Meet Stanford’s MBA Class of 2018

Jason Bornstein

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Describe yourself in 15 words or less: Thoughtful, intentional and reliable.

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Fun Fact About Yourself: I don’t set an alarm in the morning.

Undergraduate School and Major: Northwestern University, Communication Studies

Employers and Job Titles Since Graduation: Senior Marketing Manager, Bonobos

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far: Quantifying the return on marketing spend is an age-old problem. Working within the financial constraints and aggressive growth targets of a venture-backed company, I developed and implemented a data-driven budgeting and forecasting process, which determined marketing dollars needed to achieve revenue targets.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you give to future business school applicants? Create a consistent and personal narrative that gives the admissions team an idea of what you’ll do once you arrive on campus. Help them picture how you’ll fit into the cohort. What classes are you excited about? What clubs will you join? What internship will you pursue? Approach the application knowing that there’s not a formula for success and remind yourself that there’s an element of luck; the program will turn away 15-20 qualified people to offer one person a spot in the class. Being here is as much a privilege as it is a signal of your achievement and potential.

What led you to choose this program for your full-time MBA? I chose Stanford for three reasons: (1) the small class size and sense of community that creates; (2) the entrepreneurial spirit and access to Silicon Valley founders and investors; and (3) the ability to pick 20+ electives in the quarter system and the program’s focus on experiential leadership courses.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? As an operator at a startup, I know what it’s like to be resource constrained. In the short term, I want to explore consumer or tech investing so that I can provide the capital that organizations need to achieve their goals. In the long run, I want to work for myself by starting or buying into a business.

Tell us about your dream job or dream employer at this point in your life? I’m passionate about e-commerce / consumer tech companies and I have an entrepreneurial spirit. The thing I enjoyed most about my role at Bonobos was evaluating if our initiatives would succeed. Did the numbers check out? How would this scale? Was it a big enough idea for the upfront investment? Was there a need for the product or service? I want to build on that aspect of my role and become an investor in consumer brands and technologies.

What would you like your business school peers to say about you after you graduate from this program? That’s someone I’d like to work with.