I know, I know…I have been an incredibly delinquent blogger this year.  For that, I do apologize.  Hopefully I can make it up (or at least provide a valid excuse) by giving you a peek into what I’ve been up to since coming back to campus in the Fall.

I am in my EC year at HBS.  EC stands for Elective Curriculum, whereas in the first year you are in the “RC”, or Required Curriculum.  Don’t let people confuse you when they drop the lingo.  RC and EC is just HBS-speak for first year or second year.

As you have probably already gathered, in your second year the curriculum is…elective!  You get to pick all of your own classes, which allows you to tailor your educational experience.  Below I’ve listed out all of the classes I have taken or am taking this year.

First Semester

Building and Sustaining Successful Enterprises – What we call a “spinach” class.  You take it because it’s good for you.  The course is based on Clay Christensen’s theories of disruption and innovation.  I actually learned a ton.  If you want to basically take the class without actually going to business school, just read the book!

Entrepreneurial Finance – A deep dive into the financing of start-up ventures.  We studied lots of interesting companies and read way too many dense term sheets!

Negotiations – Not in the core curriculum, but it absolutely should be!  Key takeaway:  Always know your BATNA.

Strategic Marketing in Creative Industries – Possibly the coolest (and definitely one of the most oversubscribed) classes at HBS.  Professor Anita Elberse does research and writes cases on what it takes to make it big in the creative industries.  She brings amazing protagonists to class, including Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United, Alan Horn of Walt Disney (formerly Warner Brothers), and Troy Carter, Lady Gaga’s manager.  Amazing!

Second Semester

Venture Capital and Private Equity – In this course we study…venture capital and private equity!  It’s a great overview of how funds are set up, how GPs and LPs get paid, how investment decisions are made, and how to successfully exit.  Over the course of the semester we are making PE investments as teams in an online simulation.

Running Small and Medium Sized Enterprises – A refreshing course that studies companies somewhere between start-ups and corporations.  Not everyone who goes to HBS is going to found their own company or run a huge one, so it’s nice to learn a bit about what goes on in smaller enterprises.

Competing with Social Networks – This course focuses on the competitive advantage companies can create by productively leveraging social networks.

How Star Women Succeed – An awesome new class that dives into some of the specific challenges or biases that women encounter over the course of their careers, along with actionable strategies we can use to overcome them.  The professor has done a lot of research on what sets star performers apart from just regular ones, and has some really interesting insights to share.

Authentic Leadership Development – This is a very introspective class that a lot of second year students take.  The purpose is to help you develop your authentic style of leadership. It is pretty cool to step back and reflect on who I am, who I want to be, and how I want to make my mark on the world, especially during this last semester.

Coordinating and Managing Supply Chains – More spinach! Yum.

I am serving as co-president of the HBS Women’s Student Association, and we have been focused on celebrating the 50^th anniversary of women in the MBA program.  I’m honored to be leading the organization during this important year, and am so excited about all we’ve done so far and all that is coming up. 

We kicked off our year long celebration with a bang a couple of weeks ago, and have generated a ton of momentum on campus.  We hosted two badass keynote speakers – Dr. Debora Spar and Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter – to start a conversation on campus about why women are so underrepresented at the highest levels of business and government.  Dr. Spar is the president of Barnard College, a Goldman Sachs board member, former HBS professor, and prolific writer and speaker on women in business.  Her article, “Why Women Should Stop Trying to be Perfect” was on the front cover of Newsweek the same week she visited HBS for her keynote address.  Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter is a professor at Princeton, former Director of Policy Planning for the State Department, and is the author of the article “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All” in The Atlantic.  Her article sparked a national debate on women in business.

Introducing Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter

Both speakers drew huge crowds at HBS, and I’m pumped to share their remarks with you!  HBS recorded their keynote addresses – to view Dr. Spar’s address please click here, and to view Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter’s click here.

In addition to our keynotes, we hosted a school wide champagne reception with Dean Nitin Nohria to raise a glass to the women of HBS – past, present, and future.  It was a great event and it was wonderful to see so many students, faculty members, and staff come out to celebrate this milestone for our community.

We are going to continue to bring inspirational female leaders to campus over the course of the year to talk about the evolving role of women in business.  Stay tuned for more!

I can’t wait to tell you more about my summer internship at The Shirt, but before I do that I want to give you a peek into my recent travels in the Middle East.  I spent ten glorious days in Israel with a group of HBS folk, and it was absolutely amazing.  The trip was organized and led by a group of Israeli students, and was possibly one of the coolest experiences of my life.  We learned a ton, had a ridiculous amount of fun, and had incredible access to important political, business, and military leaders who were eager to share their views with our group.  It was top notch all the way, but – then again – I have come to expect nothing less from anything and everything associated with HBS.  These people do it right!

Those of you who have followed me for a while now know that I am a fan of top ten lists, so you won’t be surprised that I have created a “Top Ten of Israel” in an effort to convey all of the awesome-ness of this trip to you.  So, without further ado…

1. Tel Aviv

Ahhh Tel Aviv, such an amazing place.  It is a glorious party town right on the Mediterranean with a very modern and optimistic kind of vibe.  The people were cool, the bars were bumpin’, and the food was absolutely delicious.  I would highly recommend stopping by Tel Aviv if you find yourself in that neck of the woods at any point.  It’s a blast!

2. Avicii Concert!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Avicii, he is a kick ass Swedish DJ.  Click here to listen to one of his songs that you may recognize.  Anyway, the stars aligned for us and Avicii was playing in Tel Aviv while our crew was in town!  We had a glorious time noodling to his beats, though I think I permanently lost like 10% of my hearing…

3. Chillin’ with some Camels

No trip to the Middle East is complete without an intimate encounter with a camel’s hump!  I’m happy to report that I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with my very own dromedary while in the Negev Desert.  Not necessarily the most comfortable form of transportation, but at least they get good mileage!

4. Jerusalem

Ahhh holy, holy Jerusalem.  Walking through the Old City was like a flashback to all of my Sunday school classes.  There is just so much history there.  In the span of one day I saw where Jesus was born, where he ate the Last Supper, where he was betrayed, where he was crucified, and where he was resurrected.  Talk about a heavy day!  I learned a lot about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions while literally standing on ground zero of modern religion.  Amazing!

The Old City

5.  Bethlehem and the West Bank

One of the most impactful experiences I had in Israel was crossing the Israeli border into the West Bank, which is Palestinian territory.  As you’ll see in the pictures below, there is a huge wall built between the two  and you must cross through an official check point to enter and exit.

I went into the West Bank to visit Bethlehem and see the Church of the Nativity (where Jesus was born and put into the manger).

The checkpoint…

Graffiti on the Wall

Inside the Church of the Nativity, Where the Manger Was!

In addition to being an important religious site, Bethlehem is also home to the “Stars & Bucks” coffee shop.  Vaguely reminds me of another coffee shop chain I know…

6. Rave in the Desert

Question:  What do you get when you combine a huge group of rowdy HBS students, the Israeli desert, a thousand glow sticks, several buckets of glow-in-the-dark body paint, a full moon, and a kick ass DJ?  You get a RAVE IN THE DESERT, that’s what!

Honestly, words cannot even describe this absolutely ridiculous night, so I’m not even going to try.  Just know that it was aaamazing.

7. Masada and the Desert

Israel has tons of desert.  I mean tons.  As a result, we spent a lot of time, well, cruising around the desert!  It was awesome – I love me some arid landscape.

8. Checking out the Air Force

One huge perk of traveling in Israel with our Israeli friends was that we had ridiculous access to really important people.  For example – the second in command of the Tel Aviv Air Force personally gave us a tour of the base, described Israel’s air defense strategy, shared his personal views on Israel’s conflict with Palestine and other Middle Eastern countries, and took us out to the runway to see F-16s taking off!  Amazing.

9. Floating in the Dead Sea

The Dead Sea was a crazy experience – it is the lowest body of water in the world, and is freakishly salty.  The salt results in insane levels of buoyancy – you literally cannot sink.  There are tons of other great minerals in the water, and we soaked it all in during our afternoon there.  Cross that one off the bucket list!

10. Visiting a Kibbutz

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of a “Kibbutz”, don’t worry – I had no idea what one was until I got to Israel.  Basically, a kibbutz is a commune where families live together and share resources equally.  They were set up all over Israel shortly after the country was established, and each community was tasked with producing one particular good in an effort to put the new country on a path toward self-sufficiency.  As Israel has trasitioned to a market economy, many of the kibbutzes are defunct, but some of them were really successful and continue to this day.  We visited NaanDanJain, a kibbutz specializing in irrigation technology.

Keep checking back, there’s more to come from me!

Wish my section luck… May the odds be ever in our favor!

Hello out there!  Sorry I’ve been so MIA.  But, I’m baaaaack…with a friendly reminder that Mother’s Day is coming up on May 13th!

No time to run out and get a card for the most important lady in your life? Never fear, Effortless Post is here! We’ve got you covered with a great selection of super classy cards that will knock your Mom’s socks off. Visit effortlesspost.com now so we can help you become the oh-so-thoughtful person your Mom raised you to be.

How does Effortless Post work, you may ask? It’s easy!

1. Log in to effortlesspost.com (you can log in via facebook)
2. Pick a card, any card!
3. Choose how you want to send it:
- We can hand write the message of your choice and mail it for you OR
- Opt to receive the card in a pre-addressed, stamped envelope so you can write your own message and pop it in the mail
4. Bask in the glow of your Mom’s gratitude

PS – we mail domestically AND internationally!

And, if making your Mom’s Day isn’t incentive enough to try out our website, please support us anyway to help our business win the Field 3 contest!  The entire HBS first year class will be presenting to investors in a couple of weeks.  Those investors will decide which business is the best out of each section, and then the finalists will compete in front of the entire school to win the whole shebang!

So please, surprise your mom AND support yours truly by buying a Mother’s Day card from effortlesspost.com.  I will be forever grateful (and your Mom will, too!).

IT’S ALIIIIIIIIIVE!

Yes, I am happy to report that – after weeks and weeks of toiling away like mad scientists – we have officially launched effortlesspost.com to the world!  This experience has been amazing, and the cool thing is that we’re truly just getting started.  As a quick recap for those who missed the overview several weeks ago:

Our business is called Effortless Post, and, basically, we’re bringin’ mail back.  We have created an online platform to streamline the process of sending cards and notes to people in the mail.  The site instantly links to your Facebook account, populating a personal planner with all your friends’ and family’s upcoming birthdays. You can also manually input other occasions, like holidays, anniversaries, or weddings.  Once you decide you want to send a card to someone, you can either 1) Type in the message you would like handwritten on your behalf, then we send it all the way to the end recipient or 2) Receive the card yourself in a pre-addressed, stamped envelope just in time for you to write your message and pop it in the mail.  Effortless!

We envision this business as a way to help people follow through on the thoughtful gesture of sending a card to friends, family, or colleagues, without all of the hassle.

I need your support to truly make this a success!  Please please visit effortlesspost.com, sign in using facebook (takes less than two seconds) and let me know what you think!  We have a lovely selection of awesome cards for all occasions, including Mother’s Day (coming up on May 13th!) and Graduation.  I would really appreciate any and all feedback you have on the customer experience.  Please leave a comment on this post or email effortlesspost@gmail.com.  Additionally, feel free to pass the link along to any and all people in your life who strive to send thoughtful cards but just can’t seem to make it happen.  Keep in mind that we mail domestically and internationally!

Your opinions mean the world to me, so keep the feedback coming!  Speaking of feedback:  We heard some loud and clear today from our classmates here at HBS.  Today was the final trading session of our “financial market”, in which students can buy and sell (fake) shares of people’s startups.  It was very exciting – we were all in our classrooms watching the stocks of all of the businesses trade live.  See below:

I am happy to report that our stock skyrocketed over 80% by the end of trading!  See below for photographic evidence (our ticker is WKD).  Ahh, HBS – there’s nothing like setting up 900 Type A people to compete against each other, and then literally displaying the results of the competition for the entire school in real time.  Gotta love capitalism.

A FLASH MOB.  Amazing.  See below for photographic evidence:

The students putting on the HBS Show (satirical musical written, choreographed, and acted by HBS students… whole ‘nother topic for a whole ‘nother time)  danced as if Lady Gaga herself were there serenading them.

Ahh, HBS.  You never fail to delight.

Hello everyone, spring has sprung (evidenced by the 80 degree weather in Boston this week) and big things are happening!  I have a couple of really exciting announcements to share with all of you lovely people.

First:  I ACCEPTED A JOB.  Yep, gainful employment, here I come!  I’ve stayed true to my road-less-traveled startup aspirations, and am really excited to report that – after stalking every cool startup I could think of – I have found the perfect one!

I’ll be spending my summer in glorious Washington, DC working for The Shirt, a really cool startup that makes women’s button down shirts that don’t gape over the bust.  See below for proof:

The concept is simple yet impactful, the shirts are beautiful, and I think there is a ton of opportunity for this brand to grow like crazy.  In my humble opinion,  The Shirt has the two main ingredients one needs for sustainable, high quality growth:

1) Fixed cost leverage through intellectual property:  There is a patent on the special hidden buttons that make sure the shirt doesn’t gape open, which means that no one can imitate the product, at least for the life of the patent.  Awesome.

2) Recurring Revenue:  A button down shirt is a product that most professional women have more than one of, and it is something that needs to be replaced on a regular basis.  This means that there is great opportunity for recurring revenue from customers, which basically means that once you hook a customer, the lifetime value of that customer is significant. This is much better than a product with tons of one time customers, because then you have to keep acquiring new customers to maintain growth, which is expensive.

I like this company because, at its heart, the product helps women feel beautiful and confident.  I mean honestly – how can we rule the board room if we know that all of the dudes are secretly peeking at our bras through the gap in our shirts?!  Additionally – and perhaps most importantly – the founder and her Director of Marketing are both incredibly smart, cool, and savvy and I know I will learn a lot by working with them.

I would love your help in making this company grow!  Please check out the website here, and pass the link along to the business ladies in your life to help get the word out! (www.the-shirt.com).  Better yet…buy a shirt!  Keep in mind that the new line for spring will be available in April.  A sneak peek is below in case you need some inspiration…

Second Announcement:  I was recently elected Co-President of the HBS Women’s Student Association!  As you can probably tell, I dig women in business, and I could not be more honored to represent the amazing women of HBS for the next year.  This is an especially exciting time to be leading the organization, as the school will be celebrating 50 years of Women at Harvard Business School this upcoming year.  A lot of women went through a lot of sh*t to pave the way for all of us who are currently studying here, and I look forward to celebrating all of the work they did to help us get to where we are today, which is 39% of the student body (and hopefully more next year).

So that’s what’s going on with me for the moment.  I’ll keep you updated!

Hello from Budapest!  We’ve successfully made it to the last stop on our European tour, and I head back to the US of A tomorrow.  I spent some time pondering how to best re-cap this trip for you, when it occured to me that a picture is, in fact, worth a thousand words.  And then I thought…if a picture is worth a thousand words, then an awkward picture is worth at least five thousand words.

Luckily, awkward pictures of this trip abound – more specifically, awkward, solo pictures of my little sister.  I took the liberty putting together what I like to call the “montage of awkward”, which represents – in my opinion – the absolute best of this European spring break.  Enjoy!

Awkward Photo #1:  Probably one of the most awkward of the entire trip.  The Bird, in a helmet-hat, on a Segway, in Prague.  Need I say more?

Awkward Photo #2: Segway + Redbird + Weird Helmet / Hat + Statue of two dudes peeing = Incredibly awkward.

Awkward Photo #3: Redbird, in transit.  Made more awkward by the fact that she was snoring.

Awkward Photo #4: My little sister, crushing a bratwurst stuffed inside an entire baguette in Vienna.  I was so proud.

Awkward Photo #5: I do love the solo shots with a thumbs up.

Awkward Photo #6: Hands down the most awkward of the entire trip for two reasons:  1) She is posing in front of a random giant pickle statue in Salzburg and 2) If you look very closely, she is stink-eyeing (please see my previous post for background on the stink eye)

Awkward Photo #7: The Bird, in Budapest on a bench built for one.  Awkward.

Awkward Photo #8: I think she ordered a scoop of Awkward, in a cone.

For those who are not familiar with the Stink Eye, let me fill you in:  It is basically an involuntary facial spasm that occurs whenever something happens that is distasteful to the observer.  Think of it as a long, lingering glare.  I have learned that our very own Redbird has a Stink Eye of magnificent proportions, and that she employs said Stink Eye frequently and with much gusto.

Where does she target her wrath, you ask?  Everywhere.  Stink Eyes have been launched at the following:  Pigeons that flap too closely to her face; me, whenever I try to make her pose for a picture she does not want to be in; random Austrians that stare at us on the train; people who smell a little funky; and questionably clean hotel sheets, among other things.

I must admit, I was shocked at the intensity of her Stink Eye, but, after seeing her employ it all over Europe, I have become impressed by its power.  She insists that this expression is not a Stink Eye, but is rather a function of her contacts being a little bit dry.  I will let you be the judge of which theory is correct.

In any case, we’re having a blast and are heading to Budapest tomorrow!