Evaluation sought: Australian entrepreneur

[PhilipK380]

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me. I am planning on applying next year to HBS and MIT Sloan.

Age and background: 30 year old Greek-Australian male

GMAT: 760

Education and GPA:
-Skipped two years of high school
-3.6 GPA in software engineering at the University of Melbourne
-Started an honours year in software engineering and got an H1 (4.0) average in first semester but quit to run my own start up

Work experience:
10 years work experience as an analyst/programmer including about four years at a Top 4 Bank in Australia and another four years in the public service.
I also worked full time all through undergrad at an unknown software company who paid my tuition fees and a salary
I quit my job two years ago to found a tech start up. It is still finding its footing but should be making money in a year's time when I apply. I can still get two strong references from my previous jobs, basically saying they really wanted me to stay on and it was my choice to take the start up route instead.

Leadership and extracurriculars:
Not much since I was working full time all through university. But in the next year or so before applying I am planning to set up a not-for-profit that matches coders interested in doing pro bono work for NGOs in the medical research field. Also active as co-convenor of an under-35s hiking club.

Personal narrative and Bschool objectives:
My dad was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. This has sparked an interest in setting up and running a health or biotech company. My objective at Bschool is to make some contacts, find some co-founders for my start up, get some funding and learn more about business, especially the sales and marketing side.

My main questions are around what I can do in the next year to strengthen my application. In particular:

1. Will it make a material difference if I go back and finish my final semester of honours year, assuming similar H1 grades? Or would I be better off spending time developing some other aspect of my application?
2. How much of a role do extracurriculars play, and should I devote a lot of time to the not-for-profit idea that I've mentioned?
3. Will my age (30 now, 31 at time of application) be a red flag or a negative on my application?
4. Will it make a big difference if I can prove a certain amount of sales, customers or income with my start up? When assessing entrepreneurs, what does HBS look for and how do they assess whether it's a successful start up or not? Will that be a red flag for them that the start up hasn't made money in its first two years, though I'm hoping/expecting it to start making some money in the next year?
5. Do you have any knowledge about whether being an Australian will tick some kind of diversity requirement, and/or how many admissions HBS tends to get from Australians with a tech or start up background?

Thanks again, I appreciate the advice.

[mbamissionjenK]

Hi there,

Thanks for posting. So you would be looking to apply not this year, but next fall as I'm understanding? And your work experience, while fairly extensive by b-school app standards, was primarily as a programmer, without much management or leadership experience before the start up experience?

You are going to have quite a bit more experience than the average accepted candidate, so you'll definitely want to emphasize the WHY and the WHY NOW behind this MBA application. ;) To your specific q's:

1. Will it make a material difference if I go back and finish my final semester of honours year, assuming similar H1 grades? Or would I be better off spending time developing some other aspect of my application?
That's a tough one-- on one hand, leaving the program could raise some questions; on the flip side going back to it now at this point should probably only be if you feel it is worth it for your career (vs just admission). If it were something you could fit in alongside your start up work, it could be something to consider, but probably not your main focus.

2. How much of a role do extracurriculars play, and should I devote a lot of time to the not-for-profit idea that I've mentioned?
Extracurricular experience and community involvement can be a plus for sure; and many strong applicants have some kind of involvement. It also reassures schools that you will likely be involved at THEIR school. The not-for-profit idea does sound interesting...

3. Will my age (30 now, 31 at time of application) be a red flag or a negative on my application?

Potentially somewhat, to a certain degree... just in that you are well outside the usual years of work experience. Most top programs including HBS DO accept some students with 10-15 years of experience, but that said the number in the class in that age range will be fairly small. Sloan often has a higher age range upper limit and average age than HBS, fyi. And many European schools have a higher average age too. Just something to think about and as I said-- you want to really answer the q's WHY and WHY NOW.

4. Will it make a big difference if I can prove a certain amount of sales, customers or income with my start up? When assessing entrepreneurs, what does HBS look for and how do they assess whether it's a successful start up or not? Will that be a red flag for them that the start up hasn't made money in its first two years, though I'm hoping/expecting it to start making some money in the next year?

Sure the more concrete you can make your start up sound, the more relevant your experience there and potentially the more successful it is, the stronger the experience will be for you in terms of admissions. It doesn't have to be a red flag per se if you're not profitable (or would you not even have revenue??); it's all relative and assessed on a case-by-case basis.


5. Do you have any knowledge about whether being an Australian will tick some kind of diversity requirement, and/or how many admissions HBS tends to get from Australians with a tech or start up background?

Generally yes; while nationality won't get you in per se, if you are considered a strong applicant AND have a less common nationality it can be an additional plus as schools do appreciate diversity within the classroom. So you may not have a ton of other Australians with similar backgrounds, but in some ways you are also still competing with those at a similar experience level as you (age, to a certain degree) and somewhat with other entrepreneurs in general.

Lots to think about! Keep us posted on your questions and decisions and good luck!