Between Two Classes: Ivan Goryachev

“When you crack open the door to yourself, nine times out of ten, the other person will too.”

Between Two Classes is an interview series where we explore the diverse worldviews of our HBS classmates.

This interview is with Ivan Goryachev (MS/MBA ’25). Born in a small town in Russia, Ivan’s improbable journey led him to Northeastern University and MIT, where he received a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, respectively. Before HBS, he was an early employee at Sparx Hockey, where he played a key role in scaling the company’s hardware product from a concept to a successful acquisition by private equity. Ivan has also held engineering roles at Tesla, Continuum, and Fikst. He is currently pursuing entrepreneurship as a founder of his own startup.

What impact has your childhood had on the person you are today?

Goryachev: If I had to sum it up in one word, it’s grounded. What I mean by that is, it’s easy to get caught up in where you are now and forget where you came from — your whole journey and how it compares to others’.

I grew up in a small town in Russia. We didn’t have a phone or a TV. Even something like a TV was really expensive. This was during the transition from the Soviet Union to a free-market economy, and it was kind of a mess. My dad made the huge leap to move to the U.S., giving us this incredible opportunity.

So whenever I’m stressed about classes, a salary negotiation, or anything that seems big at the moment, I think back to how simple life was then and still is for many of my relatives. It puts things into perspective. You really don’t need a lot to be content. That realization helps temper feelings of inadequacy because, honestly, it’s so improbable that I went from there to MIT, to Harvard, and interacting with some of the most interesting people at the forefront of technology. 

There are two stories related to my past life that really shaped my perspective. 

One of my cousins, whom I spent summers with, was incredibly bright. When we were little, I’d be outside goofing around, and he was in his room building radios, soldering parts together at seven years old. But today, he’s only just moved out of his parents’ house, doing odd jobs. He dropped out of college, and it’s hard to leave those small towns. The system doesn’t instill ambition, and if you don’t come from money, the barriers are almost impossible to navigate. His younger brother was similar: talented, studied architecture, but dropped out. There isn’t the same “rags to riches” path like we see in the U.S.

I tried to hire the older one when we were expanding our startup into Russia. We were selling a hockey product, and I thought it’d be a great opportunity for him. Motivating him to try was tough. Eventually, I just gave up.

Then, on my first day at Harvard, I got a call from my dad. My younger cousin had committed suicide. That hit me hard. It’s this brutal reminder of how much the environment shapes us. I think about winner’s guilt a lot. If they’d grown up here, they might have been incredible engineers or architects. But life just played out differently.

So, alongside grounded, I carry this deep sense of responsibility. I have to make use of this gift because I have this clear example within my family of how the environment can really dictate our fortunes. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Goryachev: Clear is kind. It applies to everything: how you communicate with yourself, how you build relationships, how you distill your ideas into action. A lot of times, people sugarcoat things or delay hard conversations, but that just makes interactions murky. Whether it’s business or relationships, clarity is kindness.

This advice resonates with me because I struggle with it myself. Being clear is hard. You don’t want to hurt people. You want to give things another chance. But when you aren’t clear, you waste time, opportunity, and energy. There’s a cost to not being clear, even if it is hard.

In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?

Goryachev: Asking more questions and sharing more than I think I should. I grew up shy and struggled with anorexia and self-image issues. Talking to people was really difficult for me. Even my reason for coming to HBS was tied to that — I was terrified of speaking during the mock case at ASW.

What changed for me was realizing that building deeper relationships starts with curiosity. Make the other person the center of attention. Ask more questions than feels natural. And when they ask about you, don’t just default to niceties. Share something real, something you’ve been thinking about. When you crack open the door to yourself, nine times out of 10, the other person will too. I started applying that, and, in the last few years, I’ve built much better relationships because of it.

What’s one thing you believe that others might find unconventional?

Goryachev: “Eat more fat.” What I mean is, many conventional diet beliefs are wrong. I struggled with my health growing up and was very sickly as a child. In college, I discovered the paleo diet, and it changed everything. I started eating more fat, less carbs and processed food, and my health markers improved. My energy stabilized. That led me down a rabbit hole of the nuance that exists in how we should eat. We should all dig into our diets more and understand what works best for us. We have to be really careful about what we accept as truth when it comes to food.

How has your definition of happiness changed over time? 

Goryachev: I think a lot of us, especially here at HBS, tend to focus on the negative. That really hit me during an Authentic Leader Development (ALD) class exercise, where we were asked to tell our life stories in bullet points. First, we listed only the positive moments, then only the negative ones. Almost everyone gravitated toward the negatives. They went into detail about failures, shortcomings, and struggles. Maybe it’s self-selection, maybe it’s the environment here, but it stood out to me. In my group, only one person focused more on the positives.

Bringing that back to happiness, I think it’s so easy to dwell on past failures or stress about an uncertain future. But when you do that, you forget to appreciate what’s happening right now, whether it’s being at the gym, enjoying time with friends, or just living in the moment. 

Over time, I’ve realized two things. First, it’s impossible to feel good all the time. But for me, happiness is a belief in the future — trusting that, despite the ups and downs, things are trending in the right direction. Second, I have this karma bank theory of life. It’s like traffic at a busy exit; nine times out of 10, I’ll wait my turn. But on that one day when I really need to get somewhere, I might have to cut in. That’s a withdrawal from the karma bank. So, for me, happiness is about two things: keeping a positive karma balance and believing that the future is a plus sign.

If you could put a message on a billboard that reached millions of people, what would it say? 

Goryachev: You’re your harshest critic. That’s something I struggle with a lot — constantly worrying about how polished an idea is before putting it out into the world, overanalyzing every word before I say it.  It’s always a balance. Some people, like me, tend to self-filter too much, while others throw out half-baked ideas, and somehow, people follow them. I’ll hear something and think, “wait, you didn’t even think that through!” But they put it out there anyway, and something comes out of it. So I try to keep this in mind. Sometimes you just have to share your thoughts, even if they’re not perfect.

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.