Why I left an MBA to {build}
In June 2025 I enrolled in the MBA program at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. Three months later I left it to join Harness. This is the story of that decision, because I think the why says more about how I make choices than any line on a résumé.
I didn't drift into the MBA. I leaned in. I was elected Class Representative for Section F, which made me the primary liaison between 77+ classmates and the administration, coordinating communication, running feedback and conflict-resolution sessions, and spearheading our first section-wide event, from the anthem to the video to the logo. I also served as Subject Representative for Managerial Economics and Marketing Management. If you'd watched me those first weeks, "about to quit" is not the read you'd have taken.
Then, in September 2025, I left the program to join Harness.
It wasn't a small choice, and I don't want to make it sound like one. What made it possible was a door I'd already been holding open: I'd been admitted to Kellogg Future Leaders, Northwestern Kellogg's deferred-enrollment MBA program. It secures a place in a future MBA class and lets me defer for two to five years of professional experience. The business-school path wasn't closing. It was waiting.
So the real question wasn't "MBA or no MBA." It was "MBA now, or the best possible experience to bring to an MBA later?" Framed that way, it wasn't close. The chance to build real AI systems at Harness (production systems, real customers, real 2 a.m. incidents) was one I wanted to take while it was in front of me. I'd rather earn the hard-won lessons first and carry them back into the classroom than sit in the classroom guessing at them.
I think a lot of people would have played it safe: finish what you started, collect the credential, keep the optionality. And optionality is exactly what I did optimize for, just not the obvious kind. Kellogg is my safety net for the degree. Harness is my bet on the work. I get to have both, in the order that compounds best.
This is the kind of decision I expect to keep making: bet on the work, keep the doors open, and trust that experience earned in the real world is worth more than experience imagined from a distance. If that resonates, I'd love to hear from you, especially if you've made a call like it yourself.
Himnish