whattheydontteachyouatstanfordbusinessschool.com

Harvard Business School Class 2015 Going to SXSW(i)

by Larry Chiang on November 25, 2013

By Larry Chiang 

SXSW has a bell curve. Spend 1/1000th the time we spent prepping your GMAT to be in the 99th percentile (before becoming a dual admit too! ;-). 

Lets do well at SXSW this SXSW.

Goal: I want this article to be your ROI for tuition. For both years. In the next 700 words and 4 hashtags, readers of this Harbus post will get their $$ back. 

Execution: As HBS first years, we will not fall into the bad habits networking-like-a-second-year-section-leader that ‘some’ second years have fallen into, fell into and will fall into. INSTEAD. Instead, we will prep in a street smart method. Street-smart SXSW.

Network, knowledge-activate and execute and springboard our b-school experience. It’s not just parties and networking, obvi.

I wanted to call this article what it is, “What They Don’t Yet Stress @HBS That They DO Stress @Stanford Engineering”* about sxsw. I’ll tag these knowledge nuggets to pattern replicate with the footnote-header-caption: [#ENGR145].  Also a title that would execute my stimulating you to execute on The sxsw would be, “I Will Teach You to Growth Hack Austin Like The HBS Alum, Jeremy Stoppelman” [#Yelp]

First your ROI: 1-650-283-8008.

Thanks

Seriously, press the pre-HIGHLIGHTED cell on the smartphone you’re reading this on to save me. My real cell’s your ROI because I’ll help you execute 5 key SXSW points, down below. 

Pattern iterate Jeremy Stoppelman. 


Larry Chiang (@LarryChiang)
My WORDPRESS blog posts are meant for “binge execution” Netflix style


Netflix is consumption. Lets binge execute…


-1- The A to Z’s of SXSW

Old way is ABC’s in a Top Ten Pop list. Let the general population do that. Let the second years do that. Here is exactly the pattern you should pattern recognize:

.
.
.

Spend 3-8 hours pattern replicating this quasi engineering, ENGR145 work this Thanksgiving break. Growth hacking is about reverse engineering what marketing gambits worked. This, “A to Z’s of SXSW” is forward engineering.

Text me to help me, help you start up “A to Z’s of SXSW” for your startup. This is a mechanized smart nuke, marketing silver bullets, heat-seeking, hack-weapon. It’s built using items available inside TSA security. Seemingly innocous! Herein, lets refer to the “A to Z’s of SXSW” as what my #ENGR145 alums call [#EUTWMPPM ]

“A to Z’s of SXSW” = #EUTWMPPM

Engineer Up a Tidal Wave of Momentum, Perpetual Promotion Machine…

-2- What are you going to do at SXSW with THIS your new found TOY called EUTWMPPM.

What are you going to use this for? 
What is your execution goal for SXSW?

Text me it.

My email is larry@duck9.com if that’s less onerous and too commitment-ie. Let me recommend that all y’all follow the ‘specific Jeremy Stoppelman pattern’ and A/A test** “outside of the building** “, get massive local adoption in Austin, and leverage the 90%*** already executed in what you’re trying to execute. 

** Steven Blank, ENGR145 prof 2007, said, “get out of the building”. He mentored Eric Reis, EIR at HBS. I sequel-ized and sequel-izing both their life’s work by reading, doing, re-reading, doing, writing, doing, re-reading

If there were a GMAT for Steven Blank or/and Eric Reis, I’d score 920 out of 800.

*** “90%” is significant because of #LC9090i. This pattern is derived as we, as HBS case study studiers, see serial founders scale much much faster.

How??

Serial founders see that 90% is done in the market. Serial founders see that 90% *we* have already done as professionals. LC9090i applied to SXSW helps us get our ROI for HBS. There are dozens of tweets tagged #LC9090i.

-3- Austin TX was a tipping point for Yelp. 

What happened??!

Ok, so Boston was in the bag for Yelp. So was SF. Yelp was experiencing what is stalling out Quora. Yelp was stalling in middle America. Quora is stalling everywhere but Boston and SF. 

I pattern recognize, “Big and popular on the coasts. Crappy in the middle”. Enter, Jeremy Stoppelman, engineer co-founder with another engineering tech co-founder, Russ Simmons. 

And me. 

Me and two other PayPal founders**** handed out Yelp premiums, logo branded schwag and growth hacked the shitake out of that town. Austin City Limits (ACL) is just like SXSW because its a music festival. We hosted a carpet bomb of events that are documented as a business case study on the tech platform for all “Stanford Engineering Live Action, Business Case Studies”: fB photo album labeled “Yelp ACL”. Also, note Kevin Newsum’s meteoric rise from Yelp comm mgr, Austin. He later managed all city managers for Yelp’s middle-America adoption.

-4- Can SXSW accelerate us as HBS1’s and double shareholder equity?

Remember, Jeremy Stoppelman dropped out (err redacted) after year one. And became an instant alum. 

Right now, we as HBS1’s are headed towards being PM’s (product managers) at tech firms. This past HBS class went more into tech and tech startups than banking or consulting. It’s a first. 

Key SXSW point, #ENGR145 #Yelp #LC9090i: there is not one, best, thing to do. It is all super easy to do, but super easier NOT to do it (I just quoted my mentor, Mark McCormack). Orchestrate the 90% that already exits. Leverage the 90% you’ve already executed by executing a li’l more THIS THANKSGIVING weekend. 

I mean, it’s not like we can get a refund on that tuition money paid. Lets be like Jeremy and get our ROI before we leave “the Boston area”. 

Note: the current arbitrage of SXSW works. Watch my twitter feed for deltas to my SXSW algorithms delineated by the precision of my previous hashtags. 

ENGR145 Intro Video (embed)

It expands on
– Pattern Recognition
– Pattern Replication
– Pattern Iteration

There are also two freshman at MIT that took #ENGR145 (Tech Entrepreneurship) with me last summer. Network with them to master what HBS will teach in the future via the Yelp Case. 

Text me to work on 26 of A to Z’s of SXSW 

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