Donna@StratusPrep wrote:

ss.singh wrote:Hey Guys,

I'm currently heading marketing at a seed funded and well-established startup in India. In my current role, I manage branding, advertising, social media and special projects. In my current company, I have been working for more than 18 months.

My journey is a little complex so I have mentioned details in chronological order:

2007 - 2010: I started with BE in Computer Science and was an above average student. I always wanted to do things differently so built a website for students to download course material online, it became instantly popular.While I was maintaining the portal I kept on participating in the robotics competitions. Soon I started organizing paid robotics workshops for first and second-year students. I was selected as a student representative of OSUM (Open Source University Meetup) a SUN Microsystems Initiative.

2010: I cofounded a company in the 3rd year of college. We started generating revenue within a couple of months & were profitable within 6 months of operations.

Late 2010 - Mid 2011: In late 2010, the idea was incubated & we successfully pitched for seed funding. In 2010, we realized that market wasn't ready for our product, so dropped it.

Mid 2011: I finished my BE & joined an IT MNC for a corporate experience.

2013: In Mid 2013, I joined Symbiosis to do MBA in Marketing as I wanted to change my stream from Tech to Marketing.

Late 2013: While I was doing my MBA, I founded a company similar to my previous company. As the market had matured in 3 years I added more revenue streams along with old ones. Within 3 months of operations, the company started generating revenue with higher profit margins. I was mostly working in corporate sales, marketing, growth.

Mid 2015: I faced scalability issues so stopped the work and joined my current company.

I believe with an MBA from top business school will give me the necessary international exposure. I intend to do my specialization in general management.

I want your expert advice on the following:

1. Since I have already done my MBA and I'll be applying once again. How will this affect my candidature?
2. I have worked while I was studying, can I count that as experience while I am applying?

I am aiming at scoring 720.

Thanks in advance

so you would not be the first candidate from India to apply with an MBA already. And while not necessarily a plus- if you can articulate the reasons why you want a US MBA and also emphasize that you worked during your past one- I can see a reasonable path to why you would seek an MBA here and if your stats are high enough it may be ok. A 720 is not really going to stand anyone at attention so I'd work to up that score. As you get into the problems you faced with your company and the marketing challenges and other challenges you faced, you may find yourself most successful with that strategy.

1. The startup journey you've had can make for some really compelling essays. Will be good to understand your post-MBA plans and make sure you connect the dots well here.
2. Most schools will not count the work you've done on startups together with education as formal work experience. Some might, but you'll have to check with the schools directly once - always the best way to go about it.
3. From a second MBA perspective, you may want to start with the list here for US schools.