You Won’t Believe Who Harvard Business School Just Rejected

Mr. Mobile App

• 760 GMAT
• 85/100 average
• Undergraduate degree in psychology from a top Canadian university
• Work experience primarily at startups. Most notably, two years in marketing at a mobile app startup which was recently acquired
• Extracurricular involvement in various communications roles with community orgs, including local LGBT group, strong student leadership experience as RA/executive on student union
• Goal: To move into VC focused on investing in minority entrepreneurs
• 25-year-old male, Chinese ancestry from SE Asia

Sandy’s Analysis: Well, I would not have been surprised if you were interviewed, given solid stats and what seems like solid experience in mobile, a big interest area for business schools.

If your work experience was scattered over several start-ups, as you suggest, and you appeared to get lucky in last one (acquired but by whom), well that might have jinxed you. It’s possible that they just saw a kid drifting from small application start-up to small application start-up. THAT is not a favorite HBS profile. Your goal to become a “VC for minority community,” seems unsettled and a bit historical as well.