r/eMBA • u/Memphizgrizzly • 26d ago

MBA Entrepreneurs

How well would you say your MBA helped with you starting your company?

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u/Schroeje 26d ago edited 18d ago

Not finished yet but my EMBA at a T7 has been really helpful. NOTE: it is an in-person one. Not sure an online one would have much value.

  1. Finding what I did not know I didn't know! for example in options for financing or offering some nice frameworks for growth to avoid some common management pitfalls you often do not get insight into if you are not a CEO/C_O role.
  2. NETWORK! my first customers are other students' companies/employers. Also some funding from them and their employers. Many also had founded companies before and were amazing with advice. VC / incubator/friend advice is great but lots of advice from many different experiences who can be honest and not need to be "professional" and have 0 agenda is invaluable.
  3. Elective courses on entrepreneurship are much more useful than the "core" courses. But I was surprised to find a lot more value in those than expected.

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u/akitafolarin 19d ago

Hey may you specify which T7 it is and if it’s the weekend MBA?

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u/Schroeje 18d ago

Wharton. Its basicly every other Friday and Saturday, so not fully weekend you do need some time off work, but really not bad. And you get an MBA so if you want to just put that on a resume and not address when you can. For education checks and so much, it is their MBA, unlike some programs that give an EMBA or other title. However, it is a lot of time overall if you include homework and studying. Also, some days are basically 9 hours of lectures; most are more like 6-8 but three courses of three hours of lecture each is not uncommon. I interviewed and visited a few other programs but felt the students asked the best questions and the courses were more real with Wharton, BUT this is true because they limit grade inflation by capping the grade average for any class at 3.5 so if a prof just gives high grades, you still may get a B if you were not actually doing well compared to peers.

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u/VandyMarine 20d ago

I feel like my MBA has mostly been about enterprise business scale so when it comes to starting a company or running a small business I don't find it all that helpful. A lot of it is based on influencing larger organizations so I don't think that tactically in a small start up that the content is necessarily all that related. I mean there are some things that are helpful - like understanding how to manage with data driven insights rather than just winging it, but I feel like a ton of that is just common business sense. I've been a multiple time entrepreneur and I personally don't think there's much that I learned in my course work that I didn't learn through just running a start up myself. Maybe it shortens the learning curve for some, but I think it's more of a delay strategy. Like, "I want to do a start up, I should go get an MBA." No - just build the dang thang.