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Grace Lee
MBA Candidate with expertise in Product Management
Grace Lee, Co-Founder at HiLo
Grace Lee is a co-founder at HiLo, an AI-powered social platform for gamers. She is currently building the platform and piloting it with DOTA 2.3
Lee has an impressive background in product management and design:
- She is an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School1
- Previously, she was a Lead Product Manager at FreshCut and Senior Product Manager at CommonBond.co1
- She has also worked as a Product Manager and Product Operations Manager at Uber1
- Lee has a strong design background, having worked as a Senior Product Designer at NuvoAir, Sr. UX Designer at CVS Health, and Mobile Product Designer at Wellframe2
In addition to her work at HiLo, Lee is an active member of the tech community. She has been recognized as one of the Top 10 Business Undergrads by CNBC and Poets & Quants in 2017.1 Lee is also fluent in English, Korean, and has elementary proficiency in Spanish.1
Highlights
Did you know OpenAI's most groundbreaking experiment started with a video game? 🎮
(And not just any game—DOTA 2.)
Why DOTA 2? DOTA 2 isn’t just another game; it’s a titan in esports, known for its strategic depth and intense competition. Often named one of the hardest games, it features: 🖐️ Two teams of five. ⚔️ Over 100 unique heroes and items. ♟️ Billions of permutations in possible strategies and actions. Quick decisions, precise strategy, and flawless teamwork are just the basics.
As a basketball player, the parallels are striking. Imagine a 1-hour 5v5 with constant communication, some trash-talking, and the rush of winning a nail-biter with your incredible team. Just like in basketball, each role in DOTA 2 is vital. The hard support player is like the point guard, setting up key plays even if they don’t always get the spotlight.
But here’s where it gets really interesting: The International—DOTA 2’s annual championship—features prize pools exceeding $40 million, packing stadiums like Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena. It’s the perfect testing ground for AI.
🤖 Enter OpenAI Five. 🤖
OpenAI’s experiment wasn’t just about winning a game; it was about pushing AI to its limits. Through reinforcement learning, OpenAI Five trained on millions of simulated games, cramming what would be 45,000 years of human gameplay into just a few months.
And the results?
By 2018, OpenAI Five went from rookie to top-tier competitor, defeating world-class human teams in public matches. But this wasn’t just a win for AI. It was a pivotal moment for both gaming and technology. It showed how video games can be platforms for advancing AI, with insights that reach far beyond the virtual world—from autonomous driving to financial modeling.
For me, the connection is personal. I first heard about OpenAI because I played a video game: DOTA 2. It was a cool moment when gaming introduced me to cutting-edge technology, and I’m looking forward to where it’ll take me next.
At HiLo, we’re building the new AI-powered social platform for gamers and also piloting with DOTA 2! If you play and want to be part of our private alpha, sign-up in the link below.
Being at Harvard was a dream, and I’m constantly reminded of my immigrant parents who sacrificed everything for my education. I don’t want the glamour and dazzle to let me forget what a privilege it is to be here.
My first semester at Harvard Business School taught me 8 valuable lessons. Here are a few of them:
1// Embrace a spectrum-based mindset rather than a binary one. Good leaders know their strengths but box themselves. Great leaders are adaptable and adjust based on the circumstance and situation. Am I thorough and exhaustive to paint the full picture, or am I oversharing details and confusing others? Does my adaptability and open-mindedness lead to lack of conviction? Another way is to think of non-negative opposites. Think: Exhaustive vs. Selective. More on my site.
2// If you don’t define your values, the world will define them for you. What are the things you care about? If you don’t know, then everyone else’s definition of success will become yours, even if it makes no sense for you. What are the lines you won’t cross? When the going gets hard, circumstances and short-term gains will seem more attractive despite massive long-term consequences. What is the number that you need to be satisfied financially? If you don’t have one, then the number will be: more.
3// Your world is small. So lead with questions, more. At HBS, I realized how small my world had been. Like many professionals, as I grew older, my social circles become more and more alike in culture, career, and values. At some point, when you only have limited time, you end up spending it with those who make you comfortable, understood, and safe. But this also means that deep, meaningful interactions with people who are wholly and completely different from you becomes very limited. “You cannot please everybody” reached new levels of significance. The real superpower of people intuition is less in advocating and executing and more in asking better questions and listening well.
4// Relationships are not built from big moments, but many small moments over time. The small moments when someone chooses to listen, to offer help without being asked, to share a laugh over an inside joke - these might not make the highlight reel on Instagram, but are the fabric of strong, enduring relationships. They cannot be manufactured with one big party or event, but slowly, over time.
5// Systems and structure play a huge, critical role in changing first impressions, relationships, and outcomes. This impact should not be underestimated. First impressions can change - a lot. But without an element of frequency or vulnerability, which is often challenging to find in a remote workplace, they will remain the way it is.
Read the full post of “8 Lessons from my First Semester at HBS” on my site in the first comment below for the complete perspective.
#MBA #HBS #Lessons #Career #Leadership #professionaldevelopment #growth
