“I believe that everyone has a lot of potential, and when you're using it in areas you truly care about, you can make more impact.”
Between Two Classes is an interview series where we explore the diverse worldviews of our HBS classmates.
This interview is with Michelle Tan (MBA ’25). Michelle grew up in China and attended Columbia University, where she studied Economics and Intellectual History. After school, Michelle worked in investment banking before transitioning to startups in Silicon Valley. Michelle held operating roles at startups like WeWork and Culdesac before founding Unearth AI, an AI-based mapping and location analytics platform that was acquired earlier this year.
What impact has your childhood had on the person you are today?
Tan: I was born in Beijing and spent the first 18 years of my life in China, at a time when the country was growing a lot and there was a lot of optimism. My parents were both really busy, so they sent me to live with my grandparents in a provincial town in southern China for a year when I was 6 months old. To give you a sense, there wasn’t even a running toilet there. I didn’t have a comparison point, so I felt like I had a generally easy childhood.
I went to public schools in China. At a broader level, Chinese society has an element of collectivism. For example, all the schools I attended had a form of sections like HBS. We’d have sports, singing, and all sorts of competitions across the sections, which built a strong sense of community. I got a lot of joy through organizing and participating in these extracurricular events. That really shaped my affinity for building community as I grew older.
What is your idea of happiness and how has it developed over time?
Tan: On one level, I’ve reflected on how what makes us happy is not a static thing – it is constantly evolving. I remember I hated running as a kid. We had a mandatory PE class where you had to complete an 800 meter sprint in under 3 minutes and 20 seconds. It’s part of your entrance exam – if you ask anyone that grew up in China, they’ll remember this. I absolutely hated this growing up and would spend weeks worrying about it. Funnily enough, I grew to like running later in life. I ran a marathon a few years ago, which is a tremendous shift.
Growing up, I read a lot of books and biographies, and I thought it was important to live a life that left a legacy and made the world a little bit better. I later learned about this concept in a political science class during college. We discussed the differences between office-seeking politicians and policy-seeking ones. If you're a politician that’s only motivated by the office, well, someone else could easily take your place. It’s important to ask the deeper question: what are you doing to make a difference that only you can make? That’s differential impact. I found this idea fascinating because it shifted the focus from seeking personal glory to producing concrete results.
As I grew older, I gained a more balanced perspective that you probably have a bigger impact on people around you, so I came to believe that your lived experience and the lived experience of people around you are also key to being happy besides the impact you make.
I was reminded of this when I recently visited the JFK Library in Boston. There’s an interview in the archives when JFK was asked if he enjoyed being President. He replied with the ancient Greek definition of happiness, which was “the full use of your powers along lines of excellence.”
That resonated with me. It’s a more inward-looking definition - it’s about maximizing your own potential, while also having a positive impact on the people around you.
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
Tan: I’ve come to appreciate the power of commitment.
I started a company before coming to HBS and gave myself two options. If the startup was going well, I would not come to business school. And if the startup was going poorly, I could shut down the startup and focus on school. But the reality ended up being in the middle. So I spent the first semester trying to juggle HBS and the startup. That ended up being suboptimal for both my startup and my HBS experience. I learned that preserving my optionality was ultimately a worse outcome than just committing to one.
A very Reza-esque takeaway there. So you decided to stay at HBS. How did you make that decision?
Tan: I came to HBS to take a longer point of view. I'll probably be working for another thirty-plus years, and this is a really unique window in my life to take a step back and have this experience. Business school is not often appreciated in Silicon Valley circles. So coming from that environment, I had some hesitations. But the time away from Silicon Valley actually made me more inspired and motivated when I went back to San Francisco this summer. I had a deeper appreciation for the unique culture of the startup ecosystem there.
Speaking of Silicon Valley, our next question is reminiscent of one of Peter Thiel’s favorite interview questions. What’s one thing you believe that others might find unconventional?
Tan: I think larger families are underrated. On my dad’s side of the family, all the grandparents live together under one roof. I think it’s a wonderful thing. In the U.S., people care so much about independence and freedom, but that can come at the expense of close ties with extended family. Families often get together just a few times during the holidays. That’s very different from not only Asian societies but many other societies across the world.
I was partially raised by my grandparents, and that gave me a better sense of where I came from. I learned about their stories and the times they lived through. If you haven’t spent that much time together, it’s harder to have that close intergenerational relationship.
I couldn’t agree more. My parents are immigrants from India and the culture there is very similar. They miss the support and community that comes from living under one roof with extended family. Thank you so much Michelle, this has been a wonderful conversation.
Jay Bhandari (MBA ’25) is originally from Houston, Texas. He graduated from Georgetown University in 2018 with a degree in Economics. Prior to HBS, Jay served as Chief of Staff at thredUP in San Francisco, and as an Investment Associate in New York at Blackstone.
Sam Berube (MBA ’25) is originally from Dover, Massachusetts. He graduated from Brown University in 2019 with a degree in International & Comparative Political Science. Prior to HBS, Sam worked in corporate strategy at McDonald's in Chicago, and for BCG in Boston.
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