What are good industry positions related to entrepreneurship

Question

Alright, I still need to talk to some entrepreneurs to figure this out, but I thought I'd start a thread for those of us who will put entrepreneurship as our short term or long term goals in our essays to discuss and help each other out.

Any comments on this?

Thanks!

vikramjit_01 · Answer

Your plan sounds good but will it make you more of an intrapreneur or an entrepreneur? I think intrapreneur.

My suggestion is get into VC. You get to look at Business ideas, research them and verify if what the entrepreneur is telling you is correct. If you make the right deals you get to make some good money too. Working with other VC's and entrepreneurs will develop the right network for you. Not to mention you should end up thinking and behaving like an entrepreneur real fast. Research Vault for more info on VC.

This is what I plan to do if I goto RSM. I think their entrepreneurship focus is average so getting into VC's post my MBA and later starting out on my own should be the best way. 


However I'm not sure which approach will work best in the essays for aspiring entrepreneurs:

1. Write that we plan to get into entrepreneurship right after the MBA. Write about an opportunity we have identified and how the MBA can help us with it
Or
2. Tell them how we plan to work in a related field and then start out.

I am not sure which plan to go with because Plan 1 seems to me like the plan of a focused individual.
Plan 2 seems to be the plan of an individual who's thought out in detail what he/she wants to do.

kryzak · Answer

Thanks vik! I was thinking about VC, but I really don't have much interest in a finance-related job at all, once I found out VC is more about that than strategic managing of a company. 

I'm looking at Plan 2, since I don't have any current ideas that I want to use to start a company yet, so I want to participate in the business plan competitions and things like that to "practice". 

As for intrapreneur vs entrepreneur, that depends on each person's definition. I thought one is only an entrepreneur if you go out, start businesses or work in startups, but a real entrepreneur friend recently convinced me that one can easily be an entrepreneur even while working at a big company... it really just depends on which industry you want to work in and how you want to apply entrepreneur principles...

riverripper · Answer

Personally I toned down my long term goals from what I really hope to do to make it more attainable and believable. Saying you want to start your own firm that does whatever is a harder sell than saying you want to be a partner at an established firm. Unless you can show you have a history of starting business or have a solid business fills that meets a need not yet filled. Adding another VC firm, HF, or Consulting company might come across as too dreamy.

kryzak · Answer

exactly. I have no startup experience nor international experience, that's why my short term goals are very "grounded" in learning about international business by working for small-medium cap companies in their "strategic" devision or new product management divisions. Something I believe will give me the skills and understanding of the market to be able to start my own firm in the long term.

I don't think saying that you want to start your firm in the long term is not believable, especially if long term means 10 years or so. At least for an entrepreneur focus, I would hope that you can apply your knowledge and experiences to your own firm by the 10 year mark...

vikramjit_01 · Answer

kryzak, is your plan to work in the short term after your MBA to develop skills and then start your business later on? The plan sounds simple and doable but for application purposes it maybe a little too vague unless you can back it up with strong reasoning. 
An alternative would be to say you already have expertise with a product/service and you plan to use the MBA to understand the other areas of running a business like starting a biz, funding and marketing it etc. because you don't know how variables will interact and affect the environment you will be working in.
If theres no such area you can identify now, then probably what I understand part of your your plan is might be best i.e. apply entrepreneurial principles to the companies you work for, get the right work ex and in the long term you'll be well prepared to start out on your own.

kryzak · Answer

Great questions vik! Here's a quick 411 on my logical steps I'm trying to prove in the essays:

https://www.gmatclub.com/phpbb/viewtopic ... 857#358857

How does that sound? (I tend to think better when people ask me questions like this and I have to come up with an answer!)

vikramjit_01 · Answer

The first 2 points fit look great to me. The finishing could be a little stronger in point 3. Here's what I think:
 
That's a logical statement since no business is guaranteed to succeed but it lacks conviction. I would not speculate about my planned business' chances of success in my essays. I like to think of the American Presidential candidates I often see on tv these days. They have plans for all the problems in the world. Will they be able to make the world a prefect place? No and they know it. They have more reason to be uncertain about their plans given the magnitude of the problems they will be dealing with if elected, but look at them speak and they are all oozing confidence and posing. I think we will need to be a little like them and keep speculation out of our talk just like they do.

kryzak · Answer

so just remove the speculation part in the 3rd point and I should be ok? Thanks again for the great comments vik!

mNeo · Answer

I think vikramjit brought up a good point. However, unlike in case of the presidential candidates, the judges of our applications are fairly smart. You can't just sell pure-optimism to them. You also need to prove that you think realistically and have achievable goals.

Oh, BTW, I talked to a Columbia GSB alumnus who is an entrepreneur now. His feedback, "Usually an MBA doesn't help a budding entrepreneur much. Many a times it's better for him to just go out there and start working on his business plans". Not what I was hoping to hear. Oh well .. I am enjoying the application process so much (And learning so much from it) that I am still sure that the B-Schools will help me grow a lot.

kryzak · Answer

mNeo, did you ask that alumnus *why* he got an MBA at Columbia if he has that view? I would be interested to know. 

Same question I'll be asking Haas and Stanford students and alums...

mNeo · Answer

He said that what he said is true for most entrepreneurs. But he was of the rare kind who wanted to prepare himself in the best way possible before he got into entrepreneurship. Now, did he learn from Columbia GSB? Yes, he did. Could he have done better by starting his business two years earlier? He would never know. :-D

kryzak · Answer

so even though most entrepreneurs just go out and do it, he decided to get an MBA first before starting a company? If he's the "rare" kind, what about all the MBA students in all the schools focusing on entrepreneurship? I'm wondering why they're not just going out and doing it...

vikramjit_01 · Answer

Yep just lay out the plan in the essay and leave it at that. It'll be a waste of precious words too saying why you think its going to be a hit, but it needs to be explained very well how your pre-MBA and MBA days lead to a business as the next logical step.

mNeo · Answer

To be fair to him, I think he meant that his kind of entrepreneurs are not very common - those who decide to do an MBA before starting a business. The fact that he decided to prepare a lot through the MBA before starting the business is not necessarily the right approach for every budding entrepreneur. In fact I felt that in his specific case, perhaps he was wondering if he could have done better by utilizing those 2 years some other way.

He said all this while answering my question, "Roughly how many students who were interested in entrepreneurship and were members of such clubs actually go out and start a business just after the school, and how many start a business eventually?". Unfortunately his response also hinted to me that a lot of student who show interest in entrepreneurship end up not following their interest. Perhaps the influence of everybody around them at b-school makes them just follow the herd? Although I might have mis-interpreted him.

The lesson that I'm trying to derive from this is that we are going to get a lot of distractions at b-schools. Deviating from entrepreneurship would seem very rewarding in short-term ... when everybody would be talking about Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. As for "Do we need MBA for entrepreneurship?" .. well, in my case, when I feel that I am weak in some area, I just throw myself into that area till I know enough. B-schools will force me to strengthen my soft-skills. So an MBA still makes sense to me. Even if it didn't to him.

kryzak · Answer

vik: I agree, I think I'm just going to stop worrying so much about "how does this sound to the adcom?" and focus more on being clear and concise on what *I* want to do and my experiences. Just like what the adcoms say at infosessions and in books, "show us who *you* are, and stop worrying about what we want to hear or what we think."

mNeo: yeah, I think I'm going to B-school more for the foundations of business (which I harp on in my essays), the soft skills, and the networking. Entrepreneurship is a long-term goal, and I'd love to learn more about it, but in the end, I'm just looking to work in a more strategic/lead role in a smaller company in the commercial tech industry. It can be my own company, or it can be a large share of someone else's startup/small company, either way works for me. I want the flexibility an MBA gives in terms of career choices, not the narrow focus of being an entrepreneur. Otherwise, like your friend said, I would have already been out there starting my own business!

pats · Answer

Hello,
 Have been reading your posts and it is wonderful to know people of similar interests. Well actually I come from an Indian, gujju background, with loads of business in our family.
There are many of my elders who advise me to just take the plunge ...but personally I feel it is better to have a better education and some sound basics.
With this in mind I have just started my research and am ready to help any of you guys in any way I can (though I dont have much to contribute as of now)

I come from the typical IT / Male/ Indian background am interested in establishing an enterprise of my own (need not be software)

One question I am curious to know ..
how do those who get into a bschool justify establishing an enterprise immediately ?
Practically after a bschool course you are in quite a big debt along with any other personal debts if any ..
After that raising the initial amount, atleast for the first couple of yrs may be difficult unless some VC grabs your idea ?

vikramjit_01 · Answer

More than a way to skin a cat/ fund your business. Since you don't know much about it, it's something you need to learn at B-School and such needs should help you explain  why School X  better to the right schools (eg) Schools like IESE will allow you to present your ideas to potential investors. They claim to have more than 200 investors interested in providing seed money. You'll need to research and identify schools with similar strengths if only entrepreneurship will do.

What are good industry positions related to entrepreneurship

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards