdom. If you were sitting next to me in class, I would have been like 'Wow! Tell me more!' This is precisely what Adcoms are evaluating for. They ask themselves, "if I admit this person in, would the classmates benefit from his or her presence?"

Second, you are right by asking those questions below because this is a forum where you briefly told me about your experience and not the actual MBA essay. So you want to ensure that whatever story you chose and HOW you chose to tell this story, you would elicit this kind of reaction. That the Adcoms would be thinking: 'If I admit this individual, I know his or her classmates would benefit from this person's presence." This is just ONE of the main criteria they judge you by.

Before I jump in to answer your questions, can you shine more light here: which business schools are you considering? and have you looked at their essay questions? when do you intend to apply? The reason I ask these questions is that it will help me to better answer your questions below and advise on how you should strategize. Once you shared your responses I can go more in-depth.

I also want to leave you with this recommendation to your question "which career is more important to them?" From my first paragraph above, you now know one of the criteria that the Adcoms judge you by. So, when you are thinking about which story to share with them, think about how you can portray yourself that demonstrates the positive impact you can have on your classmates through sharing your entrepreneurial classmates.

Feel free to PM and connect with me to discuss this further. Am happy to help!