Sumeet Surana is an MBA from INSEAD and a two-time entrepreneur with experience in technology startups and finance. Sumeet joined the MBA Decoder team as our new consultant. He is full of valuable feedback that will make every component of your MBA application perfect. During his MBA journey, he applied to the top b-schools in the world and now he loves to share his deep insights about these MBA programs with b-school aspirants. Read further to know more about Sumeet:
A brief background about me
I was born and raised in Indore and studied engineering from IIT Kharagpur. Post IIT, I started my career in JPMorgan in 2012 as an equity research analyst, where I covered the US small and mid-size tech companies, which seeded my interest in tech. After 2.5 years at JPM, I moved to Haitong Securities to cover stocks in the India tech sector. At Haitong, I grew my leadership and interpersonal skills while managing billion-dollar clients and advising them on their tech investments. Analyzing strategies of technology companies seeded my curiosity in building and executing strategies.
Thus, I moved from a structured environment at banking to an unstructured environment at an early-stage education tech startup, GCF, which was still an idea when I joined as the first employee. Working across functions with the founders we grew it to 100,000 students. GCF was eventually acquihired by our largest clients, when I decided to pursue an international MBA from INSEAD.
Inspired by my work at GCF and learnings at INSEAD, I got an opportunity to explore my entrepreneurial spirit by working with an equally passionate team and form Tutorline, with an aim to create a level playing field for all students in the UK and to provide a global platform for quality tutors based out of India.
My motivation for business school
When I moved from an analysis-driven career in banking to a strategy and execution driven career in startups, I came across certain skill gaps that I knew an MBA would help me fill.
A longer-term reason why I moved from banking to a startup was that I wanted to build a career in VC, and still do. Before contemplating an international MBA, I talked to few people in the VC industry – with most of them being from INSEAD – and realized that a global MBA, along with my experience in the startup, would help me enter this industry and the network I build from my MBA will help me thrive as a VC.
Lastly, the timing was just right. By the time I joined MBA, I had spent nearly 1.5 years in the startup taking it from zero to one. I was also 28 years old and had just got married. So, it was also a now-or-never decision for me.
My experience at INSEAD
I would certainly say that the INSEAD MBA was one of the best years of my life, so far. If I had to summarize my experience in one word, I would say it was “diverse”. Diverse, in terms of the people I met during my MBA, ranging from a US fighter pilot to a social entrepreneur in Nigeria. Diverse, also in terms of personal experience, ranging from a weekend at a private island in the Philippines with 60 batchmates to 1×1 interactions with leading tech entrepreneurs.
My academic highlight at INSEAD was the “Startup booster” course. This course helped me meet my current co-founders and guided us to create a sustainable business model from day zero. The mentorship we received from alums, batchmates and INSEAD professors led us to raise a seed round of €20,000 for our startup during our MBA.
One of the best things about INSEAD is its diverse (you will hear and say this word a lot if you decide to go to INSEAD) and down-to-earth community. I believe a key reason for having a close-knit community is that we like to travel and hang out together. The INSEAD community, which includes batchmates, alums, and professor will help you in any way they can, you just need to ask.
In the end, to all aspiring INSEAD MBAs, I would just say that the INSEAD experience can be whatever you want it to be. There is a lot to do in an even less time than a 2-year MBA. At multiple times, you will find yourself choosing between: Social life, Academics, and Sleep.
My career after MBA and why I chose entrepreneurship
I am currently a co-founder of a cross-border ed-tech startup, based in London and Bangalore. I never entered INSEAD with entrepreneurship in my mind. It was accidental. With the help of the INSEAD, I met my now co-founder. We were passionate about education technology and hence casually discussed stakeholders and problems faced by each of them. This led us to come to an insight, which later shaped up into a business. We were compelled by the opportunity to pursue it, hence decided to take a leap of faith. I am still learning the nuances of being an entrepreneur, but the MBA, and especially INSEAD, has given me the confidence to go into uncharted waters and explore.
My passion for mentoring MBA applicants
Education has the power to transform lives. Seeing the impact of education in transforming my life and lives of people near me has made me a firm believer of this power. From an average kid in high school to cracking JEE and scoring 770 in GMAT, I believe that the right direction and motivation, along with hard-work and focus towards one’s goal, are key to turn one’s life around. I seek this direction in my life and career even now.
Being a part-time teacher since the age of 17, I also enjoy mentoring people. After my selection in IIT, I guided and taught young students to prepare for JEE. Post IIT, I taught math and logical reasoning to 200+ underprivileged kids through a Mumbai-based foundation. Since my MBA, I have been guiding candidates with the GMAT preparations, global B-school applications, and interviews. Having been in the shoes of an MBA applicant, I know how my seniors and mentors helped me move towards the right direction, and now is my turn to give back.
And, how do I hope to help MBA applicants
I believe, to truly help an applicant, you need to know them inside out. Thus, I like to get involved early on i.e. from college selection and resume to the end of the process, i.e. essays and interview preparation. I am also open to mentoring applicants for GMAT. With the confidence my GMAT score and preparation has given me, I can help the applicants to prepare and build an outcome-driven plan.