Leading Like a Startup

Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb on business, politics, and public service.

The Harbus had the chance to sit down with Justin M. Bibb, the current mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, to ask about his perspectives on entering public service from the private sector and his goals for Cleveland. His campaign received national attention after he beat out seven Democratic primary contenders as a first time politician with little name recognition. In January 2025, he also became President of the Democratic Mayors Association.

Before running for office, Mayor Bibb spent 10 years in corporate strategy roles across the private sector and received his JD and MBA from Case Western Reserve University. Having grown up in Cleveland, Mayor Bibb has focused his term on creating safer streets, balancing Cleveland’s budget, and investing in economic development initiatives.

You started your career the way a lot of HBS kids did: working in-house on a strategy team. Was it always your plan to run for office?

Bibb: I kind of had a crazy journey into politics. In high school, I saw a classmate wearing a t-shirt that said “Wes Clark for President.” I’m like, who is Wes Clark, and why is he running for president? I ended up volunteering on his campaign, and even though he didn’t get the nomination (John Kerry did), I just fell in love with organizing and campaigns.

I got a scholarship to study politics in DC at Georgetown before going to college, where I heard Obama’s speech at the 2004 convention. Since then, it was always in the back of my mind that I’d run for office, but I definitely didn’t know I would run for office this early. I had wanted to build a strong business foundation before running, which is why I really spent a bulk of my career in corporate strategy. 

What really changed things for me was COVID. I was working at KeyBank at the time, doing strategy for its investment bank. Then George Floyd got murdered. I saw a groundswell of change happening in Cleveland and cities across the country. And I said to myself, “this is the moment where my city needs new leadership and a bolder vision.” So I quit my job in banking, and the rest is history.

You got an MBA yourself. Now that you’re in office, what do you reflect on as most useful about that education? 

Bibb: I’m really happy that I got an MBA and a JD. I lean more towards the MBA than the JD because I’m not a practicing lawyer. 

My job as Mayor is kind of equivalent to being CEO of a $2 billion enterprise with 8,000 employees. I’m running complex businesses, from our airport to our power utility to the water department to our public safety forces. Having the MBA has allowed me to think strategically and build frameworks to guide issues, whether it’s a public safety crisis, a budget issue, or a hard contract negotiation with a labor union.

As a business school student, your campaign reads like an incredible feat in marketing. You declared your candidacy in January, having never held public office, and then won the primary in September that same year — 8 months later. How did you kind of approach that challenge of building word of mouth recognition?

Bibb: We really ran the campaign like a startup. Before we announced our campaign, we did a “seed” round of fundraising. So from September through December of 2020, we raised almost a quarter of a million dollars. That was our first indicator that, okay, we could run a viable campaign because we have all the resources to do that. 

Historically, in Cleveland, most mayoral candidates didn’t run a professional campaign. They didn’t use technology, data, new media, platforms and tools. So we did all of the above. Even our branding was new and fresh. Our campaign slogan was “Cleveland Can’t Wait.” That really galvanized the city around a shared urgent vision for the future, especially in that moment in the middle of the pandemic.

One of the great things about being a first-time candidate was I didn’t know what to do or what not to do. I learned how to be the candidate and not the campaign manager. Most campaigns fail when the candidate wants to also be the campaign manager.

Cleveland’s bond rating improved for the first time while you’ve been in office, which enables the city to raise more capital and fund all types of projects. How did you achieve this?

Bibb: This was a major goal. My administration when I took office inherited a $61 million deficit. I knew I wanted to use the first few years of my first term to tee up large scale investments in our infrastructure, and we hadn’t had an upgrade to our bond rating in nearly 12 years.

We were really prudent in building a structurally balanced budget. We took some innovative approaches in terms of how we manage labor contracts to lower personnel costs. We began to think differently about how we manage property and other assets that we own, so they’re off our balance sheet. All those things have allowed us to enhance our financial reputation amongst the municipal bond market community. Now we have the largest rainy day fund in our city’s history, so we’re ready to handle any storm that comes our way the next couple years.

Could you speak to Cleveland’s economic growth strategy? What makes you excited about Cleveland’s future right now? 

Bibb: In the early 1900’s, Cleveland was the fifth largest city in the country. Think of Cleveland as America’s first Silicon Valley because the industrial revolution started here. John D. Rockefeller got his start in Cleveland, starting Standard Oil there and becoming the world’s first billionaire. But unfortunately, global economic trends weren’t favorable to our city, from the de-industrialization of the country to white flight and redlining to the mortgage crisis in 2008. 

Over the last several years, I’ve tried to take advantage of what we’re seeing with onshoring and reindustrialization. We’re focused on four key sectors we think we can win: aerospace, advanced manufacturing, food manufacturing and technology. In addition, we take care of the sickest people in the world at the Cleveland Clinic, home to the only quantum computer dedicated to health care. Finally, we also sit in a place in the country where we are very risk averse to climate disasters, which is increasingly important with climate change. 

All of this makes us well positioned to really lead the next chapter of America’s economic growth story. It’s my goal to make Cleveland America’s next “first place” city. Instead of choosing New York or DC or LA or Chicago, I want young people and new talent to look at Cleveland as a primary destination.

You recently were elected President of the Democratic Mayors Association. How do democratic local governments set an example right now in the context of federal politics?

Bibb: While I love my brothers and sisters at every level of government, mayors don’t have the luxury of passing the buck to the next legislative session. Our residents demand results immediately, and no one cares what political party you are in terms of fixing a pothole, picking up the trash, or keeping our city safe.

Local government is most people’s only interaction with the government on a daily basis. The sweet spot for Democratic mayors, but really just mayors in general, is we understand how chaotic federal action impacts our residents because we see it every day. We want to continue to talk about not only the chaos we’re seeing, but [also] the alternative vision — of safer streets, more development — that we are trying to paint and portray as mayors.

How can we get more young people, including HBS students, interested in serving in local government?

Bibb: One of the things that I’m really proud of about my journey is that I didn’t wait to get all the experience, quote, unquote, that I thought I needed to be mayor of my hometown. I just recognized the opportunity to serve and put the talent and experience I had to bear to work.

I think sometimes we get caught up in having all the right professional experiences before trying to make an impact, but it’s your lived experience that matters more than anything. I would encourage students at HBS to really think about how public service can meaningfully change the lives of others. You do not need to be a CEO for 20 years before running for office. You can graduate from Harvard right now and run for mayor, run for council, join the school board, work for a mayor. We need this amazing place of ideas, innovation, and expertise to be embedded in every city hall across the country. 

For students interested in public service, I’d focus on storytelling. Public speaking is important, as is asking the right questions. You need to learn to delegate and manage your time well, too.

If you could put a message on a billboard to reach HBS students, what would it be?

Bibb: Well done is better than well said. In this moment, regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum, we need more doers and less talkers if we want to continue the great promise of the American experiment. 

Allison Schwartz (MBA ’25) is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Computer Science. Prior to HBS, Allison worked as a data scientist in technology companies and political campaigns. She previously worked at Lyft, Modern Treasury and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).