Immersive Field Courses: IFCs require a firm commitment and carry a financial obligation. Financial aid is available in the form of a student loan, a need-based HBS scholarship, or a combination of both depending on your individual circumstances. The Add/Drop process at the start of the term is the mechanism for any IFC enrollment changes, and, after that point, the course fee is non-refundable. Refer to the GEO website for full details on IFCs and be sure you understand the Course Policies and Course Fee & Financial Aid. Visit IFC Financial Aid for a quick assessment to determine your eligibility and process or contact finaid@hbs.edu for more information.

Enrollment Capacity: Limited to 45 MBA students (due to the nature of IFCs, auditing is not permitted)

Over the past decade, the rise of the Internet has blurred the functional lines between product and marketing. Some companies formed in the post-internet era have optimized their organizational structures by combining product and marketing into a single function called “growth”. The “growth” operating strategy was invented at Facebook and popularized at companies like Pinterest, Lyft, and Dropbox. While the discipline originated in the consumer tech sector of Silicon Valley, it has spread to entrepreneurial cultures such as New York, Berlin, and Singapore and to companies from non-tech industries, such as Disney, the NBA, and Adidas. Located at the intersection of experimentation, analysis, and strategy, the MBA uniquely prepares students for careers in this expanding discipline.

However, what exactly is this “growth” operating model that has spawned some of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley, and the world? Current definitions and best practices have not been codified. DGSV provides students with the opportunity to explore this rising discipline by exposing them to the best growth practitioners and thought leaders in Silicon Valley and applying their learnings to an early stage venture.

Past year’s speakers are listed below. We hope to have a similar, or even better, group of speakers next year.

• Drew Houston (Founder/CEO of Dropbox)
• John Zimmer (Co-founder, President of Lyft)
• John Doerr (Chairman, Kleiner Perkins)
• Dylan Field (Founder, CEO of Figma)
• >Dan Shapero (COO, LinkedIn)
• Sid Sidbrandij (Founder, CEO of GitLab)
• Selina Tobaccowala (Co-founder of eVite, former President of SurveyMonkey)
• Dick Costolo (Former CEO of Twitter)
• Dan Springer (CEO of Docusign)
• Leah Solivan (Founder/CEO of TaskRabbit)
• Kirsten Kliphouse (President of Google Cloud)
• Jay Simons (Founding President of Atlassian)
• Brian Halligan (Co-founder/CEO of HubSpot)

Specific learning objectives include:

1. What are the best practices of a “growth” operating strategy?
2. How are the implementations of “growth” across Silicon Valley’s most successful companies the same? How are they different? What drives these differences?
3. How should “growth” be implemented in a startup context? How does the team makeup and priorities evolve as the venture matures?

DGSV is primarily focused on a field project with a scaling startup, specifically in the area of the venture’s “growth” operating strategy. In the Fall while on campus, student teams will conduct a series of virtual meetings, research, analysis, and project execution with the project sponsor and other company resources. Students will then spend 6 days in Silicon Valley meeting with executives and growth leaders of some of the most successful tech companies in the region. In the week after the trip, the students will package their project deliverables and trip reflections into a final presentation for their startup sponsor.

The class will meet four times in the Fall for two hours each. Class time will be a mix of discussing a case simulation on components of the “growth” operating strategy, framework discussions with growth thought leaders, and Q&A with leaders from successful growth implementations. The class session objectives is to expose the students to the operations and frameworks of the most successful growth thought leaders and practitioners and provide them with the opportunity to implement the appropriate best practices in their field project. There will also be two one-on-one reviews between the faculty instructor and each project team during the Fall and check in calls with the project sponsor.

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