TLDR; this one-year, full-time executive MBA program is worth your time, especially if you feel clear on your priorities and goals so that can get the most out of this accelerated year.
For moms wondering if the MSx is doable with young(ish) kids, always happy to chat! Shoot me a message on LinkedIn.
Summer Quarter: moving into the kibbutz (EV), balancing the balance sheet, is there a market?
Courses:
- ACCT 219: MSx Accounting (Grade: P, Recommendation: 7/10)
- Probably the most useful course that I didn’t enjoy.
- MGTECON: MSx Microeconomics (Grade: P, Recommendation: 9/10)
- One of my unexpected favorites, probably because of our celebrity professor (Kreps) and his passion for the topic. Get the addendum books.
- MKTG 249: MSx Marketing (Grade: H, Recommendation: 8/10)
- Cases reminded me a bit of prepping for consulting interviews via Cosentino’s Case in Point; I found Levav to be an engaging lecturer who loves to cold call.
- OB 278: MSx Organizational Behavior (Grade: H, Recommendation: 10/10)
- One of my favorite cores. The discussions on biases we are unaware of on a day to day basis shed light on cognitive shortcuts we make when dealing with others and how this impacts organizations (usually for the worse). Frank Flynn is a talented, highly engaging lecturer.
- OIT 249: MSx Data and Decisions (Grade: HP, Recommendation: 8/10)
- Helpful if you haven’t been introduced to R/Python/Data Analysis in the past to run through probability and basic statistics. If you have had, it will be a breeze. The final project was a data analysis project – my group decided to pull Crunchbase and Pitchbook data to evaluate startup “success” and look at factors that matter most for VCs and founders. Here’s a link to our final project.
- GSBGEN 259: Ethics (Grade: P? Recommendation: 10/10)
- Ken Shotts is a talented professor and his passion for the topic is conveyed through thoughtfully curated class discussion and debate. Glad the course is part of the mandatory core, and think we’d all benefit from more of a focus on ethics by domain (e.g., in healthcare, with patient data and privacy).
Pro Tips:
- Parents: sign up for parent-net lists for daycare/nanny recommendations, free items, and general parenting advice
- Spend time with classmates and try not to worry about the grades! In retrospect, this was one of the best quarters as it’s just the MSx program (and the occasional PhD) over the summer. Take advantage of the quiet, because fall quarter gets busy i.e., Arbuckle turns into a swarm. Bond and get to know your classmates! One of my favorite activities in the summer were the fireside chats set up by one of my dear classmates, Henry
- Allow time to sync with family on the hectic schedule. No, you’re no longer working, but yes, you have work to do at 9pm at night
- Spend time reflecting on what you want from the year now that you’re on campus; consider drawing up your hypotheses (e.g., VC or operator role? Startup or search fund?) and map to what’s available each quarter (e.g., startup garage starts in the fall and continues in the winter, design for extreme affordability and other d.school courses only available certain quarters)
- Reach out to professors with whom you may like to work on a 390, develop relationships early as the year goes by in a flash
- Enjoy! Hit up the free rock climbing wall and (f)Arrillaga pool time, family swim 12-2p on Sundays (may have different hours in the summer), get acquainted with the dining halls on campus and surrounding Palo Alto eateries (love Son of Wolf on California!)
Fall Quarter: escondido village, balancing the balance sheet, is there a market? (pro tip: sign up for parent-net lists)
Courses:
- BIOE 273: Biodesign for Digital Health (Grade: +, Recommendation: 10/10)
- Finance 229: MSx Finance (Grade: P, Recommendation: 9/10)
- Finance 385: Angel and Venture Capital Financing for Entrepreneurs and Investors (Grade: P, Recommendation: 8/10)
- POLECON 239: MSx Strategy Beyond Markets (Grade: P, Recommendation: 6/10)
- SOMGEN 275: Leading Value Improvement in Healthcare Delivery (Grade: S, Recommendation: 9/10)
- STRAMGT 308: Entrepreneurship from Diverse Perspectives (Grade: HP, Recommendation: 10/10)
- STRAMGT 356: Startup Garage Design (Grade: H, Recommendation: 9/10)
Reflections:
- Beyond the core courses (Finance – SUPER helpful course that I wish I had spent more time on had I not been so enthralled with my electives), I took Startup Garage and Biodesign for Digital Health, two experiential and well-known courses at the GSB and Med School, respectively. Highly, highly recommend both courses if you are curious about entrepreneurship, and would recommend BioDesign for Digital Health if you are planning to do anything in healthcare given the outstanding panelists, remarkable instructors, and relevant and engaging content. From the Head of Mental Health at Teladoc to one of the founders of IDEO, the class speakers were stacked. One of my favorite presentations was by Robin Goldstein, who spent 20+ years at Apple working closely with Steve Jobs. Her favorite Jobs quote captured below:
- Finance and Angel/VC Financing helped ascertain my interest in an operator role. I realized I am itching to solve problems, not sit on the sidelines and evaluate… at least at this stage in my career!
I had so much fun prototyping, interviewing and – by the end – shadowing at Stanford Hospital with live patients. Amazing experience and am so proud that our interdisciplinary BioDesign team (med students, bioengineering, undergrad, business) won the NEXT funding to proceed with testing and validating our concept serving pregnant Medicaid women.
- Finally, Diverse Perspectives of Entrepreneurship with Fern Mandelbaum, Charles Hudson, Denae = AMAZING and should 100% be a required, core course.
- All in all, was able to test my hypothesis of investor vs. operator, try out different team dynamics, practice various leadership styles, get feedback on working styles, and further explore maternal health & passion areas. Learnings: team matters a whole lot, but lack of passion for an idea/topic area will make things feel like a grind. Ideally, find a great team, but also work on a problem area you are passionate about, and fall in love with the PROBLEM, not the solution. Once you have something, stay focused and test a single assumption at a time (continuous derisking). Get feedback early by putting things in front of users (even paper prototypes spark insightful conversation) and avoid building out a higher fidelity prototype until you’ve really sensed product/market fit (where the users get super excited – for us, “WOW, creating an Epic hook here would be a game changer!” – that enthusiasm will carry you through. Then, focus in – speaking to 4 people will lend to 10 different ideas, so don’t be disarmed by unflattering feedback or criticisms, and instead try to remember each piece of feedback is another data point for you to make sense of. Who and why don’t they resonate? What is their perspective? Incentives (systemic – particularly in healthcare, where providers often worry technology may displace or render part of their role unnecessary).
Winter Quarter: guiding principles, negotiations and laughter amidst the “cold” (pro tip: get a splashguard for your bike!)
Ah, the dreaded “winter quarter” at Stanford – one of my least favorite times in undergrad (yes, we are spoiled by year-round sunny weather in California, except for Jan-Mar where it rains, you kick yourself for not getting a splashguard for your bike, and you walk around with mud stains due to lack of said splashguard, watching the days end early amidst the lonely rings of the Stanford bell..). Ok, so besides the need to purchase a solid splashguard (and bike lock, got my bike stolen AGAIN this quarter), I again enrolled in some great classes and struggled to balance the workload with family obligations as my partner travelled more this quarter.
Courses:
- ENGR 248: Principled Entrepreneurial Decisions (Grade: A+, Recommendation: 9/10)
- Instructor Jack Fuchs is phenomenal; he did a great job facilitating role play in the class (e.g., you’re CEO, have to scale back after a stage of hypergrowth, need to fire 20 people – you walk into a team meeting, how do you handle?)
- Speakers included CEO of Robinhood,
- GSBGEN 515: Essentials of Strategic Communications (Grade: HP, Recommendation: 9/10)
- GSBGEN 552: Winning Writing (Grade: HP, Recommendation: 9/10)
- OB 289*: MSx Negotiations (Grade: P, Recommendation: 9/10)
- OIT 269*: MSx Operations and Strategies (Grade: P, Recommendation: 8/10)
- STRAMGT 366: Startup Garage (Grade: P, Recommendation: 9/10)
- This was a continuation of the Fall Startup Garage, which I actually enjoyed more. This was a factor of the team I worked with. I loved my team in the fall, whereas my team in winter quarter unfortunately never clicked.
- The takeaway here is to work with a team you enjoy, on a problem you are all similarly passionate or eager to solve.
- Wellness 171: Laugh to Relax (Grade: S, Recommendation: 8/10)
- Explore the Wellness courses! Great way to unwind. This class was a bit unstructured, but highly enjoyable and I did see a difference in how quickly laughter came to me while taking this course (and laughing regularly!). Highly recommend if you have the time (towards the crunch period, I started to regret signing up for an hour to laugh each week when I had other pressing meetings and assignments).
Spring Quarter: beer pong in the fountains, fine-tuning, class trips and farewells
Courses:
- GSBGEN 390: Individual Research (Grade: +, very personal whether you will benefit or not from a 390 – feel free to ping/comment for more)
- I enrolled in this when I got the dreaded email from AcOps saying I was a few units short of graduating on time. I had taken too many “across the street” courses which didn’t count towards my GSB grad requirements and needed a few units, so what better than to fill with an “independent research” project I could cater towards interests? I immediately emailed a few lecturers/professors and one (hi Deena Shakir!) thankfully responded saying she had my back and would “sponsor” me on my proposed project, exploring the femtech marketplace and comparing key trends across three geographies (U.S., EU, APAC). I ended up doing several interviews with VCs covering the different geographies, including that dildos and gay marriage are still banned in Malaysia (the conservative political landscape serving as a headwind for the emerging health tech/ femtech landscape!).
- ME 301: Launchpad (Grade: A+, Recommendation: 9/10)
- The d.school launchpad course is the lesser known (most people confuse it with Lean Launchpad), but we had SO much fun in this course. Jeremy and Perry are amazing, and finally getting to take a class at the d.school was a dream come true (I had planned to take a few earlier but could never fit them into my schedule).
- OB 345: Leadership Coaching (Grade: HP, Recommendation: 10/10)
- STRAMGT 345: Taking Social Innovation to Scale (Grade: P, Recommendation: 8/10)
- STRAMGT 353: Formation of New Ventures (Grade: HP, Recommendation: 9/10)
I will continue to add course reflections and pro tips as I think of them. In the meantime, for those MSx admits – I am jealous of the transformative year you are about to embark on! For those considering application, strongly reflect upon what hypotheses you hope to test during the fast-paced year, your priorities, and be honest about whether it’s a good time for you and your family to step out of the work force for a year to pursue unparalleled self-growth and learning. Happy studying!