Influencers have infiltrated Harvard Business School. What, like it’s hard?

Matilda Djerf, who has 2.6 million Instagram followers and her own brand, Djerf Avenue, visited the university campus this month, speaking to students at both Harvard’s business and law schools. TikToker Alix Earle has been a guest speaker at Harvard Business School (HBS) twice: first in April 2025, when she spoke to students about her creator career in senior lecturer Reza Satchu’s class; and then last month, as Earle returned to Satchu’s class, this time for students to debate whether or not it would be a wise move for her to launch a product. (Two weeks later, she launched her skincare brand, Reale Actives.) Bethenny Frankel, Kit Keenan, Rocky Barnes, Pia Mance, Karlie Kloss, MrBeast, and Melissa Wood-Tepperberg have each appeared on campus for speaking opportunities. Like many things in the influencer world, it traces back to Kim Kardashian, who first paid HBS a visit in 2023.

Plus, no visit to the acclaimed campus is complete without a glamour shot standing next to the Harvard Business School sign, which has become an in-feed flex for influencers wishing to show off their business savvy, now co-signed by the oldest university in the US. Reactions to these posts are invariably mixed, ranging from words of support and Legally Blonde references to incredulity at why content creators are being platformed to this extent at one of the country’s most prestigious institutions.

“For the creator, it signals legitimacy. For the institution, it signals that they’re engaged with where attention and influencers actually live today,” says Shana Davis, founder of influencer marketing agency Ponte Firm. “In the sense, the photo isn’t just a personal milestone, it’s evidence of a broader convergence between legacy institutions and the creator economy.”

Many influencers are invited not as part of HBS’s curriculum, but by student-run clubs, like the HBS Retail & Luxury Goods Club, and conferences (no matter — they’ll still get the campus photoshoot). It wasn’t long ago that HBS professors were hesitant to extend the invite to influencers. When Satchu got a call suggesting he invite Earle, his instinct after a quick Google was: “There’s no way.” But after consulting his Gen Z daughters (who were split – one believed it would be off brand), and later his class (a resounding yes), he decided to give it a shot. Now, one year later, he’s writing an HBS case study about Earle’s founder journey. “This is the new way in which people market, and our students need to understand and learn that,” he says. “Us having a pipeline of those people sharing their ideas is valuable for our students.”

Actual classroom appearances are still a rarity. While Anita Elberse, Lincoln Filene professor of business administration, has invited big-name guests including Ryan Reynolds, David Beckham, and LL Cool J (alongside his COO) to speak in her class, she says she has not invited any speakers whose careers are centered around content creation. To date, Earle is the only creator Satchu has invited, joining the ranks of previous guests including Hollywood heavyweight Reese Witherspoon.

That more and more influencers are being invited to speak at Harvard is a signal of how large the creator economy — which is expected to be worth $500 billion by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs — has become. Despite the big money involved, the work of content creation, especially in the fashion and beauty space, is often looked down upon by those in more traditional roles. The bristling reactions to these appearances are an indicator of this, says Eve Lee, founder of “creator-powered” consultancy Source Material Service. “The influencer industry is still seen as fluffy, and the dismissal has been gendered, classed, and generational,” she says.

But for the next generation of business leaders, these creators have much to teach them that they won’t typically learn in the classroom.

The bar

What actually happens when you get a creator in a room with business students? It depends on who extended the invite in the first place: there’s a high bar to receive an invite to a classroom. “I would not let [just] anyone in my class, I view it as hallowed ground,” Satchu says. The professor has so far had 30 to 40 influencers request to speak. Earle is the only invite he’s extended. “She represented a risk, but a well-calibrated risk. Now, I’m writing a case about her.”

It’s a sign of the seriousness with which Harvard professors take their invites. Satchu decided to write a HBS case study about Earle — a highly sought after get, he says — after the success of her first visit. The case focuses on the process of monetizing authenticity, and unpicks what Earle should do going forward to further profit from her brand. “You’ve got 180 super-smart Harvard students debating: what should Alix Earle do next with her brand?”

Student-run clubs and conferences are less institutionalized, more open, and typically center around fireside chats followed by Q&As, without needing to fit into a curriculum or classroom structure. Djerf was invited to campus by the Harvard Fashion Law Association, and spent time at both Harvard Law School and HBS, she says. At Harvard Law, the conversation focused on intellectual property, how Djerf Avenue protects its designs, how it structures manufacturing and partnerships, and how the brand is thinking about AI, Djerf says. “I prepared by speaking closely with our legal team to make sure I was accurately representing their work and the legal structures behind the brand,” she says.

A non-lawyer speaking to Harvard Law students will inevitably raise eyebrows. (And it’s worth noting that Djerf Avenue was hit with allegations of a toxic work culture in 2024, for which Djerf apologized.) But Djerf’s presence at a Harvard event illustrates the desire from those on campus to tap into influencers’ cultural clout. When the invite comes from a student-run club, Harvard students get access to creators they follow and admire, and creators get access to the university name.

“We keep it pretty intimate and interactive, which I think is part of why speakers tend to enjoy it,” says Katie Pfleger, MBA candidate 2026 and VP for speakers for the HBA Retail & Luxury Goods Club (RLGC). The RLGC hosts one to two speakers a month, Pfleger says. The goal is to provide students with insights they wouldn’t otherwise get in their daily curriculum. “There’s no formal qualification list. We make decisions as a team, and try to answer: does this person’s story teach our members something they couldn’t get from a case study? What we’re really looking for is people who’ve built something interesting in retail, luxury, fashion, or consumer and can speak honestly about how they actually did it,” she says.

“It’s just a different avenue and one that is far less formal or prestigious, because you’re not actually coming into the class,” Satchu says of the distinction between class and club. “I see there being much more positive than negative, but I think we have to be careful and cautious as you don’t want to give people a platform or credibility that they haven’t earned.”

Modern brand-building

When it comes to creators, RLGC wants to know about their brand-building story — whether it’s their personal brand or a product they’ve launched. “When we hosted Bethenny Frankel, the conversation wasn’t really about [her brand] Skinnygirl as a product,” Pfleger says. “It was about how she built trust with her audience over years, before she ever had something to sell them. That’s true for a lot of the creators we bring in: they understand distribution and their audience, and they’re often building consumer businesses on top of that.”

Those who visit Harvard are conscious of the platform they’re given. Mance, influencer and founder of jewelry brand Heaven Mayhem, was invited by the Retail & Luxury Goods Club to speak at HBS’s Aldrich Hall. She says she wouldn’t have attended if she wasn’t running a $10 million business outside her own influencer career. “I think you need something real to stand behind when you walk into a room like that,” she says. “Heaven Mayhem gave me a story worth telling, a perspective that’s actually mine.” In her session, Mance focused on her brand, not her own influencer career. She spoke about how Heaven Mayhem started, where she sees it going, and what she’s learned along the way. “A lot around building something with a small, all-female team and what that actually looks like day to day,” she adds.

Both Lee and Satchu believe that, even if an influencer hasn’t founded a business, there is value in inviting them to these spaces. “Traditional businesses spend most of their money and energy trying to acquire the thing creators already have — attention, community, cultural trust — while creators can comparatively easily access the thing traditional businesses already have, like supply chains, operations, legal, capital,” Lee says. “MBA [students] are going to HBS to hear from creators because creators know things MBA professors can’t teach.”

But, Satchu caveats, there can at times be more in it for the influencers than for the students. “Perhaps, there’s a particular student that has an interest and there may just be 10 people in there, but the influencer gets to post that ‘I was at Harvard,’” he says. “It’s a bit of a reach, but you know what? The more we can do to democratize a place like Harvard and make it less elitist, the better.”

For the creators, a chance to connect with Harvard MBA students isn’t one worth passing up. “I’m sure everyone who goes to HBS will go on to do great things, so connecting with them early on is a wise idea,” says Mance.

And for HBS students, impressing an influencer on campus can make their business. Satchu’s students Pfleger and Ella Rubin, founders of “presale marketplace” Trace, featured on Earle’s TikTok last month. Last week, they closed their lead investor with a $2 million investment as part of a $3 million seed round. “That wouldn’t have happened without Alix posting it,” Satchu says. “She completely changed our funding timeline,” Pfleger agrees. “The effect is real.”

More from this author:

Flight Prices Are Up, Fuel Is Low. Is Euro Summer on Ice?

Can AI Ever Crack Taste?

Justin Bieber’s Skylrk Sales Hit $15 Million, Smashing Coachella Merch Records