My MBA Experience at USC Marshall: Lessons, Struggles, and Two of the Best Years of My Life

On Wednesday, March 28th, 2018 I sent an email committing to attend the USC Marshall School of Business to get my MBA at one of the nations top programs. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Writing this post two years later, with less than two weeks till graduation, and during a quarantine because of COVID-19, I’ll admit that I don’t remember all of the details — the last two years have been a blur. Nonetheless, I can give a real account of what it’s like to go through a top 20 MBA program.

I came into the MBA program with a strong interest in entrepreneurship, wanting to launch a new business or get involved with startups in some capacity after graduation. On March 23rd, 2020, almost exactly two years after committing to USC, I joined CoEfficient Labs, a paid acquisition team for venture-backed startups, as the Platform Lead. This is the culmination of two years of hard work, and I couldn’t be more excited.

While I already shared my crazy MBA journey in a blog post written in May of 2018, and was featured alongside a few other classmates in Poets & Quants, this post will cover a variety of additional topics:

• Classes
• Clubs and Student Organizations
• Challenge For Charity
• Prime
• Summer
• “Networking” and Being Social
• My Ventures During Business School
• Struggles
• How the MBA Changed Me
• Quick Lessons
• Should You Get an MBA?
• What’s Next

Before we get started I just want you to keep in mind that this is one person’s perspective of the MBA experience, just one, and someone else may have a totally different viewpoint.

With that being said, let’s dig in!

Classes at USC Marshall

For me, deciding to get an MBA was more about making connections and building an amazing network than it was about the classes themselves. Yes, I wanted to gain a foundation of business knowledge, but classes were never going to be the number one priority for me.

The classes were broken up into two types — core classes and elective classes. We had three different cores — A, B, and C — and took all of our core classes with the same people. I was in Core B, the best core 😉

Our Core B video below, to celebrate 100 days till graduation, gives you a glimpse as to why I loved this core so much.

While I’m sure these classes differ somewhat between universities, the core classes I took were:

• Marketing Management
• Accounting Concepts and Financial Reporting
• Microeconomics for Management
• Managerial Statistics
• Contemporary Issues in Competitive Strategy
• Foundations of Your Professional Value
• Communication for Management
• Corporate Finance
• Special Topics (Structured Analysis of Unstructured Problems)
• Contemporary Issues in Competitive Global Strategy
• Operations Management
• Organizational Behavior and Leadership
• Problem Solving and Decision Making: An Integrative Approach
• The Global Context of Business
• Capstone: Futurethon Challenge

These classes provided the foundation of business knowledge that USC Marshall believes all MBAs should have and it was a big adjustment going from working for almost five years to going to classes full time. This took some significant time to get back into the rhythm of school again and was a bit of a struggle to say the least.

Throughout the core classes we also worked with the same core team of around six people. Since an MBA program seeks to help build future business leaders, there’s frequent group work, which for us was all done with the same core team throughout these core classes.

My core team, B6:

I’ll be honest, I enjoyed elective classes much more as I was able to take classes focusing primarily on entrepreneurship and marketing. The electives I chose were:

• Strategy and Operations Through CFO Lens
• Founder’s Dilemmas: Anticipate and Avoid Startup Pitfalls
• Digital Technologies and the Entertainment Industry (@ Hulu Headquarters)
• Consumer Behavior
• Leading with Mindfulness and Compassion
• Venture Feasibility
• Cases in New Venture Management
• The Art of Hustling: Ventures in Media, Digital Enterprises, and Beyond
• Marketing Channels
• Leading Innovation and Change
• Introduction to New Ventures
• Investing in New Ventures
• Entrepreneurship in eCommerce

The highlight of these elective classes at USC Marshall was the guest speakers. Here were a few highlights:

• Evan Spiegel, Co-Founder and CEO of Snap, Inc.
• Christine McCarthy, CFO of The Walt Disney Company
• Travis Kalanick, Co-Founder and former CEO of Uber
• George Ruan, Co-Founder and CEO of Honey (Sold to PayPal for $4 billion)
• Ronalee Zarate-Bayani, CMO of the Los Angeles Rams
• Randy Hetrick, Founder and CEO of TRX

There were dozens more amazing speakers and what I liked about them was being able to hear how they were able to achieve a high level of success in their respective industries. They all had different insights to share, it was great to be able to ask them questions and get their perspectives, and a number of Just Go Grind podcast guests were guest speakers from class.

Furthermore, seeing and hearing these successful people in class made them more real. We hear about some of these people in the media, read articles about them, but they almost don’t seem like actual humans. Being able to talk with them made it way more real to me that great success could actually be achieved.

Clubs and Student Organizations

From Admitted Students Weekend in April of 2018 at USC I knew there was one club I’d be involved with more than any other — the Entrepreneur & Venture Management Association (EVMA).

Of course, by the time I ended up starting school I joined about a dozen different clubs or student organizations, mostly to be able to attend different events specific to those clubs.

That’s the dilemma throughout an MBA program — possessing a limited amount of time, but having endless opportunities you can pursue. I knew I wanted to focus on EVMA events, but I also didn’t want to miss out on so many other great opportunities to network and attend cool events from other clubs.

Would I join that many clubs again, looking back at the experience? Probably not. Do I regret it though? Nope.

Throughout both years of the MBA I took a leadership role within EVMA, first as an EVP with the ops team that led the club while I was a first year MBA and then as a VP during my second year.

There were so many incredible events for EVMA throughout the two years, highlighted by fireside chats with entrepreneurs, the YPO roundtable, Fuck Up Nights, and beers and business ideas (Pictured below).

These events provided opportunities to listen to founders and connect with fellow EVMA members outside of classes. Plus, because these events were open to all EVMA members, they were a chance to meet people outside of the full-time MBA program, providing chances to connect with part-time MBAs, students in the Masters of Science in Entrepreneurship and Innovation program (MSEI), and other graduate programs.

As a leader of EVMA in my second year, I do regret not putting on more events, but it’s so difficult to manage being a full-time student, working on multiple ventures, AND leading a club. Props to Laura Berman, the EVMA president, for leading the way and facilitating, especially because of how difficult it is to be a club president at one of the most popular clubs on campus.

Challenge For Charity

Challenge for Charity (C4C) weekend was one of the highlights of my first year of the MBA program. C4C is a non-profit organization started at Stanford University that now boasts chapters at nine top west coast MBA programs. The purpose of this organization is as simple as it is important: to develop future business leaders with a lifelong commitment to community involvement and social responsibility.

All year long students are volunteering for C4C core charities and raising money. At the end of the year we compete at Stanford University against a number of other West Coast schools in a variety of sporting events and competitions with the winner of the year-long effort taking home the golden briefcase.

The weekend was an absolute blast. You’re able to meet people from other schools, party, play sports, cheer on your classmates — ALL THE THINGS and all for a charitable cause. Unfortunately, this year, because of COVID-19, C4C weekend was cancelled, but I’m so glad I was able to go my first year. A few C4C weekend snapshots are below 🙂

Our USC Marshall dance squad at C4C:

Our band:

A few members of our basketball team:

Prime

An aspect of USC Marshall that makes the MBA program unique is PRIME. Prime involves working on a project for a company in a foreign country, and presenting to the company at their office at the end of the semester.

For Prime, we had the choice of going to:

My top location choice was Hong Kong and the company my team ended up working with was Neat, a fintech company working with startups.

My team in Hong Kong:

Emerging business professionals:

Overall, aside from almost the entire group getting sick in China, the trip was incredible. We visited Macao, Shenzhen for a night, and stayed in Hong Kong the rest of the time. The city is gorgeous and we stayed right on Victoria Harbor (Pictured below).

After Hong Kong, many of my classmates went to Bali for a few days before everyone started their summer internships.

5/6 of my Bali crew:

It was so cool to see how close everyone had gotten in less than a year. I guess going through Core classes together, multiple group projects, and endless social outings will do that. Who knew?

After Bali, the summer internships began and I took a different path than most.

Summer

While I flirted with the idea of getting an internship in summer between first and second year, I decided against it, choosing instead to give myself three months to work on whatever projects I wanted.

During the Bali trip, my best friend Zach and I decided to start a podcast production company called PodPuppy. I spent much of my time during summer on this new venture as well as producing podcasts and content for Just Go Grind.

Summer was also when I was approached by Lucas Pols of Spark xyz, a former Just Go Grind Podcast guest, to help produce a podcast and video show which eventually became Startup 2.0. I looked at this as a great opportunity to meet venture capitalists and startup founders, building my network further.

Here was one of the interviews I did, with Rick Smith of Crosscut Ventures:

“Networking” and Being Social

One of the best parts of the MBA experience is the opportunity to be social. There are events almost every day which provide so many chances to get to know your classmates and meet people from other programs.

I have more than a few highlights, but I’ll share a few of them to give you context as to why I was told an MBA would be one of the best experiences of my life.

USC and MBA Events

There were a number of events I attended specific to USC or the MBA program itself, a few highlights are below.

USC Football Tailgates:

C4C Volunteer Events:

C4C Parties:

A Gary Vaynerchuk Fireside Chat:

MBA Prom:

The Mammoth Crew:

100 Days (Celebrating 100 days till graduation):

Los Angeles Events

Choosing to do an MBA at USC, located near downtown Los Angeles, comes with its perks. Some of which include a plethora of entertainment options.

Dodgers Games:

Lakers Games:

Beaches:

Griffith Observatory:

Summit in DTLA, just blocks from my apartment, where I was able to see Reid Hoffman and Robert Smith record a live episode of Masters of Scale, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin talk about their film Free Solo, and Ray Dalio discuss the keys to the success of Bridgewater Associates:

More Events With All The New Friends 🙂

New Friends = Many More Birthday Parties:

Wedding Shenanigans:

The Lab, a second home for many USC MBAs:

Sailgating in Seattle:

Spring Break in Temecula:

My Ventures During Business School

During an MBA there are plenty of opportunities to work on your business ideas. You’re surrounded by other smart people, take classes where you work on building companies, and can ask questions of talented guest speakers.

The Just Go Grind Podcast was a mainstay throughout. As of writing this post, I’ve released 118 episodes, interviewing people such as:

• Vanessa Dew, founder of the $100 million revenue company Health-Ade Kombucha
• Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Moz, one of the world’s leading SEO companies
• Lauren Foundos, founder and CEO of FORTË
• Alex Heyne, a YouTuber with more than 250,000 subscribers
• Christine Specht, CEO of Cousins Subs, with more than 100 store locations
• Zach Evans, founder of a $1 million revenue online piano coaching business
• Wietse Van Der Werf, founder of the world’s first maritime ranger service
• Gary Arndt, an award winning blogger and travel photographer who has traveled to 200+ countries and territories
• Austin Rief, co-founder of Morning Brew, with more than 2 million subscribers

Outside of the podcast, I worked on a number of other ventures, leading to where I am now at CoEfficient Labs.

Early on, I wanted to develop a career website using AI to help match people with their dream job, did some initial feasibility research, but didn’t move on it any further.

During summer, like I mentioned previously, I started the podcast production company, PodPuppy, and was able to grow to about a half dozen customers in a few months. Ultimately, it wasn’t the business I, or my best friend who co-founded the company with me, wanted to run, so we shut it down.

Producing the Startup 2.0 show for Spark xyz was a lot of fun, allowed me to meet some incredible people, but, as I learned throughout business school, you can’t do everything. There is an opportunity cost associated with every task you do, eventually I thought the opportunity costs were too high to continue with the show, and I decided to spend my time on other projects.

My last venture, #FightOn, co-founded with Harrison Wang, a site for helping USC students and affiliates get better connected and better prepared for the job market, was another project I didn’t have enough time to fully pursue. We did a lot of planning around it, including some customer research, but right now there aren’t enough hours in the day to pursue it as we’re both busy with other projects.

Struggles

While my MBA experience has been an absolute blast, it hasn’t come without its share of struggles.

My GPA in the first semester was 2.996, just under the 3.0 requirement, which unfortunately put me on probation. I couldn’t be a club president, among other things, because of this.

How did this happen? I think this was a combination of a couple things. First, I don’t have a conventional business background. I was an Exercise and Sports Science major in undergrad. Not being in school for a number of years combined with this background, while not an excuse, certainly didn’t make it easy for me in the heavy quantitative classes first semester.

Second, coming into an MBA program to build a network and potentially start a business, I was producing a podcast, working on different business ideas, and spending plenty of time networking throughout. When it came to putting in additional time to get better grades or working on my various ventures, I typically chose my ventures.

Finally, there have been many articles written about the challenges of having a relationship while doing an MBA. I entered the MBA program being in a long-distance relationship of a little more than a year. I had heard about the difficulties of being in a relationship during business school, especially if you’re long-distance, and I’d have to say a lot of it was true.

For me, it was a struggle to balance a relationship, classes and homework, working on my own ventures, and the endless social events. Ultimately, I decided to end my relationship, something that wasn’t easy, but I felt I had to do. Of course, there are plenty of examples of relationships that thrived in business school, but the reality is, this can be an incredibly difficult time for couples, and it’s something aspiring MBAs should be aware of.

How the MBA Changed Me

I’m not the same person I was two years ago and I think that’s a great thing. Through the MBA experience I not only expanded my thinking and view of the world, but I gained an even larger confidence boost while absolutely exploding the size and quality of both my personal and professional networks. I really feel like I gained a couple hundred new friends in the last two years including a few new besties.

Going to Hong Kong, China, and Bali was an eye-opening experience as well and I was pushed to do this because of the MBA program. It’s important to expose ourselves to different cultures, different people, and different ways of thinking to become better human beings and I think the travel I did during the MBA program allowed me to do just that.

Quick MBA Lessons

Grades don’t matter (To an extent). Sure, you need to meet the minimums, and for some industries they do actually look at your grades, but stressing about grades during the entire MBA experience? Not worth it.

You can’t do everything. You’ll want to do everything, but you really have to prioritize your time AND money while getting an MBA. Anyone getting an MBA will intuitively know this, but when you’re actually in it, being hit with a million opportunities for ways to spend your time, it’s a bit of a challenge.

Network, network, network. You’re not forgoing two working years of your life and tens of thousands of dollars just to take classes — go out there and meet as many people as possible. It starts with your classmates and it’s never easier to reach out to people than when you’re a student — take advantage of this.

Put yourself out there, try new things, and pursue what you’re interested in. The two years of an MBA program are truly special. This experience gives you time to explore new things and figure out who you really are and what you actually want in your life. How do you do this? By putting yourself out there, taking risks, and being open to new opportunities.

Should You Get An MBA?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer for getting an MBA, everyone wants something different, but for me, it’s been 100% worth the investment. For many others, I think they’d say the same.

In this post I went over more details on my thoughts on getting an MBA, but if you’re on the fence, I’d say go for it. Life is too short not to.

Final Word and What’s Next

I’ve been the Platform Lead at CoEfficient Labs for more than a month, starting during the final months of my MBA, and I’m looking forward to working with startup founders to help them grow their businesses, connecting with VCs to find portfolio companies we’re a good fit for, and continuing my own professional journey.

Finally, the MBA, USC, my classmates and professors, and everyone I’ve met the past two years, has made this the experience of a lifetime, I’m so incredibly grateful for all of it, and this is just the beginning for me as a 29-year-old ready to impact the world in a positive way.

If you want to connect with me, learn more about the MBA or anything else, send me a personalized invitation on LinkedIn or follow me on Instagram — I’d be happy to chat.

Originally published at https://www.justgogrind.com on May 4, 2020.