Last Week Today: The Tea on HBS 👀
August 7, 2023
Welcome to my Substack where I share the best of my week. Think of this as a catch-up between friends with life hacks & advice sprinkled in. Take what serves you and leave what does not. Grab your beverage of choice and let's get started ☕️
Highlight of the week🔥
Last Thursday I attended Stanford Venture Studio’s pitch night. I pitched my mission and vision as a content creator and how I’m building a business that’s an extension of my online brand. Following the 2 minute pitch was an hour of networking and meeting other Stanford students. I pitched to a room of 60+ people and met some awesome folks (we’re meeting up for coffee this week!) YouTube vlog dropping on Wednesday of my pitch experience. Here’s somethings I learned going through that:
(1) Perfect is not the enemy of good. I didn’t give the “perfect” pitch that I had hoped for — I felt nervous during and I that tripped over my words a few times. Did I say what I wanted to, how I wanted to perfectly? No. Am I glad I did it? Absolutely. You only get better by getting more reps in 💪🏻. Do it, learn, move on.
(2) Make your own luck. Originally I didn’t want to go. I basically dragged myself to the event. The inertia to getting the event is sometimes large, but the payoff can be even bigger. Get out of your room. Put yourself out there. Meet people. Exchange numbers. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity (I think Oprah or Seneca the Greek Philosopher said that).
What’s cooking 🥘👩🏻🍳: The Tea on HBS
In this week’s podcast episode, I interview my colleague from Bain Capital Ventures, Ayushi Sinha. Ayushi just finished her first year at Harvard Business School. Previously, she had roles in big tech, startups, and venture capital. Ayushi gives us the tea on what life is really like at HBS, discusses the ups and downs of her application process, and breaks open the gate kept industry of venture capital.
Helpful ⌚️ timestamps: in case you wanted to skip to highlights 💡
🚀 2:39 Her roles after undergrad
🥸 8:44 What is venture capital even??
📈 9:35 VC 101: investing broken down
🙏🏻 15:01 Why Harvard Business School?
✍🏻 23:23 She had low expectations going into HBS
😘 27:50 Dating at Harvard Business School
🥳 31:24 Biggest learnings from her first year
💅🏻 In Case You Missed It: What I posted on IG
🎓 Introducing Ayushi, Harvard Business School '24
🔥 How Emily found her new grad job through “experiments”
💫 Help me choose my Stanford Fall classes
🤙🏻 Come with me to Stanford’s CoLab for entrepreneurs
🌸 Hot or Not: corporate tech jargon
❤️ Planning a vacation is serious business
What I’m perplexed by: we’re 8 months into 2023
Where has the year gone? Time to whip out those journals to do some self reflection. What have you learned about yourself in the last year? I'm not asking about what you learned in the workplace. But what have you learned about YOURSELF? Sit with this question. Can you answer it right now? I discuss the importance of reflection, especially for those who are going through life or career transitions with my friend Gabriela on Cherie’s Corner Podcast.
If this isn't something you can answer right now, here are some ways to process and meditate on this question:
Review your experiences: Go through journals, photos, or notes where you've documented your thoughts and insights. Revisit impactful conversations with friends and mentors. What stands out here?
Ask yourself open-ended questions: When in the last year did I have the most energy and what was I doing? What were the activities/people/thoughts that drained my energy?
Seek patterns: Look for connections between all aspects of your life. Identify the moments that triggered emotions or big realizations.
Self-reflection is an ongoing process where we continue to learn and grown in our understanding of ourselves. It makes for a more fulfilling life and career.
Advice from Gabriela Forter (Stanford GSB ‘24 & Harvard Kennedy School ‘25)
I asked my Stanford University Graduate School of Business classmate Gabriela Forter Cuevas what she hopes to gain from an MBA experience, having already had such a successful career at Deloitte, Meta, and venture capital. I mean...her LinkedIn profile is intimidating in a good way 👀 🚀
She broke down her thinking into 2 things:
🌸🌱 LIFE. IS. SHORT. Seek out as many novel and invigorating experiences as possible to open up your world view: meeting new people, inspiring professors, guest speakers, and hearing from CEOs who speak about their challenges, failures, and successes.
📈💸 ACCESS TO NETWORK AND CAPITAL. In Gabriela's own words: "prior to business school, I already had a traditionally "successful" careers and worked in great industries, but it would still be challenging for me to hear about job opportunities that are not posted on job boards and that you can only know about that based off of your network."
You can watch the full podcast interview on YouTube and listen on Spotify.
Meme Reminder
Remember to call your friends, mom, and family
XO Cherie
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