Letter of Motivation for MBA

To Whom It May Concern:

While I have had many successes in various professional endeavors, I am looking to broaden the scope of my knowledge through studying at XXX. Coming from a technology background, the Masters in Business Administration degree is a perfect fit for my career path.

During my undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University, I worked at an early stage company, Atlas Marketing. Atlas’ mission was to take satellite television technology to new markets. Atlas had only 9 employees when I started. My initial role was as a sales specialist, and I thrived in this role. Over my career with Atlas, I was the #2 all-time sales specialist out of over 300, having personally closed over 1,300 accounts. I was also able to contribute as a leader, and was quickly promoted to sales manager with responsibility to lead an office of 13 sales specialists. As a sales manager, I saw first hand how managerial decisions greatly affected those in my sales office. I very much look forward to formalizing my knowledge of this crucial area through the Leadership, Communications and Decision-Making course at XXX.

In addition to my management responsibilities, I frequently consulted with the CEO of Atlas, XXX, to advise him on the best geographical markets to target as Atlas expanded. My performance helped the company become one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. Atlas was named an INC 500 company in 2005 and 2006. From this experience, I saw the excitement of successfully taking a new technology to market and personally enjoyed the positive feedback loop that effective market research provides.

After finishing my degree, I co-founded Homestar, whose mission was to help residences become more energy efficient. We did this by retrofitting insulation in homes. I was able to identify St. George, Utah, as the top sales market in the United States based on local and federal rebates. My leadership resulted in Homestar’s growth to over 15 employees. I also managed relationships with local contractors to fulfill our orders. As a co-founder of Homestar, I learned how to be a more effective business administrator, reaffirming the importance of great leadership and thoughtful market research. I am confident the MBA program at XXX will provide much broader insights into these business principles.

After federal rebates for clean energy expired in 2010, I decided to get involved in the high growth software industry. When I first hatched the idea of a mobile food discovery application, I had no idea that building this business would result in an incredible journey. Forks became the top restaurant coupon application in the Apple store, experienced significant user acquisition, and integrated content from the largest aggregators of restaurant coupons. We acquired this content by partnering with some of the largest coupon distributors in our marketplace, including Groupon, LivingSocial, Restaurants.com and Valpak. This experience taught me that technology partners can bring tremendous value to a business strategy. By collaborating with other companies while focusing on our strengths and working as a team we were able accomplish much more, a lesson that I know will serve me as I pursue my MBA at XXX.

To expand Forks’ user base, I also applied various successful growth hacking and game strategies. Knowing that App Store search is the #1 driver of downloads, I researched, tested, and instituted various tactics in the App Store that resulted in 250,000 organic downloads on this self-funded project. From my knowledge of organic user acquisition, I received requests to help other early stage startups acquire and grow a core user base. I discovered I very much enjoyed acting as a growth consultant and data scientist. Where my clients were receiving little organic exposure, I was able to increase their monthly active downloads as much as 500% over the previous month. I even helped one client reach their first 100,000 downloads. Several of the courses offered at XXX focus on game theory tactics. I look forward to enhancing my understanding of strategic theory with additional studies at XXX.

Furthermore, along with user acquisition and partnerships, because Forks was a small team, it was crucial that I learn or understand every technical aspect outside of mobile app creation. As a result, I have a deep understanding of product design, A/B testing, user interface and experience design, game and viral growth strategies, paid user acquisition, API integration and data system development. What I can contribute to the program, in addition to my great enthusiasm for the field, is a unique depth of understanding. This broad knowledge base gives me a solid foundation upon which I hope to build upon.

I am very excited about the opportunity to study in Berlin. As a child, I spent 6 years in Germany. My parents were American ex-patriots working in finance. As an adult, I’ve had the opportunity to travel to over 30 countries. Although I am an American, I bring a broad international perspective. I have always had a desire to return to Germany, reconnect with the culture, and re-learn the language, which I spoke fluently as a child. Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,