“Burying the lead a bit, my application is uncommon as I do not hold an undergraduate degree.”
That sentence was sitting about halfway through the note I sent to Chicago Booth's Executive MBA program.
It probably should have been first.
I had uploaded a quick CV and the basic information. The rest of the email was me explaining how I had managed to get this far without the one thing every MBA application normally starts with.
I started at the University of Colorado in 2003. I was cash strapped and paying my own way. I had systems skills, worked for the university, and started helping with what became my first startup.
Beatport took off. I took time away from school to help build it. Then the work kept going and school did not.
In the email I wrote that before long ten years had passed. That was pretty much it. There was no grand decision to skip college forever. The company was growing, I was learning fast, and the next problem kept showing up.
After Beatport came Shutterstock. Then more startups, an IPO, content businesses, subscription businesses, teams I built, and teams I had to restructure. My work moved from engineering to product to running larger parts of a business.
I called that stretch a “hands on MBA.”
It still was not a bachelor's degree.
That distinction had bothered me for years. I wanted the formal coursework and accreditation. I wanted a new group of people around me. I wanted to get better at the parts of business that I had learned by doing, especially operations, valuation, capitalization, and company development.
The timing finally seemed possible. I was far enough into my career that I could keep working and do an Executive MBA at the same time. I also knew the missing undergraduate degree could end the conversation immediately.
So I put it in the email and asked whether there was another route.
Booth replied the next day. My work history helped, but the admissions committee still needed evidence that I could handle the academic load. There was a path: take the 90-minute Executive Assessment and submit the score with the application.
My reply started: “Fantastic news.”
I was confident I could do the work. I just needed a way to prove it.
The same day, the Wahoo offer arrived.
My first response was also pretty direct: “Awesome, will review this evening! Broad strokes this is exactly what I was looking for.”
Then I asked for an org chart and said I would send a few more questions. I was interested in the role, but I was not going to pretend a major job change was simple because the first version of the offer looked good.
The Booth path and the Wahoo offer arrived within hours of each other. Neither was finished.
Everything else was still moving too. Apply was operating. The Cornwall house needed title and closing documents. We were working with the Cold Spring landlord on timing for the next tenant. I was applying to business school, negotiating a job change, and trying to get a house purchase across the line.
The camera roll from Sunday has me holding Eva at a restaurant. I look tired. She looks completely unsurprised by any of it. That was a useful break from the inbox.
Friday at 5:20, I sent my final Wahoo offer comments and wrote that it had been “an absolutely miserable two weeks on my end.”
At 5:22, I sent one more email.
Miserable because work had been insane, not because of the offer. Super happy about the offer. Excited about the potential.
That was enough email for one week.