360 degree perspective by Neeraj Biyani

360 degree perspective by Neeraj Biyani

Stanford University is one of the world's leading universities and is a place of learning, discovery, expression and innovation .It has been ranked 3rd on the Global Universities of 2021.

Scoreleap invites Mr. Neeraj Biyani, the COO of PaperBoat to share his experience at Stanford GSB in this webinar.He is also a mentor at Scoreleap to personally guide students in each step of the application process. Scoreleap MBA admission services helps students fine tune their application prerequisites.The journey begins from scoring a max GMAT/GRE score to getting admitted to one’s DREAM school.Let’s dive into Neeraj’s entrepreneurial journey with ScoreLeap as this webinar unfolds.

360 degree perspective by Neeraj Biyani

Question1 :At what stage in your life did you feel and decide that MSX is the next step for you?

Neeraj Biyani said that witnessing the business transformation brought about by Mr. Neeaj Kakkar, I started planning my move to a top ivy school in 2010-2011. After his return from Wharton University, I could visualise the change in the strategic dimension of Mr. Neeraj, Co-Founder of Paperboat. This prompted me to explore further avenues leading to this goal. Due to pressing business needs, this idea went on a postpone mode but never died away. He inspired me on an ongoing basis , so finally I could make it to Stanford GSB in the year 2019 after fighting all business odds.

Question 2: Where else did you get admission for MSX and why did you choose Stanford?

Neeraj Biyani says that - Although I did not apply to many of the Ivy schools, out of the 5 schools that I had put forth my application, I had to choose between Wharton and Stanford. Comparing the curriculum , Wharton was offering a 2 year program and Stanford had a custom designed curriculum for 1 year. Thereby, I found Stanford to be very much in sync with my requirements.

Another big reason for pursuing my degree from Stanford was , it offers a holistic and concise curriculum for entrepreneurship.

Question 3: As a successful entrepreneur, how would you describe your life before and after Stanford?

As per Neeraj Biyani - I consider building Paper Boat from scratch as one of the transformational initiatives in my life. Second would obviously be my decision to go Stanford for MSX. While building the company, I made many naive decisions that had an impact on the business strategies. Before going to Stanford, I used to take up the opportunities that came through without even strategically evaluating the pros and cons. During my journey @ Stanford, I could understand in depth the importance of strategic thinking in entrepreneurship. Additionally, studying at Stanford I understood that it is very imperative to weigh the risks and opportunities equally. After coming back from Stanford, I have developed a better thinking framework of my own and can outweigh the second and third order effects of any decision. At Stanford, you get an exposure to the live case studies shared by various entrepreneurs. This helps to gain different perspectives of the entrepreneurial journey. So, today, I can say that I am able to avoid mistakes and contribute effectively towards business growth.

Question 4: Could you please describe your experience @ Stanford? What is it that you miss about Stanford?

Neeraj says - I really miss my journey @ Stanford and wish it would have been a 2yr. Program. The campus and overall learning environment @ Stanford is simply breathtaking.

Talking about my experience , I really miss the aspiring learning ecosystem.

The deep thinking and group experience sharing sessions over a cup of coffee was really mind boggling. I miss the energy levels portrayed by business owners and the way they were successful in creating million dollar business in a jiffy.

Question 5: What advice would you give to the aspiring entrepreneurs and how do you think Stanford would help to achieve dreams?

Neeraj Biyani mentions - I would again reiterate the adventurous ecosystem that Stanford provides to all its students. The professors, alumnus, entrepreneurs @ Stanford give you the opportunity to discuss in detail all the aspects related to planning of product ideas, raising investment,scaling of team, market strategy etc. related to the business. So they really believe in giving that time in chairing the entire discussion revolving around your business strategies. Not to forget the power of @stanford .edu is just magic. With this tag, we can easily pitch our business idea to CXO’s located globally and the response rate is beyond 95%. Also, it gives the aspiring entrepreneurs the ability to choose Co-Founders from different schools within Stanford. Stanford organises mixer events to connect with people in order to share business ideas and align with like minded people for new business ventures. Also there are events specially targeted for the venture capitalists thus providing the ground for budding entrepreneurs to pitch their business idea. Also, Stanford provides the opportunity to test your product idea while being a part of it. So, the overall course curriculum gives an opportunity to work on your start-up idea and even if the ideation fails, it is always backed up by academic recognition.

In nutshell, studying @ Stanford would provide a wider perspective on building a business from inception and parallely outweighing the business outcomes.

360 degree perspective by Neeraj Biyani

Question 6: Owing to the current Pandemic situation and uncertainty, do you think it is a good time to pursue MBA?

As per Neeraj Biyani - Uncertainty in education delivery has two aspects - economic (lesser jobs, slower start to career, lesser opportunities, etc.) and the changed/modified learning experience.

One has to decide between these two aspects. The economic uncertainty that we see today is induced by the pandemic and thus would not last for more than two years or so. We would start seeing recovery happening as soon as the vaccine comes out. By the time aspiring students are there in the market, we would most likely be in a better economic environment.

The market will definitely witness restoration of normalcy in the form of career opportunities along with the normal market payscale, as was the case in the pre-pandemic era.

For international students, who aspire to work in the US, the change in immigration law might take more time to ease up as it is more political rather than a phenomenon triggered by the pandemic.One needs to evaluate their decision based upon these factors, whether it will be easier to pursue your higher education from a university like the Stanford and similar reputed business schools and then seek career opportunities in the US market. As the immigration laws are country specific, India and China are at a disadvantage here, one needs to plan accordingly.

However, the most important aspect that a student needs to consider is the change in learning experience necessitated by the ongoing pandemic. I understand that many good B-Schools (barring Stanford) are inclined more towards delivering their education experience online. Online experience is good as I have personally experienced it during my final semester at Stanford, although, I still believe that the experience delivered in person is any day better than online mode of education delivery.

I would urge the students to research their choice of B-Schools considering the education delivery models adopted by the institutions in these times. I would personally not like to go ahead with an ‘online-only’ mode of education, although many schools have improved their online education delivery experience.

Question 7: The MBA Programs from the world’s top colleges such as Stanford and Wharton are an expensive proposition. Are the returns worth the investment in terms of post MBA job opportunities?

Neeraj Biyani answers - This is a difficult question because the counterfactual will never be known. For instance, if someone graduates from Stanford and earns 'X' as salary, you could always argue that you could have either earned less or more, even if you wouldn't have studied from this college. Students passing out from these top colleges earn significantly higher than others although there are exceptions to the norm. A case in point could be a Billionaire who was a school dropout or, someone who was not expected to earn so much owing to his/her academic credentials.

However, pursuing higher education from top colleges is a significantly high but, long-term investment such as buying your own property. You are advised not to view and evaluate the returns in terms of the initial job offers that you get. It is not just about the economic returns.

The change and transformation in thinking process that these colleges bring in is in itself worth the return. You become a part of this unique and special network and many opportunities either immediately or later in life would open up because you are a part of this network. That is the true return that you get in this bargain.

To sum up, the returns are definitely worth the investments. Considering the current economic environment, you may not get the best job offers right now or may not get to continue and further your career in the US. However, those opportunities will definitely open up in future and this experience will give you access to some of those opportunities that you would not otherwise have, if you were to give up on your higher education aspirations and plans from these top B-Schools.

360 degree perspective by Neeraj Biyani

We are very thankful to Mr. Neeraj Biyani for sharing his Stanford GSB learning experience at Scoreleap platform. Through this webinar, we @ Scoreleap believe that students would get an overview of the entire learning ecosystem @ Stanford GSB. At times , you might have a hidden ambition of studying abroad but somehow that inspiration is missing. So this webinar organised by Scoreleap aims to motivate everyone to start the process of gmat/gre online prep at the earliest and attain gre/gmat max score. Hearing this story,everyone can start thinking to pursue their dream of studying abroad in top business schools.

Get inspired and quickly register for best gmat online coaching @ Scoreleap!

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