Everything we learned in 29 minutes at Harvard Business School
Tiger Sisters
Understanding Financial Metrics for Business Leaders
This chapter explores essential financial metrics like run rate, company valuation, and key ratios such as price to earnings and EV to EBITDA. It emphasizes the contextual nature of these metrics and encourages listener interaction while introducing a new matcha tea product.
Grab your notebooks (and maybe a matcha latte), because Cherie and Jean are cramming an entire Harvard MBA into one crash course! In this Season 4 opener, we zoom through classic frameworks – like Porter’s Five Forces and STP (segmentation, targeting, positioning) – and walk through real-world examples (Starbucks, Warby Parker, Netflix) to illustrate how these theories actually work in a known entity. From must-know finance terms to breaking down how to build a product people actually want, we’ve got you covered.
Whether you’re launching a startup, side-hustling on DTC, or just refreshing your business IQ, this episode is well worth the 29 minutes – no six-figure tuition required.
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🐯👯♀️ Tiger Sisters Podcast | Career, Entrepreneurship, and Life
Welcome to Tiger Sisters, your go-to podcast for career mentorship and life guidance! Hosted by Cherie Brooke Luo and Jean Luo, we’re your internet big sisters here to demystify the ups and downs of navigating careers, tech, and entrepreneurship— all while staying healthy, stylish, and joyful along the way.
Cherie is an influencer who has broken down the complexities of big tech, finance, and MBA programs for millions of viewers, with over 100M+ views across platforms. Jean is a tech product executive and investor, holding over 50 AI patents, who has built an impressive career in product management and institutional investment at companies like Goldman Sachs and Snapchat.
Between the two of us, we’ve survived stints at top investment banks and big tech firms, founded startups, and earned four Ivy League degrees—if we’re counting Stanford! Yet, we still find time to focus on wellness, friendships, fashion, and skincare, always sharing the lessons we've learned along the way.
Whether you’re here for career advice, stories about balancing life’s challenges, or just to hear our honest takes on what it means to pursue fun, wealth, and joy in all areas of life, we’ve got you covered.
💛 LET'S CONNECT:
~ CHERIE ~
🤳🏻 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/cherie.brooke
📱 TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@cherie.brooke
✍🏻 My Substack – https://cherieluo.substack.com/
👩🏻💻 LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherie-luo/
~ JEAN ~
🤳🏻 Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jeanluo_/
👩🏻💻 LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanluo
🎵 Music produced by Sammy Signal https://open.spotify.com/artist/2HsyknHuxhT8RoZfn5rqMS
🛍️ Items Referenced:
🍵Sisters Matcha & SISTERS Merch: www.sistersmatcha.com
♠️ Everything else: https://amzn.to/3z0dx5b
⏰ Timestamps
00:00:00 Intro: Everything We Learned at HBS…in 29 Minutes! ⚡️
00:00:21 Meet the Tiger Sisters: Jean (Harvard MBA) & Cherie (Stanford MBA) 🏆
00:02:22 Strategy 101: Porter’s Five Forces 💥
00:03:10 Starbucks Case Study: brand power, real estate, supply chain ☕
00:08:09 Cost Leadership vs. Differentiation: You can’t win on both, so choose wisely ⚖️
00:10:30 Sisters Matcha: premium cultivar, premium pricing 🍵
00:12:32 Marketing 101: STP in Warby Parker Case Study
00:16:20 Positioning: Stand out or get lost – define your brand 🏹
00:19:47 Product Development 101: Netflix Case Study 🔧
00:20:46 Know your audience, A/B test, iterate 🔄
00:22:46 Finance 101: Decision making as the CEO 💸
00:24:06 Revenue vs. profit (Netflix’s hidden costs)
00:24:50 Cash flow, unit economics, runway & burn rate 🏃♀️
00:27:44 P/E, EBITDA, and more: don’t fear the acronyms ⚙️
00:28:43 Soft Skills, Hard Requirement: leadership & networking up next 🌱
00:28:55 You just got a mini MBA! Part 2 coming soon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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