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— Stanford Guest Teachers
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From classroom to customers: How Stanford GSB students put GMT's growth framework into practice
From classroom to customers: How Stanford GSB students put GMT's growth framework into practice
Growth Marketing Team Selected to Guest Lecture at Stanford GSB on Customer Acquisition
GMT founders Tushar Bhatnagar and Miriam Lopez have over 25 years of combined experience helping startups scale through multiple stages of growth, including successful IPOs.
This Spring, Growth Marketing Team had the privilege of partnering with Stanford Graduate School of Business instructors Kim Caldbeck and Kwabena Baah Donkor to lead a hands-on customer acquisition program designed for aspiring founders and startup operators.
Unlike traditional marketing courses, students weren't simply learning theory. They were responsible for managing a real customer acquisition program for a real company. Over the course of the semester, Stanford student teams were entrusted with a five-figure marketing budget to run Google and Meta advertising campaigns while also developing affiliate partnerships to drive customer acquisition for Astra Health.
Their objective was simple: Acquire customers efficiently while meeting aggressive customer acquisition cost (CAC) targets.
Their challenge was considerably harder. Build, launch, optimize, and scale acquisition campaigns in a live environment while competing against the realities every startup faces: limited budgets, platform learning curves, creative fatigue, messaging challenges, and performance pressure.
And they succeeded.
Turning theory into execution
Throughout the semester, Growth Marketing Team worked directly with student teams, mentoring them through the same frameworkas we use to help education, health, and SaaS companies build scalable acquisition systems. Students learned how to:
- Build customer acquisition strategies from the ground up
- Allocate budgets across Meta and Google
- Develop messaging pillars
- Create and optimize ad creative
- Measure customer acquisition efficiency
- Recruit and activate affiliate partners
- Scale winning campaigns while maintaining profitability
Rather than simply discussing growth frameworks, students were tasked with applying them in real time. The result was an experience that more closely resembled a startup growth team than a traditional classroom.
Winning team reflection
“In a typical case study, you optimize for the right answer. During this project, we were optimizing for signal, and fast, before we spent our way into a corner.”
“The biggest unlock for me was realizing how fast "strategy" gets real when there's an actual budget on the line for a company whose founders you've actually met! Every decision we made was tied to real conversions and real revenue, so the "perfect "theoretical" strategy" went out the window pretty quickly, and we just had to be okay with that. What surprised me, though, is that the hard part isn't pivoting. It's pivoting while still being able to clearly explain why you're taking action
A, B, C etc. That accountability -- to the data, to each other as a team, to the founders actually watching -- is something you genuinely can't easily replicate in a classroom. You only learn it by doing it for real.”
Sabrina Bukenya
MBA Student, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Results across all student teams
Collectively, the student teams delivered exceptional results. Using approximately 97%
of their allocated budget, the teams generated:
3x the qualified lead goal
with a cost per lead
67% lower vs target
96% of the paid customers target achieved
100%
of CPA target achieved
Most importantly, the teams successfully put into practice the acquisition frameworks taught throughout the course for a real start up.
For Astra Health, the impact extended beyond the classroom. The collective efforts of the students helped contribute to what became Astra Health's strongest customer acquisition month to date.
Mentorship beyond the classroom
One of the most rewarding aspects of the program was watching students evolve from marketers-in-training into growth operators. Students experienced firsthand what it means to manage acquisition under real performance constraints—something that cannot be replicated through lectures alone.
“You have to stay on your toes. What you think will be straightforward, requires much more of a bespoke effort than I previously imagined.”
“In my case, identifying and emailing influencers to promote a product taught me that persistence, partnership, and active problem solving are key to making influencer strategy work in the
telehealth space.”
Hui Wen Zheng
Winning Team Student, Stanford Customer Acquisition Program
Recognizing outstanding performance
At the conclusion of the semester, Growth Marketing Team recognized one student team for outstanding performance across three key areas:
- Budget management and efficiency
- Creativity in testing messaging and copy angles
- Affiliate outreach and activation efforts
The winning team demonstrated a strong balance of analytical rigor and creative problem-solving—qualities that consistently separate good marketers from exceptional growth leaders.
Winning student team alongside Stanford GSB instructors, Astra Health leadership, and Growth Marketing Team founders following the program’s final presentations.
Presentation Day: bringing founders and operators together
The program concluded with a final presentation day where student teams presented their strategies, learnings, results, and recommendations. Presentations were evaluated by a distinguished panel that included:
Kim Caldbeck
Stanford GSB Professor
Kwabena Baah Donkor
Stanford GSB Professor
Jake Kailahi
Founder of Astra Health
Tushar Bhatnagar
Founder of Growth Marketing Team
Miriam Lopez
Co-Founder of Growth Marketing Team
Ajay Prakash
Co-Founder & CEO of Rinse
Grace Chau
Community Manager at Adobe
The session provided students with direct feedback from experienced founders, operators, investors, and growth leaders—creating a fitting culmination to a semester focused on practical execution.
A model for how growth should be taught
Too often, customer acquisition is taught as a collection of concepts. In reality, growth marketing is best learned through execution. By combining academic rigor, founder perspectives, real budgets, real customers, and real accountability, Stanford's program created an environment where students could experience customer acquisition as it actually happens inside high-growth companies.
Instructor reflection
“Tushar, Miriam, and the GMT team brought real-world coaching directly into the classroom, helping students move from customer-acquisition theory to genuine execution.”
“Partnering with the Growth Marketing Team was one of the highlights of teaching Customer Acquisition at Stanford GSB. My students didn’t just study growth frameworks, they applied them while managing real advertising budgets, launching live campaigns, and working through the messy, real business challenges that come with them.
GMT’s mentorship raised the quality of the work, gave students authentic exposure to the realities of startup growth, and made the learning stick. I came away having learned a great deal myself, and my students were deeply appreciative of the guidance and generosity Tushar and Miriam gave throughout
the course.”
Kwabena Baah Donkor
Professor, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Looking ahead
The success of the program reinforced something we've believed for years: the next generation of founders doesn't need more growth theory. They need opportunities to practice growth in real-world environments.
We're grateful to Stanford Graduate School of Business, Kim Caldbeck, Kwabena Baah Donkor, Astra Health, and every student who participated for making this collaboration such a success.
Congratulations to all the teams who proved that with the right frameworks, mentorship, and willingness to test, growth can be both measurable and repeatable.
About Growth Marketing Team
Growth Marketing Team is a performance marketing agency specializing in full-funnel paid customer acquisition for education, health, and SaaS companies. Founded by Tushar Bhatnagar and Miriam Lopez,
C-level talent that led EdTech unicorns into public companies. Our team has managed more than $200M in advertising spend, generated over $400M in client revenue, and helped acquire more than 1.5 million customers globally. We help companies build scalable acquisition systems that turn paid media into a predictable growth engine.
Ready to build a more predictable acquisition engine?
Ready to build a more predictable acquisition engine?
Ready to build a more predictable acquisition engine?
Let’s talk about your acquisition goals and where GMT can help.
Ready to build a more predictable acquisition engine?
Let’s talk about your acquisition goals and where GMT can help.
"Test-Drive The New
'Secrets of Success'
Membership & Community For 30 Days, And We'll SHIP YOU These 3 Gifts For FREE...! Just For Saying 'MAYBE...'
— Stanford Guest Teachers
From classroom to customers: How Stanford GSB students put GMT's growth framework into practice
From classroom to customers: How Stanford GSB students put GMT's growth framework into practice
This Spring, Growth Marketing Team had the privilege of partnering with Stanford Graduate School of Business instructors Kim Caldbeck and Kwabena Baah Donkor to lead a hands-on customer acquisition program designed for aspiring founders and startup operators.
Unlike traditional marketing courses, students weren't simply learning theory. They were responsible for managing a real customer acquisition program for a real company. Over the course of the semester, Stanford student teams were entrusted with a five-figure marketing budget to run Google and Meta advertising campaigns while also developing affiliate partnerships to drive customer acquisition for Astra Health.
Their objective was simple: Acquire customers efficiently while meeting aggressive customer acquisition cost (CAC) targets.
Their challenge was considerably harder. Build, launch, optimize, and scale acquisition campaigns in a live environment while competing against the realities every startup faces: limited budgets, platform learning curves, creative fatigue, messaging challenges, and performance pressure.
And they succeeded.
Turning theory into execution
Throughout the semester, Growth Marketing Team worked directly with student teams, mentoring them through the same frameworks we use to help education, health, and SaaS companies build scalable acquisition systems. Students learned how to:
- Build customer acquisition strategies from the ground up
- Allocate budgets across Meta and Google
- Develop messaging pillars
- Create and optimize ad creative
- Measure customer acquisition efficiency
- Recruit and activate affiliate partners
- Scale winning campaigns while maintaining profitability
Rather than simply discussing growth frameworks, students were tasked with applying them in real time. The result was an experience that more closely resembled a startup growth team than a traditional classroom.
Winning team reflection
“In a typical case study, you optimize for the right answer. During this project, we were optimizing for signal, and fast, before we spent our way into a corner.”
“The biggest unlock for me was realizing how fast "strategy" gets real when there's an actual budget on the line for a company whose founders you've actually met! Every decision we made was tied to real conversions and real revenue, so the "perfect "theoretical" strategy" went out the window pretty quickly, and we just had to be okay with that. What surprised me, though, is that the hard part isn't pivoting. It's pivoting while still being able to clearly explain why you're taking action A, B, C etc. That accountability -- to the data, to each other as a team, to the founders actually watching -- is something you genuinely can't easily replicate in a classroom. You only learn it by doing it for real.”
Sabrina Bukenya
MBA Student, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Results across all student teams
Collectively, the student teams delivered exceptional results. Using approximately 97% of their allocated budget, the teams generated:
3x the qualified lead goal with
cost per lead 67% lower than target
3x the qualified lead goal with
cost per lead 67% lower than target
96% of the paid customers
target achieved
100% of CPA target achieved
Most importantly, the teams successfully put into practice the acquisition frameworks taught throughout the course for a real startup.
For Astra Health, the impact extended beyond the classroom. The collective efforts of the students helped contribute to what became Astra Health's strongest customer acquisition month to date.
Mentorship beyond the classroom
One of the most rewarding aspects of the program was watching students evolve from marketers-in-training into growth operators.
Students experienced firsthand what it means to manage acquisition under real performance constraints—something that cannot be replicated through lectures alone.
“You have to stay on your toes. What you think will be straightforward, requires much more of a bespoke effort than I previously imagined.”
“In my case, identifying and emailing influencers to promote a product taught me that persistence, partnership, and active problem solving are key to making influencer strategy work in the telehealth space.”
Hui Wen Zheng
Winning Team Student,
Stanford Customer Acquisition Program
Recognizing outstanding performance
At the conclusion of the semester, Growth Marketing Team recognized one student team for outstanding performance across three key areas:
- Budget management and efficiency
- Creativity in testing messaging and
copy angles - Affiliate outreach and activation efforts
The winning team demonstrated a
strong balance of analytical rigor and creative problem-solving—qualities that consistently separate good marketers from exceptional growth leaders.
Winning student team alongside Stanford GSB instructors, Astra Health leadership, and Growth Marketing Team founders following the program’s final presentations.
Presentation Day: Bringing Founders and Operators Together
The program concluded with a final presentation day where student teams presented their strategies, learnings, results, and recommendations. Presentations were evaluated by a distinguished panel that included:
Photo: Winning student team alongside Stanford GSB instructors, Astra Health leadership, and Growth Marketing Team founders following the program’s final presentations.
- Kim Caldbeck
Stanford GSB Instructor - Kwabena Baah Donkor
Stanford GSB Instructor - Jake Kailahi
Founder of Astra Health - Tushar Bhatnagar
Founder of Growth Marketing Team - Miriam Lopez
Co-Founder of Growth Marketing Team - Ajay Prakash
Co-Founder & CEO of Rinse - Grace Chau
Community Manager at Adobe
- Kim Caldbeck
Stanford GSB Instructor - Kwabena Baah Donkor
Stanford GSB Instructor - Jake Kailahi
Founder of Astra Health - Tushar Bhatnagar
Founder of Growth Marketing Team - Miriam Lopez
Co-Founder of Growth Marketing Team - Ajay Prakash
Co-Founder & CEO of Rinse - Grace Chau
Community Manager at Adobe
The session provided students with direct feedback from experienced founders, operators, investors, and growth leaders—creating a fitting culmination to a semester focused on practical execution.
Instructor reflection
A model for how growth should be taught
Too often, customer acquisition is taught as a collection of concepts. In reality, growth marketing is best learned through execution. By combining academic rigor, founder perspectives, real budgets, real customers, and real accountability, Stanford's program created an environment where students could experience customer acquisition as it actually happens inside high-growth companies.
“Tushar, Miriam, and the GMT team brought real-world coaching directly into the classroom, helping students move from customer-acquisition theory to genuine execution.”
“Partnering with the Growth Marketing Team was one of the highlights of teaching Customer Acquisition at Stanford GSB. My students didn’t just study growth frameworks, they applied them while managing real advertising budgets, launching live campaigns, and working through the messy, real business challenges that come with them.
GMT’s mentorship raised the quality of the work, gave students authentic exposure to the realities of startup growth, and made the learning stick. I came away having learned a great deal myself, and my students were deeply appreciative of the guidance and generosity Tushar and Miriam gave throughout the course.”
Kwabena Baah Donkor
Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business
Looking ahead
The success of the program reinforced something we've believed for years: the next generation of founders doesn't need more growth theory. They need opportunities to practice growth in real-world environments.
We're grateful to Stanford Graduate School of Business, Kim Caldbeck, Kwabena Baah Donkor, Astra Health, and every student who participated for making this collaboration such a success.
Congratulations to all the teams who proved that with the right frameworks, mentorship, and willingness to test, growth can be both measurable and repeatable.
About Growth Marketing Team
Growth Marketing Team is a performance marketing agency specializing in full-funnel paid customer acquisition for education, health, and SaaS companies. Founded by, Tushar Bhatnagar and Miriam Lopez, C-level talent that led EdTech unicorns into public companies.
Our team has managed more than $200M in advertising spend, generated over $400M in client revenue, and helped acquire more than 1.5 million customers globally.
We help companies build scalable acquisition systems that turn paid media into a predictable growth engine.
Ready to build a more predictable acquisition engine?
Let’s talk about your acquisition goals
and where GMT can help.
Ready to build a more predictable acquisition engine?
Ready to build a more predictable acquisition engine?
Full-Funnel Growth Marketing
for EdTech
Partner with a full-funnel agency for EdTech.
Led by marketers who turned unicorns into
public companies, we deliver on your
acquisition goals with clarity.
© 2026 Growth Marketing Team.
All rights reserved.
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Partner with a full-funnel agency for EdTech. Led by marketers who turned unicorns into public companies, we deliver on your acquisition goals with clarity.
© 2026 Growth Marketing Team. All rights reserved.
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An Embedded Growth Partner,Not an External Vendor
We don’t operate on the sidelines. Our team embeds directly into your business, working alongside your internal stakeholders as true performance partners. We take ownership of acquisition the same way an in-house growth team would — evaluating what’s working, stress-testing assumptions, and scaling only what drives measurable business impact.
What I appreciate most is how deeply they embed with your team.
They truly operate like internal performance marketers, helping evaluate and scale your efforts while staying focused on overall business impact and ROI.
Paid Customer Acquisition for the Education Industry
Our founders have built and led marketingat industry-defining education brands like Mindvalley, Udemy, and Coursera. This experience allows Growth Marketing Team to craft strategies that protect your brand while driving profitable growth month over month. Our team brings over 40+ years of combined experience in media, education, and wellness. Every recommendation is backed by data, careful testing, and a deep respect for your brand reputation — ensuring you scale with confidence and clarity.
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They are always my first recommendation.
Startup-Proven Strategy with Data-Driven Execution
Our service package includes everything an established expert needs in a complete advertising partner. From strategic planning to hands-on management across 10+ ad platforms, every detail is optimized for clarity, profitability, and peace of mind. Advertising success lies in the details — testing, optimization, and continuous improvement. Growth Marketing Team custom-designs every setup to align with each client’s growth stage and financial goals.
I cannot recommend GMT highly enough for any team, but especially startups. They can do everything from execution to high-level strategy. I rely on them for assistance with all aspects of ads management.
