Growth-Oriented Essay: Curiosity can be seen in many ways. Please share an example of how you have demonstrated curiosity and how that has influenced your growth. (up to 250 words)
Background Information: The applicant, an Entrepreneur from India, shares his American dream by reflecting on his entrepreneurial experiences in India and contrasting them with the support offered by the American VC ecosystem.
Curiosity: Culture
Curiosity (Explained): Sometimes the challenge faced by an entrepreneur are cultural. From Silicon Valley investors who have a bias in favor of SaaS companies to investors in certain countries prioritizing models of scaling that worked before, the lack of curiosity is a malaise across cultures. For the applicant, the pitch to an Indian and an American investor is cited to reiterate the value of curiosity.
MBA Essay Strategy: Instead of addressing the biases in the investor community that could turn preachy, I wanted to focus on the applicant and his entrepreneurial journey by citing two entrepreneurial experiences – a platform(club) for stamp collection and his Grocery delivery App.
Theme: Culture
Theme (Explained): A culture can be criticized without turning the tone acerbic. The weakness in a culture can be narrated from a historical perspective or you could contrast with two experiences, which I have done for the fund-raising example.
Profile: Entrepreneur
Industry: Technology
Opener: The opener takes the reader to the late 1990s where the applicant learned the first lesson of entrepreneurship – middlemen-model/platform has its limitations.
Sample Harvard MBA Curiosity and Growth Essay – The American Dream (248 Words)
In late-90s India, stamp collection was bigger than TV. I started a club with one condition—a rare stamp of my choosing from both participants. In just a week, I had accumulated stamps from over 70 countries. It was a win-win-win deal for all three players, but the limitation of the middleman was evident as a seven-year-old when the top collectors facilitated meetings outside the club.
When I started a Grocery Delivery ..
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