This course focuses attention on people operations challenges faced by startups seeking to scale themselves. It discusses recruitment, incentives, design of jobs, development of talent, leadership and empowerment challenges in startups. We will deal with questions ranging from equity splits to founding team dynamics, hiring talent to the sequencing of hires. We will use a mix of "live cases" from the field, and lectures. The course will be team taught by Huggy Rao, John Lilly ( founder and formerly, VC at Greylock) and Sujay Jaswa (founder, former COO of Dropbox).
3 units · GSB Letter Graded
This course focuses attention on people operations challenges faced by startups seeking to scale themselves. It discusses recruitment, incentives, design of jobs, development of talent, leadership and empowerment challenges in startups. We will deal with questions ranging from equity splits to founding team dynamics, hiring talent to the sequencing of hires. We will use a mix of "live cases" from the field, and lectures. The course will be team taught by Huggy Rao, John Lilly ( founder and formerly, VC at Greylock) and Sujay Jaswa (founder, former COO of Dropbox).
Offered in Autumn 2025, Winter 2026, Spring 2026 at Stanford University.