Stanford Technology Ventures Program

Start-ups in China: Is the Government a Friend or a Foe?

2009-02-26T13:01:00.000-08:00

Start-up ventures in industries heavily regulated by the Chinese government—the auto, financial and energy industries, for example—are risky, agreed four panelists at the Stanford Graduate School of Business 2009 Conference on Entrepreneurship.

Marguerite Gong Hancock, associate director of Stanford’s Program on Regions for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, moderated a panel on entrepreneurship in China. As the world’s most populated country, with a vast pool of labor and rising levels of education and disposal income, China is becoming a destination for outsourcing as well as entrepreneurial ventures. Gong, however, asked panelists about the challenges of dealing with the nation’s complex government regulations.

“Try to avoid them,” said David Chao, general partner at DCM, a venture capital firm that specializes in the Asia Pacific region. “Sectors and businesses where you have to interact a lot with the government are not the best ones for entrepreneurs.” Fledgling companies can get stuck in a quagmire of licensing requirements.

“If you can get those licenses, that’s great,” he said, “but for most startups and entrepreneurs, you’re best off avoiding those areas. You’re free to swim, and you don’t have to deal with all the fuss.” Chao cited one counter example, of a pharmaceutical outsourcing company that secured a $5 million grant from the Chinese government. Benefits of working with the Chinese government can include big tax breaks, better locations, and even three to five years of complete tax havens, Chao said.

“But on a net basis, if you’re going to go do something, do a business where you can avoid the government as much as possible. The government has ruined many startup companies for a variety of reasons.”

Kevin Fong, a managing director with GSR Ventures, takes a slightly different approach. “If you can avoid [the government], that’s great, but it’s really hard to avoid them,” he said. The government is particularly active in advertising, Internet and media, the semiconductor and clean tech industries, and in mobile networking. “They are really powerful and it’s hard to maneuver without cooperating with them,” he said.

Fong cited the example of the Chinese equivalent of YouTube, which ran into trouble recently when they posted content the government found offensive. The sites were shut down. “If you want to call that unpredictability, you can,” Fong said. “But I think that was predictable.” In China, the strategy of growing fast and dealing with obstacles as they come doesn’t work well, Fong said. The best things entrepreneurs new to the Chinese business landscape can do is learn how to navigate the system, keep in constant contact with government officials, know the regulations surrounding their industry, and be “on the ground” as much as possible, Fong said.

Dealing with the Chinese government can be especially problematic for business ventures managed by people unfamiliar with Chinese culture and customs. “We have Chinese and Caucasians on our team,” said Frank Wang, founder and vice president of engineering at Azalea Networks, Inc. “They all speak Chinese, but their perspective on life and work is very different…Western people don’t understand how the underbelly of business in China works. It can be lumpy and unpredictable… Sometimes government officials’ interests are not aligned with public interests. They may have personal wants and needs.”

Wang said that he has had both good and bad experiences dealing with the Chinese government. “If we deal with the government, we know things will be slow, but the benefit down the road could be huge,” he said. “The regulatory rules are quite unpredictable, but once you have the right relationship it can be a great advantage. Sometimes you have to do things that grease the wheels.”

Ketaki Gokhale

Stanford University

M.A. Journalism '09

Entrepreneurial leaders share insights on Global Leadership and Talent Equation

2009-02-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

Four Silicon Valley-based global executives joined the “Solving the Global Leadership and Talent Equation" Panel Discussion of the Eweek, sharing insights about the crucial elements of recruiting talents and managing across borders in a global environment.
The event, hosted by Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, took place Monday at Bechtel Conference Center of Encina Hall. The panelists were Eric Benhamou, Chairman and CEO, Benhamou Global Ventures, David Chao, Co-Founder and General Partner of DCM, Michael Zhao, CEO and President, Array Networks. Kyung Yoon, CEO of Talent Age Associates served as the moderator.
The discussion centered on four topics: global recruitment in general; essential traits of global leaders; mistakes and lessons from previous recruitment; challenges of a global career and solutions.

Global Recruitment in General
To address the challenges for global teams, said Eric Benhamou, “you have to be able to create trust, commitment and shared goals even though you may have difficulty in creating shared experiences.”
To find the right person, good interview skills are significant for both interviewers and interviewees, he continued.
His favorite interview technique is to ask interviewees to talk about specific scenarios and their reaction and solutions to them, e.g. “to describe when you were in a truly stressful situation and how you dealt with it”.
“This is very revealing,” said Eric, especially when you are recruiting people in a culture you are not familiar with and you can only rely on your instinct.
Michael Zhao talked about situations he has to face when interviewing people in China.
“In China, people believe if they don’t become a manager before the age of 30, they are a failure,” said Michael.
So every time when there is an opening of management level in the Chinese operation of his company, there will be hundreds of applicants. “But the problem is that most of them don’t realize they don’t have the skills to be a manager,” said Michael. “We have to convince them they are better being an engineer than serving as a manager.”
David Chao quoted Jack Welch that in big companies 2/3 of the people are failure, meaning 1/3 good people is an acceptable ratio. But for start-ups, it is essential to hire the best people in the very beginning, said David.
He also pointed out that the challenges of hiring the best people for start-ups in other countries. “Silicon Valley has this culture of working for start-ups,” he said, “But in other countries talents just want to work for big companies like Samsuny and Lenovo.”
He stressed that the skill he values most in an employee is the process management skill.

Essential Traits of Global Leaders
“In global environment, it is important to emphasize communication skills,” said Eric. “Communication skills refer to not just bridging language difference, but bridging cultural differences. A fast-moving company relies upon rapid and transparent flow of information.”
He thinks that a successful global leader must be able to achieve the transparent flow of information across all the international operations.
Michael also stressed the challenges for global leaders to manage across long distance and different time zones. In this sense, he said, the ability to build trust is highly valued, which means one has to always share information which is supposed to share. “The leaders of our international operations sit thousands of miles away,” he said. “If there is a problem and they don’t speak up, we don’t really know what it is going on.”
David summarized two key traits: passion for hating to lose and flexibility to adapt. He said he appreciated talents who have the ability to always figure out ways to win.
“Also, the market is dynamic. Business models have to change. The leaders need to adjust,” he said

Mistakes and Lessons
Eric cited a mistake he made when choosing the helmsman for a joint venture in China. 3Com, the network equipment company which he invests, built a joint venture in China with Huawei, China’s biggest communication equipment vendor. All the engineers are from Huawei, while the patents are from 3Com.
“This is a very hybrid company,” said Eric. “And we chose a CEO who is on surface a very polished highly global executive, who even speaks a little mandarin.”
But the engineers from Huawei, who are accustomed to the top-down style of Huawei’s founder and CEO, a former general of the Chinese Army, have problem with this CEO’s participative and gentle leadership. His inclusiveness was interpreted as weakness and indecisiveness and gradually the engineers lost respect for the CEO, said Eric. After eight months, Eric replaced this CEO.
Michael gave an example that once he hired a CTO to run his operation in China who is very gifted and a close personal friend to him. “But this just didn’t work out,” he said. “The lesson is a friend is a friend. Don’t overlook their shortcomings.”
David shared his experience when building team for Apple Japan. When he thought about the right person to run Apple in Japan, he thought surely it would be good to get someone who is very experienced in the sector. So he got someone from Toshiba on board. But later it turned out that talents were attracted to work for Apple in Japan because they wanted to run away from Toshiba style, which is very hierarchical.

Challenges of a global career and solutions
“Global leaders usually have to deal with strenuous traveling schedule and continuous hours of work to accommodate the time zones difference,” said the moderator Kyung Yoon. She asked the panelists for advice to strike a balance between career, life and community.
Eric emphasized on the importance of sleep. “When you are sleep-deprived, a lot of bad things happen,” he said.
Michael stressed on efficient planning. “Make sure everything is ready while you are there and you don’t waste time traveling,” he said.
He also said that mental health is just as important as physical health. And his secret to mental health is meditation.
David said that it is impossible to balance everything and people have to recognize that there is some sacrifice that has to be made with an international schedule. He told that with a schedule of traveling internationally for one week out of every five weeks, he wants to continue to do well and spend time with family. “What has been dropped is a lot of friends,” he said. “If I have a normal 9-5 working hours, I will have more time spending on Facebook.”

By Li Lou
Stanford University
M.A. Journalism '09

Social Entrepreneurship

2009-02-23T02:56:00.000-08:00

It is better to learn from others in an economic downturn rather than start from scratch as a social entrepreneur. This was the message for graduate students from Sunday's panel discussion at Wallenberg Hall organized by the Center for Social Innovation, which featured three social entrepreneurs.

Jane Leu, Executive Director and Founder of Upwardly Global, which seeks to integrate immigrant professionals optimally in the US workforce, said that this is a time to "go join something and learn." Leu said that a lot of organizations need people who are entrepreneurial.

Morgan Simon, Executive Director and Cofounder of Responsible Endowments Coalition, said that successfully getting FedEx to add sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy as a 19-year-old was "a pivotal moment for me." The Responsible Endowments Coalition monitors investments made by various universities and colleges.

But she does wish that she had worked under somebody before branching out on her own. "Having an idea and vision is not enough," Simon said. "Managing people is equally important."

She warned against a tendency to focus on the idea, with execution "supposed to happen magically."

Leu said that there is too much supply when it comes to non-profits. She hoped that the economic downturn would lead to a market correction.

Charles Slaughter, Founder and President of LivingGoods, agreed there was inefficiency and said, "There are three organizations I know, within 50 miles, doing the same thing." LivingGoods operates networks that sell essential health prices at affordable prices to the poor.

Raising Funds

In the initial days, Leu said she had sent off a huge bunch of grant proposals, only to get rejects. A journalist friend gave $300 and that, she said, prompted her to "do something and begin talking with immigrants." She wishes now that she had gone to friends and family when she started.

Leu's mantra is, "Don't let funding be the limiting factor."

Leu regards corporations as the "change-makers" and feels that to get further it is necessary to engage with them. She said, "It's easier for me to see my work as a business rather than as an advocacy." According to Lee, 30 per cent of Upwardly Global's funds come from earned income from working with corporate partners.

Slaughter is also keen on models that generate their own revenue, and regards microfinance as a big international success story in the last 20-30 years. He said that the differences in the ways the government, business and social sector operate are increasingly getting blurred, with each borrowing techniques from the other.

Slaughter said that 90 per cent of his organization's funds came from "current or former entrepreneurs." He said they were people "who see the logic of using a business model for social issues." Before moving to social entrepreneurship, Slaughter ran TravelSmith Outfitters, a direct marketer of travel clothing and gear, for 13 years.

Slaughter feels that the method of fundraising should be logically connected to the program. He said, "The most successful organizations were not those with diversified fundraising."

For Simon, the first three years were a struggle, but they did get support from some investment firms. She said support from the various foundations came after that.

Simon said, "It's really been through the relationships that funding has come." She said they still feel connected with the 15 companies who backed them initially.

The social entrepreneurs also said it is worth tapping into venture philanthropy. This comprises of a small group of funders, who will fund at the early stage.

Regina Ridley, Publishing Director of Stanford Social Innovation Review, moderated the discussion.

An exhibition featuring several social entrepreneurship schemes followed the discussion.

Joseph John
Stanford University
M.A. Journalism ‘09

"Bring Your Product to Life" Workshop — 2/21

2009-02-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

It's not easy to bring a new product to life. As a college student himself at the time, Frankenstein may have been able to give life to his spare-parts human monster, but did he think about what it would take to successfully commercialize the monster? What to outsource to manufacturers? The personnel needed? How to conduct helpful team-building exercises? Whether his product would be copied and sold by the Chinese (or other groups who aren't too bothered by intellectual property considerations), only under a new logo (Frunkelstain^TM)? No, he did not.

The "Bring Your Product to Life" Workshop aimed to address all the various challenges, stages and issues involved in really bringing a product to life — getting it off the ground, out of the factory and into the world and consumers' lives.

On this cloudy afternoon, a crowd of around 100 people from various departments, universities and professions squeezed themselves into a room meant for probably half that number in Stanford's School of Earth Sciences building.

"How many people are trying to bring a product right now out into the market?" Logitech Director Performance Projects Spencer Johnson asked.

Half of those in the room raised their hands.

This was a crowd eager to absorb the collective wisdom of the eight panelists, which, in addition to Johnson, included Stanford Consulting Associate Professor Dariush Rafinejad, Schox Patent Law Group Founder Jeffrey Schox, VP of Flextronics Dongkai Shangguan, Senior Product Development Executive Malcolm Smith, Product Realization Network Mentor Richard Toepfer, President and CEO of Protopulsion Phillip Trinidad, and Global Sourcing Specialists Partner Ashton Udall.

While the panelists each had valuable insights to contribute, eight speakers took a lot of time to get through, causing the moderator to cut short the Q&A session, to the disappointment of the audience.

Some highlights from each section of the event follow:

Rapid Protyping
"I've seen people who have taken a napkin sketch, modeled it up [on the computer], printed it out on a 3D printer, sanded it, finished it, painted it, and took it to a trade show, and literally have gotten orders from that straight off of a trade show floor," Philip Trinidad said, speaking about the ease and power of "rapid prototyping" in this day and age.

Going / Working Overseas
"There's a lot of websites out there now you can go on and see the factory, send them off an email and set it up," Ashton Udall said. He cautioned against that, saying that the conventional methods — on-site visits and using personal and professional networks — were still important. "The truth is you don't know if that factory is a room the size of this room with three machines and 10 guys and an office you can't stand all the way up in — and I've seen that. In order to connect with factories that are good, if you can find some network to dip into, I think you're going to get a supplier to suit your needs."

Protecting Intellectual Property
Jeffrey Schox advised entrepreneurs to find a good patent attorney, not only with legal and technical knowledge, but a good "business sense".

He also said that respecting the IP of others was important, regardless of whether one believed in it or not.

"We are all invited to the game of patents, patent litigation and patent infringement," he said.

But unlike a round of Monopoly or Bingo, this is not the sort of an invitation you can refuse.

Contract Manufacturing
"So as an entrepreneur, you come up with a new idea, you go and patent your idea, you build your prototype, you turn it on, and it works, 'hallelujah' right?" Dongkai Shangguan said. "Everyone is excited and rejoices, you go have a beer, and next morning you wake up and all of a sudden you realize you have not made any money yet. How do you make the money?"

Shangguan went on to discuss the important questions each entrepreneur needs to ask when it comes to manufacturing: Do it internally or outsource? What parts to outsource? Go local or offshore? Who do you partner with? When in the process do you outsource? And how do you manage and optimize the relationship and process?

Design Process
Malcolm Smith described the need for all the parties involved in the process of designing, manufacturing and managing the design to understand their respective roles and responsibilities. He also said conflict was an inevitable part of the process.

"What's important is how quickly you resolve those conflicts and how quickly you learn from whatever the problem is, correct the situation, and move back into the manufacturing environment," Smith said.

Sustainability
"The sustainable world is not a world of not doing things a certain way, it's the space of innovation that's the space entrepreneurship focuses on," Dariush Rafinejad said. "You can focus on making the world a little better, or you can focus on making the world a lot better."

Managing Teams
"I guess this is the touchy-feely portion of the panel," joked Richard Toepfer, who spoke about team-building. Toepfer explained that the most common mistakes in team management were poor communication, insufficient resources, and unrealistic goals and schedules.

"Setting measures of expectation is extremely important," Toepfer said. "To me the biggest example of a lack of measures is the war we're in. Everybody talks about victory, no one can define what 'victory' means. You have that same problem in companies."

Bringing Your Product to the Market
Spencer Johnson emphasized the need to build on solid processes in getting your product ready for primetime. Efficiency, sustainability and consistency seemed to be the main themes.

"If you have a 95 percent yield, for every 100 babies born in Stanford Hospital, five of them have been dropped, that's not a good thing," Johnson said, and after a brief pause added, "You were supposed to laugh at that."

At which point, the audience did indeed crack up.

Careers in Product Creation and Manufacturing for New Graduates, 2/19

2009-02-20T15:14:00.000-08:00

Moderated by John Aney, executive director of the Stanford Product Realization Network, this interactive event featured 9 speakers donating advice on how to get involved in manufacturing-related jobs after graduation.

The Product Realization Network is described on their website as:

• A student-centric organization providing an education that is deeply immersive and hands-on
• An educational initiative promoting current product realization processes and business concepts as a successful pathway to innovation
• Founded in product realization practices that integrate design, manufacturing and business, and informed by mathematics and environmental, physical and social sciences
• Supported by a community fused from academic, professional and industrial groups motivated by the educational enterprise

In spite of the recession, the tone of the evening was optimistic. Aney's opening remarks stressed the many opportunities available to Stanford grads. "Manufacturing in the US is not dead," Aney said. "Manufacturing in California is not dead. Manufacturing in Silicon Valley is not dead. It is changing."

This sentiment was repeated by all of the guests at some point in the evening. Cheryl E. Duke, a test engineer at Raytheon told the 45 attendees that "you are the people that come in and give us bright ideas."

"Never before in our history are we counting on new hires so much for innovation," said John Jacobson, a senior director at Cisco.

Beverly Principal, who works for the career development center on campus, said that there are still 2-300 jobs posted on the website every week. "Employees are hiring," she said. "They may not have hundreds of jobs, but they're filling jobs."

Aside from the general encouragement, the assembled guests, including two engineers from Speck Design, an entrepreneur with Nokia Growth Partners, and employees from Apple, Cisco, Genentech and B.MINIMA, waxed lyrical about their love of engineering and manufacturing.

"There's nothing greater than seeing a product you created actually make someone's life better," said Shigeru Tanaka, who designs and manufacturers medical products for Speck Design.

Questions from those assembled ranged widely, from the practical (Should I join a large company or a small company?) to the whimsical (How can I integrate virtual reality technologies into my designs?). Invariably, two or three of the guests would jump to respond, and the students seemed more than satisfied with the answers.

"I've been telling myself I'd come to a PRN event for a long time," said Ana Peña, a senior in the mechanical engineering program. "I just figured I was going to do it tonight."

"And when you heard there was going to be free dinner?" asked a nearby professor.

"Well then I figured I had to!"

President Hennessy Opens E-week, Stresses Innovation

2009-02-18T23:35:00.000-08:00

President Hennessy kicked off E-week with a short, inspirational speech on entrepreneurial leadership followed by an open Q&A session.

"The biggest challenge," Hennessy said, "is how to nurture and grow innovation... It is the challenge that all small companies face, it is the challenge that all universities face, it is the challenge that big companies face," he said.

Hennessy explained the importance of nurturing innovation in the context of the University.

"The heart and soul of this institution is its entrepreneurial way of thinking. We are pioneers," he said.

He referred to great Stanford entrepreneurs Larry Page, Sergey Brin, William Hewlett, David Packard, David Filo and Jerry Yang.

He characterized successful entrepreneurs as optimists about what they are working on.

"That characteristic comes from young people who are willing to go down the path, unaware of the fact that other people might have already gone down that path, and find new opportunities," he said.

For the second half of the hour-long event, Hennessy fielded questions from audience members. Questions ranged from what to look for in a venture capital firm, advice on starting a job vs. starting a company, entrepreneurship in developing countries, how the bailout has affected entrepreneurship, and advice on starting a new university.

"First, find billions of dollars," he said with a laugh, and "draw from the best talent from all over the world."

Julie, a Stanford CS Alumnus and current GSB student asked Hennessy what Stanford is doing to, "create cross department synergies... in order to create long lasting relationships and truly innovate."

The question elicited a "Here here!" cheer from a crown member in agreement.

"In the end what we want to do is to get people to work together," Hennessy said.

He mentioned joint degree programs, joint-teaching opportunities, classes on entrepreneurship, and joint research programs as ways to bridge segregated departments within the University.

Hennessy referred to this same point at the end of his speech.

The solutions to world problems, "do not require just one innovation, but many along the way... It requires people to cross disciplinary boundaries and it requires the University to encourage that kind of behavior," he said.

Katherine O. Lampe

Stanford University

M.A. Journalism '09

B.A. International Relations '09

Come tomorrow, Feb 18, 2009! Entrepreneurship Week Launch Event with John Hennessy

2009-02-17T16:03:00.000-08:00

Be sure to come to the big launch event tomorrow, Feb 18, 2009! Join us for a thought-provoking, inspirational talk about entrepreneurial leadership by Stanford President, John Hennessy. His insights come from leading Stanford University, as well as his prior experiences as a successful entrepreneur and his current role as a board member for several high-technology ventures, including Google, Cisco Systems, and Atheros Communications.

As part of the festivities, we will launch Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford and give out audience prizes. We have some amazing things to give away, so be sure to come. You must be present to win!!

Here are the details:

Date:
Wednesday, February 18

Time:
4:30-6:00 PM

Location:
Kresge Auditorium (Map, Parking Info)

Registration:
None

Cost:
Free

Join Us for Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford, Feb 18-25

2009-01-05T15:14:00.000-08:00

Mark your calendar and plan to attend the third annual Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford University, February 18-25, 2009. Everyone is invited!

Enjoy a variety of events throughout the week, including prestigious speakers, panel discussions, workshops, mixers, VC/student "speed dating,” a start-up job fair and more.

Most events are free and open to the public. Visit http://eweek.stanford.edu for the full schedule and event details.

Entrepreneurship Week is hosted by the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN), a federation of entrepreneurship-related organizations across Stanford University. SEN programs, including Entrepreneurship Week, are proudly sponsored by Deloitte.

Winter 2008 Lineup for Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series

2009-01-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

Announcing the Winter 2008 Lineup for the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series. You can get more info at the course website. You can access free podcasts and video clips after the lectures by visiting the Entrepreneurship Corner website.

Lectures are free and open to the public.

January 14
Hugh Martin
Chairman and CEO - Pacific Biosciences

January 21
Soujanya Bhumkar, Josh Schwarzapel, Austin Shoemaker
Founders, Cooliris

January 28
Teresa Briggs
Managing Partner - Deloitte, Silicon Valley

February 4
Spencer Ante
Computer Department - Business Week
Author - Creative Capital

February 11
Tom Siebel
Chairman - First Virtual Group
Founder - Siebel Systems

****Entrepreneurship Week Kickoff Event ****
February 18
John Hennessy
President - Stanford University

****Entrepreneurship Week Finale ****
February 25
"The Next Big Thing" with Tim Draper (Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Tony Perkins (Founder - Always On), Michael Moe (Analyst and Author of Finding the Next Starbucks: How to Identify and Invest in the Hot Stocks of Tomorrow)

March 4
Elizabeth Holmes
Founder and CEO - Theranos Inc.

Announcing the Global Innovation Tournament Winners!!

2008-12-17T18:41:00.000-08:00

In support of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which took place in November, STVP organized the Global Innovation Tournament. Students around the world had just four days to create as much value as possible from…water bottles…and convey their results in a short YouTube video.

Winning entries included useful and potentially marketable gadgets, eco-awareness campaigns, an algae bioreactor, art sculptures with a message, and Monty Python-style parodies. Go here for a complete list of global and Stanford winners, including links to their videos. More than 1,200 students from over 50 institutions in more than a dozen countries participated. The Global Innovation Tournament is a fast and furious "Apprentice-style" competition that encourages students to work in teams, challenge assumptions, seize opportunities, and be creative. Most of all, it gives them a taste of what it’s like to be entrepreneurial by creating value from basically nothing (in this case, an object that usually winds up in the garbage), while working with constraints, such as limited time and resources.

Kathy Eisenhardt Named Most Influential Management Researcher for Last Quarter Century

2008-11-18T20:33:00.000-08:00

We're pleased to announce that, in a study of scholarly influence published in the Journal of Management, STVP Faculty Co-Director, Kathleen Eisenhardt, was named as the most-cited management research author over the last 25 years.

Earlier this year, she was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg, Sweden. The degree is awarded in recognition of a particularly eminent and substantial professional achievement linked to areas of competence at Chalmers.

She was also a participant in the Nobel Symposium on Organization Theory.

Fall 2008 Lineup for Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series

2008-10-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Announcing Fall 2008 Lineup for Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series

Go here for the Fall lineup of our Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series. (If the quarter is over by the time you're reading this, it will point to the archives, so just scroll down to find what you want.) After the talks, you can access full podcasts of these lectures and video clips of selected segments at our Entrepreneurship Corner website.

If you live in the area or are visiting, note that these lectures are open to the public. Get details and updates at the course website: ETL.

Global Entrepreneurship Week, Nov 17-23

2008-09-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Be sure to get involved with Global Entrepreneurship Week. All you have to do is host one event during that week to be considered a "host."

Students: Consider participating in Stanford's Global Innovation Tournament through your local hosts. You can get more info and sign up through the global site above.

Sept 5-6, 2008: West Coast Research Symposium on Technology Entrepreneurship

2008-08-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

The 2008 West Coast Research Symposium on Technology Entrepreneurship is being sponsored this year by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (University of Washington), Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (USC), and Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship (University of Oregon). The theme is "Technology Entrepreneurship: New Ventures and Established Corporations." It will be held September 5-6 on the Stanford campus.

Big News! We've Renamed and Relaunched Our Podcast and Video Site!

2008-07-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

Millions of you have used our Educators Corner site over the last few years. Originally designed as a teaching resource for educators, it has become wildly popular among entrepreneurs and others around the world. We've substantially upgraded and redesigned the site and are relaunching it as Entrepreneurship Corner. Check it out! The new URL is http://ecorner.stanford.edu.

Stanford Summit, July 22-24

2008-06-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

Join us in person or for the live broadcast of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford: July 22-24, 2008 on campus at Stanford. View the program here.

If you are reading this after the fact, go here to access the archives and watch entire sessions.

REE Asia Coming to Sydney in June

2008-06-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is proud to host four annual international conferences for entrepreneurship educators. These conferences are called Roundtables on Entrepreneurship Education (REE). They are designed to stimulate communication and collaboration between business, science, and engineering faculty who teach high-technology entrepreneurship in universities around the world. This year REE Asia is co-hosted by MGSM Macquarie University's Graduate School of Management in Sydney, Australia. Come join us, June 18-20. You can get info prior to June at http://ree.stanford.edu. After June, go here for conference materials and archives.

The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making

2008-05-05T16:56:00.000-07:00

This is a very interesting talk. Listen to the podcast or view short video clips on our Educators Corner website. David Rothkopf, CEO of Garten Rothkopf and author of Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making, mulls over the research in his latest social macroeconomic book. He walks through a wealth of trends and statistics on the ever-broadening gap between rich and poor, and how true global influence is the product of a shockingly small handful of global players.

2008-04-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Announcing Spring 2008 Lineup for Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series

Go here for the Spring lineup of our Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture Series. (If the quarter is over by the time you're reading this, it will point to the archives, so just scroll down to find what you want.) After the talks, you can access full podcasts of these lectures and video clips of selected segments at our Educators Corner website.

If you live in the area or are visiting, note that these lectures are open to the public. Get details and updates at the course website: ETL.

May I Have Your Attention Please?

2008-03-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

E-Week panel discusses media attention, the CEO profile, and why the product is most important

The business of business journalism has been described as a three-legged stool: a platform created by journalists, business insiders and public relations professionals.

On Tuesday February 26, Stanford Journalism Professor Ann Grimes joined members of all three groups for an E-Week panel discussion about what entrepreneur need to know endeavors how to get -- and when to avoid -- media coverage.

"Our guests approach [the media process] from different angles," Grimes said. "That's an important dynamic for you moguls in the making to understand as you embark on launching your new ventures."

The panel was featured journalist Quentin Hardy, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief of Forbes Magazine, analyst Charlene Li, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research, and PR agent Margit Wennmachers, co-founder of OutCast Communications.

"The company you work for has a character is the world, it has a narrative.

The group touched on a variety of topics, and discussed how companies can manage their public image. Using local start-ups like Facebook and Google, they talked about how to get the media spotlight and what to do when it gets too hot.

"The company you start or work for has a kind of character in the world," Hardy told the audience in Bishop Auditorium. "The CEO often embodies the character of the company."

"I'm sorry about that," he joked.

As an example of the CEO profile, the group discussed a recent 60 minutes piece on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Panelists Li and Wennmachers were both involved in the project -- with the former appearing in front of the camera and the latter working behind it.

They talked about how the process is a dynamic one, with interests and input varying among participants.

"Months earlier, 60 minutes wouldn't have made any sense," Wennmachers said. "Who's watching 60 minutes? That's where there's growth happening -- that wasn't true six months or a year before."

The panelists stressed that while communication skills are important for pitching a product to consumers, having a good product worth consuming is still the bottom line.

"It's really hard -- without any case studies and any customers -- to say why we need to pay attention to you," said Li.

Although it was evident that the panelists shared differing perspectives about business media and entrepreneurship coverage, they were collegial about any discrepancies.

"There's a famous love-hate relationship," Wennmachers said. "But there's codependency."

Rubber bands, relativity, and real lessons for entrepreneurs

2008-02-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

In a week of events buzzing with entrepreneurial spirit, we've seen solutions to obesity, heard tips on handling media attention, and learned about social ventures. Those attending the closing ceremonies for E-Week tonight saw the creativity of their fellow students in a model of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, a new way to raise money for breast cancer research, and...ShoeBands, "the latest in footwear adhesion."

These ideas (and many more) came in for this year's Innovation Tournament. The challenge: create as much value as possible using rubber bands.

Yes, rubber bands.

Big-time venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and technology writers judged the contest, and so students from around the world took it as an opportunity to show off their chops as entrepreneurs—and have fun at the same time. Take this example from a group with an idea for raising awareness about locally-grown food by tracking produce online:

Another group decided to create a "wishing tree" on the Stanford campus. Able to take from the flop profound lessons about success, the team earned the distinction of Biggest Failure—as well as a promise to have their video shown in business classes for years to come. "Like true entrepreneurs," they said, "we resorted to seeding the tree ourselves."

You can find more than a hundred video entries from the tournament on YouTube. Check Guy Kawasaki's blog for his take on the most innovative idea.

Beyond Borders: Global Entrepreneurship

2008-02-29T00:53:00.000-08:00

Launching a startup is a challenge in itself. First you have to find the right players for the team, outline the perfect business model, then tackle the challenge of acquiring capital for your emerging business. Yet taking a startup global is an entirely different--if not infinitely more difficult--endeavor.

Today's panel included three seasoned entrepreneurs--all Silicon Valley natives--who successfully created a startup and took it international. Panelists Will Chen, Dr. Robert Lee, and Gadi Maier each shared tales of their startups' beginnings, hard times, and what they encountered when they took the leap to go global.

Fresh off a flight from China, Chen kicked off the discussion by describing the day-to-day life of an entrepreneur. He showed a picture of a man standing off the edge of a cliff and compared it to his experience as a young entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.

"You look out over the cliff, and it's exhilarating. It looks like a lot of fun. But sometimes you want to jump off," Chen said with a laugh.

Chen knows this experience firsthand. He founded Billpoint, Inc., which pioneered person-to-person payments, and grew his small startup from three people to 70 employees. Ebay later acquired the startup. Now, Chen is the CEO and founder of Accelergy Corporation, a R&D technology company that operates in both the US and China.

China has a very different business structure than Silicon Valley, according to Chen. Silicon Valley proudly boasts success stories of "two men in a garage" who later grew their businesses into worldwide companies. Yet in China, the story begins with 50 men who live together in a house. Though the set up is different, the goal is similar: everyone is working together to dream up the next big thing.

China is extremely innovative, competitive and fast-paced, Chen said. To navigate in this foreign marketplace, novice global entrepreneurs must have an understanding of another region's local markets and dedicate enough time for face-to-face communication with international employees.

Dr. Robert Lee found a way for his startup to address this communication challenge. Lee, who is the CEO and Chairman of Achievo Corporation, set up six satellite centers in China to work in conjunction with the company's headquarters in San Ramon, California."We want to be very close to our customers so that we're very local wherever we operate," Lee said.

Achievo is a government automation software company that serves global clients. The majority of its revenue--56 percent--comes from Japan. Meanwhile, 22 percent is from North America, 17 percent is from Europe, and 5 percent is from China.

Similar to Achievo's clientele, its employees are also spread out across the globe. 73 percent are from China and 16 percent are from North America, with other employees located in Germany, Canada, and the US."We are the living example of a flat world, if you will, in terms of our business model," Lee said.

Yet Gaudi Maier, CEO and President of Israel-based FraudSciences Corporation, also noted that experience is a crucial key to fostering a successful startup. Although a young group of team members bring a lot of energy to the table, nothing can replace the experience one spends in the corporate world.

"Getting a perspective of how a major corporation thinks is extremely invaluable," said Maier. "Having worked inside those companies, you have a little bit of an inside view into what's going to happen [in the future.]"

Lee agreed, but added that having past immersion in global markets is one of the most invaluable tools for a startup that is planning to expand internationally.

"The only way is to be there [abroad], suck it all in," said Lee. He later added, "One challenge [Americans] have culturally is that we think we have a god-given right to be at the top of the food chain. That is a very dangerous assumption."

So what's an emerging entrepreneur to do during this chaotic economic period in the US, when the threat of a recession is looming just around the corner?

Fear not, the three panelists answered. Venture capitalists are particularly keen to find the next big startup during sluggish economic periods--but their expectations will more stringent.

"In slow times, the bar does get higher," Chen said. "You have to look at different regions and see what works best."

China is currently an attractive option for startups, according to Chen.

Startups must be ready to answer fundamental business questions to pass the altered standards of venture capital firms.

"Why should someone give you $1000? You have to tell your story," said Chen. "It's about your idea, it's about your team, it's about your market. Can you change something? Don't let venture guys tell you it's not a good idea unless you really believe it."

And although each panelist has come out on top, they've experienced their own share of failures also. It's all a part of the entrepreneurship game, the three admitted.

"Knowing how to fail and pick yourself up is one of the unique strengths we have in this Valley," Lee said. "Sometimes you gotta look at it and laugh at yourself, and consider it part of your human experience."

It's Your Turn to Tackle Obesity

2008-02-26T03:14:00.001-08:00

Today's "Innovating for Health" panel on Pediatric Obesity was quite the eye-opener. Dr. Thomas Krummel, a surgeon at Stanford Hospital, moderated a discussion among a diverse panel of experts and then solicited ideas from a crowd of Stanford entrepreneurs. The panel tackled childhood obesity from medical, venture capital, entrepreneurial and behavioral angles and by all accounts, the disease is a growing problem (no pun intended) and the situation looks bleak.

According to one panel expert, Dr. Thomas Robinson, a Professor of Pediatrics at the Med School, 20% of today's children are obese and 1 out of every 3 children born today will have obesity-related diabetes at some point in their lifetime. That risk is even higher for African-American girls and Hispanic boys. Of those segments, 1 of every 2 children born today will get diabetes.

And the price tag for pediatric obesity related illnesses? A staggering $98 to $129 billion in annual health care costs. To many in the audience, that was a big Debbie Downer, but to other panelists, that's called opportunity.

Dana Mead, a panelist and life sciences venture capitalist at Kleiner Perkins, said there are currently about 50 companies addressing obesity, but the realities of the illness simply make it an unattractive investment for venture capitalists.

For one, investors acknowledge there is no panacea for obesity. Nobody believes one medical solution will work for all patients. Secondly, Mead said that the reality of the market is that only 10% of health care dollars currently go to preventative medicine. The combination of these two factors is one big red flag for Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

The entrepreneurial landscape didn't look much more obesity-friendly. Tom Fogarty, the renowned cardiovascular surgeon, inventor, entrepreneur and vintner, says today's entrepreneurs are not prepared to devote the kind of persistent innovation necessary to tackle childhood obesity.

Direct quote: "Today's entrepreneurs are like flies on horse s---. They jump around from one challenge to another. That does not lead to innovation."

Current medical approaches to childhood obesity are few. Dr. Craig Albanese, a pediatric surgeon and panelist, says that "Gastric bypass is the current gold standard. But it's a tool, not a cure." Albanese told the audience of entrepreneurs he believed the ideal surgical procedure for childhood obesity would be one that is reversible, done early enough to affect behavior, one that doesn't affect growth or development, is minimally invasive and can be coupled with a (what is now a non-existent) pharmaceutical remedy. In short, a medical miracle.

Finally Kristin Richmond, Founder and CEO of Revolution Foods, and Pat Christen, President and CEO of HopeLabs, spoke to some of the efforts to tackle childhood obesity from a behavioral standpoint. Richmond's company has partnered with Whole Foods and Clover (among others) to bring healthy meals to over 40 schools and 75 after-school programs in the Bay Area and Los Angeles. By Richmond's estimate, Revolution Foods, is reaching 10,000 students, 75% of which belong to low-income households and making a daily positive impact.

Christen spoke to HopeLab's first initiative to address obesity, called Ruckus Nation- a worldwide competition to generate product ideas to get kids more physically active. A staggering 400 teams from 37 countries have participated in the competition and winners will be announced March 17th, at an event in San Francisco.

For e-week, the panel is asking Stanford students and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to submit an idea that will help reduce pediatric obesity. If you have an idea, submit it by 1 pm on Friday, February 29th, to biodesign@stanford.edu.

Winners will be announced at the eWeek Innovation Tournament, from 5:00- 6:30 pm at Arrillaga Alumni Center (McCaw Hall).

Your Friends May Be Movie Stars!

2008-02-22T11:25:00.000-08:00

Entrepreneurship Week starts in just a couple of hours. Definitely plan to come see the movie -- you may be in it! You may see friends in it! It's all part of our big Kickoff event at 4:00 today in Memorial Auditorium. Get there early for good seats and prizes.

Here's a preview on the Stanford University home page. It should be up there for at least the week: http://stanford.edu

I've seen the movie -- it's GREAT! You'll laugh hard, you may get choked up here and there, and you'll definitely come away inspired.

Guy Kawasaki on Entrepreneurship Week

2008-02-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here's what Guy Kawasaki has to say about Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford.

Robert Scoble Has Joined Judging Panel

2008-02-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

Innovation Tournament participants: Robert Scoble has joined our judging panel, so get ready. Robert is a highly respected technical evangelist, blogger (Scobleizer), and co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers.

Scroll down for a previous post listing our other judges. What a panel!!

Amazing Prizes for Innovation Tournament

2008-02-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

WOW!! I wish I could compete! This collection of prizes for the Innovation Tournament during Entrepreneurship Week, Feb 22-29, is just incredible.

Stanford students are eligible to win experiential prizes such as:

Handmade guitar plus an afternoon with Deloitte's Financial Advisory Services Partner

A day of sailing on the San Francisco Bay on a 36' yacht provided and skippered by Club Nautique

Box seats to Sharks game - Donated by Deloitte

Dinner party at Teresa Briggs' home with Deloitte Silicon Valley Leadership (she is the Managing Partner of Deloitte's Silicon Valley practice)

Meet Deloitte's Global leaders, hear Al Gore speak in person, and enjoy cocktails and dinner at Deloitte's World Meeting at Stanford University

Lunch and Deathball at Tim Draper's House

Dinner at Google with Kevin Systrom (Google Analytics)

The renowned Guy Kawasaki will blog about the most innovative submission

Become a VC for a Day with Highland Capital Partner

Shadow an ER Doctor, who is also a VC

Have lunch with Orbit Baby Founders (also Stanford alums)

Prestigious Judging Panel for Innovation Tournament

2008-02-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

The Innovation Tournament is all in good fun, but that hasn't stopped us from gathering a pretty tough crowd to judge the entries. Judges include:

Jeff Hawkins - Founder Palm/Handspring/Numenta

Lee Gomes - Technology Writer, Wall Street Journal

Vance Vanier - MD and VC – Mohr Davidow Ventures

Fern Mandelbaum – VC, Monitor Ventures

Elizabeth McCleneghan – VC, Menlo Ventures

Kevin Systrom - Google

Michael Dearing - former SVP & General Merchandise Manager for eBay

Teresa Briggs, Managing Partner, Silicon Valley, Deloitte

Peggy Burke - CEO/Founder 1185 Design

Evan Tana – Loopt co-founder – first mobile social mapping service on a major US carrier; recent deal with CBS

Want to Find Out What It's Like to Be in a Start-Up?

2008-02-08T14:23:00.000-08:00

If you want to get a taste of what it's like to be part of a start-up, sign up for the Innovation Tournament, an Apprentice-style student competition. Teams will be given an everyday object and challenged to create as much value as possible in five days. Last year it was Post-It Notes. What will it be this year? The mystery item will be revealed on Friday, Feb 22, at the kickoff event for Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford.

Hint to Stanford students: You'll get a slight advantage over other teams by attending the kickoff event. Get details here.

How Do Those Start-Ups Get Such Amazing Press?

2008-02-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

Calling all marketing and PR people: If you have clients, VCs, board members, and founders/CEOs who think it's a snap to get incredible media coverage and wonder why it's taking you so long, send them to this event. You've tried to tell them what it takes. Let them hear it firsthand from current/former writers for the Wall Street Journal and Forbes, a Forrester analyst, and a seasoned PR exec. This event is part of Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford. For those of you outside the area, we're hoping to also podcast it on the STVP Educators Corner website afterward.

Be Careful What You Wish For: Getting Media Attention for Your Company

Tuesday, February 26th, 7:15-8:30 PM, at the Stanford Graduate School of Business

Get details on the Entrepreneurship Week website.

Add to Calendar: ical/vcal

Moderator:
Stanford Journalism Professor Ann Grimes, a former staff writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal where she covered technology and business. As deputy bureau chief in San Francisco, she oversaw the newspaper's coverage of Silicon Valley during the 1990's dot-com boom and bust.

Panelists:

Quentin Hardy is the Silicon Valley Bureau Chief of Forbes Magazine and is a regular on "Forbes on Fox," a weekly show on the Fox Cable News Network.
Coming off a recent "60 Minutes" appearance where she discussed Facebook, Charlene Li is vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research. Last month, she debated the pros and cons of Facebook's management team with Leslie Stahl on CBS's "60 Minutes."
Margit Wennmachers is co-founder of OutCast Communications, a leading public relations agency for the technology industry. OutCast's clients include dozens of hot start-ups in addition to well-known companies like Facebook, Yahoo, Mozilla and Salesforce.com

How to Build a Successful Company

2008-01-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

Serial entrepreneur Mitch Kapor speaks about the fundamental principles of building successful companies by drawing on his experience as creator of Lotus 1-2-3, Chairman of Second Life, Founder of Foxmarks and a wealth of technical and social entrepreneurship knowledge. This is a guy who's been around the block a few times, so definitely listen to what he has to say.

Here's the 55 minute podcast. You can also view video clips at the STVP Educators Corner website.

Mark Your Calendar: Social Ventures Session During Entrepreneurship Week

2008-01-18T15:23:00.000-08:00

During Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford, there's going to be a really interesting panel discussion on how to get your social venture funded. It happens on Sunday, Feb 24, as part of Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford. Get the details at http://eweek.stanford.edu.

Kriss Deiglmeier, Executive Director of the Center for Social Innovation, Stanford Graduate School of Business, will moderate.

Panelists include two leading funders of social entrepreneurs and two of their grantees:

Jenny Shilling Stein, Executive Director of the Draper Richards Foundation
Jessica Jackley Flannery, Co-Founder and Director of Business Development of Kiva.org
Amy Clark, Ashoka, Global Fellows Program Leader
Suzanne McKechnie Klahr, Ashoka Fellow and Founder of BUILD

The event is open to all, with no registration required although you should plan to arrive early. I suspect it's going to be standing room only.

DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series Winter Lineup

2008-01-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here is the lineup for the winter quarter of the Draper Fisher Jurvetson Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders lecture series. Podcasts will be available for download on the STVP Educators Corner website immediately following the lecture. Video clips are usually available on the site within a few weeks.

1/16

Mitch Kapor, Founder, Foxmarks and Lotus Software

1/23

Ron Conway, Founder, Angel Investors LP

Mike Maples, Founder, Maples Investments

1/30

Jesse Fink, Co-Founder, MissionPoint Capital Partners and Priceline

Steve Blank, Stanford Professor and Serial Entrepreneur

2/6

Christine Benninger, President, Humane Society Silicon Valley

2/13

Brett Crosby, Group PMM, Google Analytics

2/20

Mir Imran, Chairman of the Board, InCube Labs

2/27

Debra Dunn, Former HP Senior Vice President of Coprorate Affairs

Jay Cohen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan, and Andrew Kassoy, Founders, B Corporation

3/5

Ken Wilcox, CEO, Silicon Valley Bank Financial Group

Check Out the New Entrepreneurship Week Website

2008-01-10T13:43:00.000-08:00

We recently rolled out a new website for Entrepreneurship Week with major enhancements and content updates to the last version you may have seen before the holidays. Please check it out to learn about the overall schedule, details on each event, and information about the exciting Innovation Tournament. http://eweek.stanford.edu

We will continue to make updates and will soon add speaker information, so check back regularly.

How to Become a Coach in "Coaches on Call" Program

2008-01-07T13:38:00.000-08:00

We primarily sign up coaches on an invitation basis, but we do encourage people to nominate themselves or others for consideration. If you think you are interested and don't currently have a relationship with STVP, you can learn more here and then contact Christina Harvett. Please email her your area of expertise, professional bio, and links to your company website and any other online resources that might help us learn more about you.

Stanford "Coaches On Call" - Winter Lineup

2008-01-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

In case you weren't already aware, the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN) offers a "Coaches On Call" business mentoring program for all Stanford students. Here is a brief overview of the program, how to sign up, and the winter quarter lineup.

Coaches On Call is a mentoring program for any students at any school within Stanford. Seasoned professionals hold “office hours" and meet with students one-on-one to offer advice on specific issues related to business plans, intellectual property issues or anything else you want to discuss with the coach. We provide coaches in a variety of specialty areas. The only real rule is that you can't ask for a job -- that's not what they're here for.

Sign-up Procedure for Students

Go here to see a list of coaches and their available time slots. Also prepare a short write-up as to why you want to see the coach. Email the time slot request and write-up to to Christina Harvett, who manages the sign-ups and scheduling.

Winter Lineup

We would like to gratefully acknowledge Deloitte for its generous sponsorship of the "Coaches on Call" program, as well as all other SEN activities.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

2007-12-22T13:17:00.000-08:00

All of us at STVP wish everyone a very joyous holiday season.

Thank You, Deloitte!

2007-12-20T13:14:00.000-08:00

The Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN), of which STVP is a founding member, would like to offer its most heartfelt thanks to Deloitte for its generous sponsorship, including the funds that make Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford possible.

Seeking Companies for Entrepreneurship Week

2007-12-17T13:09:00.000-08:00

We are deep into planning for Entrepreneurship Week and are seeking some company involvement. If your company is interested in getting in front of Stanford students and the broader entrepreneurship community, here are some ways to participate:

Donate audience prizes (giveaway items with or without your company logo)
Donate small giveaway items for audience goody bags to be given at the Launch event (movie premiere)
Donate prizes for the Innovation Tournament winners
Venture capitalists: Sign up for the VC/Student "speed dating" to hear business pitches and provide feedback
Start-Ups: Have a recruiting booth at the "Start-Up 101" Job Fair
Join the SEN mailing list to become part of the Stanford entrepreneurship community (send request to charvett@stanford.edu)
Plan to attend any or all of the events, including presentations, mixers, and receptions
Schools and universities: Conduct a local version of the Innovation Tournament; contact us for information.

To learn more, visit the website at http://eweek.stanford.edu or contact Christina Harvett at charvett@stanford.edu.

Entrepreneurship Week at a Glance

2007-12-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

We are conducting Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford to ignite awareness throughout the entire Stanford community about the importance of being entrepreneurial - whether that means starting a new business, developing an innovation for an existing company or solving a societal problem. To that end, we have planned a series of events to engage people in various dimensions of entrepreneurship. Each day will feature a different theme, such as Social Innovation, Technology, International, and others. Events will include presentations by prestigious speakers; roundtable discussions; a mixer for venture capitalists (VCs), students and entrepreneurs; VC/student "speed dating," allowing students to pitch their ideas; and a start-up job fair.

We will also host the Innovation Tournament, an "Apprentice-style" competition that will be open to student teams around the world. On Friday, February 22, be sure to attend the big Launch event and world movie premiere of ImagineIt!, a documentary featuring numerous students competing in last year’s Innovation Tournament.

Save the Date! Entrepreneurship Week 2008 at Stanford

2007-12-12T12:59:00.000-08:00

Mark your calendar! The Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN) is co-hosting the second annual Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford University during the week February 22-29, 2008. (http://eweek.stanford.edu) Anyone is invited -- students, alumni, members of the greater Stanford community and the general public. Last year’s event was a tremendous success, and we plan to make this year even better. Stay tuned for more information over the coming weeks.

The Art of Fundraising (Part 2)

2007-12-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

In this clip, Professor Eisenhardt stresses the importance of researching regional VCs and understanding the true motives behind their interests. These insights are based on in-depth scholarly research led personally by her.

The Art of Fundraising (Part 1)

2007-12-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

Kathleen Eisenhardt, Ascherman Professor and Co-Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program

As many already know, Professor Eisenhardt leads the field in entrepreneurial strategy and management research. In this brief video clip, she describes the key elements associated with successful fundraising for start-ups. She discusses the importance of asking for the correct amount of money at the right time from the appropriate people.

New Educators Corner feature: Embed videos on your webpage

2007-11-29T09:12:00.001-08:00

We just added a new feature to the STVP Educators Corner that allows users to embed a video on their own webpage. I've included an example below of Guy Kawasaki.

Marketing a Start-Up

2007-11-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

Donna Novitsky, CEO, Big Tent Design - 2 min. 49 sec.

Our very dear friend, supporter and colleague (as an adjunct professor), Donna Novitsky, talks in this brief video clip about developing a marketing strategy for a start-up. She addresses key issues about segmenting customer priorities and their pain-points; and building a competitive strategy. Novitsky notes that customers are the biggest marketers for an organization. She also illustrates from her personal experience about partnering with other players to generate mutual benefits.

To hear her full talk, "From Venture Capitalist to Entrepreneur," get the podcast at this location on the STVP Educators Corner website.

New Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Podcasts Now Available

2007-11-15T20:53:00.001-08:00

Below is the lineup of speakers for our Fall quarter of the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders lecture series. Free podcasts and video clips of the following lectures are available on the STVP Educators Corner website:

From Venture Capitalist to Entrepreneur, Donna Novitsky, Big Tent

Lessons from the Electric Roadster, Martin Eberhard, Tesla Motors

Startups: The Need for Speed, Dominic Orr, Aruba Networks

The Art of Negotiation, Stan Christensen, Arbor Advisors

The Growth of Solar Ventures, Larry Bawden, Jadoo Power

Connecting Common Experiences, Armen Berjikly and Julio Vasconcellos, Experience Project

Delivering a Digital Torrent, Ashwin Navin, BitTorrent and Ping Li, Accel

STVP Professor Kathy Eisenhardt Receives Awards

2007-11-14T20:50:00.000-08:00

STVP Professor Kathy Eisenhardt has received two prestigious career awards.

Along with former STVP PhD student, Associate Professor Jeff Martin of University of Texas, Austin, she was awarded the Schendel Paper Prize, 2007, for the paper: "Dynamic Capabilities: What are They?” This annual award, sponsored by the strategic management society and Wiley-Blackwell, recognizes the paper published at least 5 years ago that has had the highest and most enduring impact on the field of strategy.

She has been elected as an inaugural fellow of the Strategic Management Society, 2007, the premier honorary society in the strategy field.

And she and her work were recently featured in Valley Life Quarterly magazine.

Stanford & MIT Research Results: Xbox, iPod, RAZR Development Shows Benefits of Taking Turns

2007-11-13T14:00:00.000-08:00

Excerpted from Network World article, Nov 7, 2007

Apple, Google, Motorola and others stand to deliver more successful products the more they are willing to cede total control to development partners -- at least temporarily, according to new MIT and Stanford University research.

The researchers -- Jason Davis of MIT's Sloan School of Management and Kathleen Eisenhardt of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program -- say the process of "rotating leadership" was found to be beneficial based on their examination of 10 companies across eight technology collaborations. Their paper, "Rotating Leadership and Symbiotic Organization: Relationship Processes in the Context of Collaborative Innovation"), disguises actual companies and projects behind names such as Cleopatra and Falstaff, but does cite specific companies such as Apple and Google and their willingness to work together in new ways to deliver potentially powerful products, such as an iPhone that plays YouTube videos, even as they might also go head to head, as in the case of the iPhone vs. Google's Android and possible gPhones.

Rotating leadership entails one company leaving its partner or partners completely alone for some period of time to concentrate on developing a product based on its area of expertise. The study illustrated the success of this approach in areas from VPNs to middleware to mobile e-mail.

Read the rest of the article online: Network World

600 People at Launch of Stanford Entrepreneurship Network

2007-11-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Wow. The launch of the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN) went even better than we could have hoped! On October 10, about 600 people gathered to hear Tesla Motors give an absolutely fascinating presentation about the journey to build a car company in Silicon Valley, starting with two guys who knew nothing about the car business. It was standing room only, and when Martin Eberhard, Co-Founder and President of Technology, finished, hardly anyone moved. He was riveting.

Afterward, people filed into a “trade show” reception to learn about the various entrepreneurship groups on campus. A lot of new students signed up to join the SEN mailing list and were thrilled to find out there are so many options on campus.

You can learn more about SEN at http://sen.stanford.edu.
Here's the podcast of Martin's talk.

Very Cool Immersion Program for Entreprenuerial Students

2007-10-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

This past summer, STVP and Thammasat University in Thailand launched the REE Fellows Program to bring students together from around the world and immerse them in Silicon Valley and the entrepreneurial experience. (REE is the Roundtable on Entrepreneurship Education, a series of educators conferences we conduct.) We invited REE faculty to nominate their best and brightest, and we selected 42 students from all over the world. On August 1, the students were placed on interdisciplinary, international teams and assigned two faculty mentors per team. For the next three months, the teams worked together remotely on a project in which they evaluated business opportunities related to electric vehicles.

The REE Fellows and their mentors then traveled to Stanford on Friday, October 19, to meet in person for the first time and spend a week together. While here, they toured and met with representatives from local companies, such as Google, Tesla, and IDEO; participated in intensive workshops and the REE USA conference; and prepared their final presentations, which were delivered to a panel of venture capitalists and industry experts.

It was an extraordinary experience for everyone involved, including the faculty. To a person, the students said it was a life-changing experience, and some returned home with entirely new career plans. Among the interesting, unexpected outcomes was learning to overcome the inherent challenges of a geographically dispersed project team, ranging from language and cultural issues to the selection and use of productivity tools.

Consider nominating your top students for this program next year. For more information, go to: http://ree.stanford.edu/usa/fellows.html or email Christina Harvett at charvett@stanford.edu.

If you were a REE Fellow, please chime in and tell us in your own words what the experience meant to you. Perhaps you'll inspire others to apply.

Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers: New Educators Corner Sponsor

2007-10-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to welcome the esteemed Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers as a STVP Educators Corner sponsor.

Recipe for Google Culture: How to Get Some of What They've Got

2007-10-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Here's a terrific story in Fortune about how Shona Brown, Senior Vice President, Business Operations at Google, has shaped the unique culture there. Google's culture is largely based on the bestselling business book Shona co-authored with one of her mentors, STVP Professor Kathy Eisenhardt: Competing on the Edge, Strategy as Structured Chaos.

STVP Affiliated Faculty Honored with Nobel Peace Prize

2007-10-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

Given that one of Stanford and STVP's three core initiatives revolves around solving environmental problems, we are especially proud to announce that our very own John Weyant, STVP affiliated faculty, has been honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. He is a key member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

Sign Up to Receive Educators Corner Website Newsletters

2007-10-10T13:50:00.000-07:00

You can now receive periodic newsletters highlighting new Educators Corner website content and pointing you to particularly interesting podcasts and video clips.

Sign up here.

Here's a sample of what one looks like.

They must be effective. Every time he sends one, we get a big pop in site traffic.

STVP Professor Bob Sutton Gains Honors

2007-10-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to STVP Professor Bob Sutton, who has been named by BusinessWeek as one of the top ten all-star professors who have had an impact beyond academia.

I’ve mentioned his latest book in a previous post: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. It’s doing very well. It has hit the bestseller lists for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Amazon.com, where it reached #1 for nonfiction.

It also just won a Quill Award for best business book published in 2007. He and other winners, such as Al Gore, will be honored at the awards ceremony in New York City on October 22.

Create a Local High-Tech Playground

2007-09-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

I gave a presentation today on the Silicon Valley Ecosystem, STVP and entrepreneurship at Stanford to a delegation from the Netherlands, and it was very interesting to meet and talk with them. Led by the Mayor of the high-tech business city of Enschede, the group consisted of entrepreneurs, senior leadership from the University of Twente (based there), research institutes, and the local and regional government. Enschede just signed an economic agreement with the City of Palo Alto. The triangle of the "Technology Valley", "Health Valley" and "Food Valley" region in the East of the Netherlands is very ambitious, working to attract and stimulate innovative high-tech companies.

The delegation wanted to learn what makes Silicon Valley tick, so they can work to create a similar environment at home. It was very inspirational to see how committed they are to establishing an even more entrepreneurial culture.

Among other things, I encouraged them to “create a playground in which really smart people can experiment freely and fearlessly.” I’d say that’s one of the key differences between Silicon Valley and other places. If you aren't taking risks, you aren't innovating.

Coming Soon: Feature Film on Entrepreneurship Competition

2007-09-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

Check out the trailer for the upcoming film, "ImagineIt!" It covers the global student competition held during EntrepreneurshipWeek USA last February. We gave students across the U.S. and around the world four days to create as much value from a pack of Post-It Notes as they possible could. You won't believe what they came up with.

After watching the trailer, check out short videos of individual team stories. Pretty amazing stuff.

Stanford Entrepreneurship Network Launch Event

2007-09-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, October 10
4:30-6:30 p.m.
Stanford Campus

We are pleased to announce the formal launch of the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN) on Wednesday, October 10, and we invite you to join in the festivities!

(See my previous post for what SEN is all about or visit the SEN website.)

Please join us during the Launch event on October 10. Our featured speaker will be Martin Eberhard, Co-Founder and President of Technology, Tesla Motors. A game-changing, Silicon Valley start-up, Tesla is currently rolling out the new, earth-friendly Tesla Roadster, which promises to revolutionize our perception of the electric car. It can go from zero to 60 miles per hour (mph) in about four seconds with a top speed of over 130 mph; can travel more than 200 miles on a charge; and can pull electricity from a number of power sources – even a standard wall outlet.

During the event, we will also give a brief introduction of SEN, its new programs and its member organizations. A showcase and networking reception will follow the presentation. Enjoy complimentary hors d'oeuvres and beverages and visit SEN member organization information booths to learn about their offerings. Executives from Deloitte will also be on hand with information about career opportunities and new venture services.

For more information and details, visit http://sen.stanford.edu/launch.

We hope to see you there!

Stanford Entrepreneurship Network Website Has Launched

2007-09-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Good news! No matter where you are in the world, we just made it easier to plug into the myriad entrepreneurship resources at Stanford! You now have "one-stop shopping."

Visit http://sen.stanford.edu.

Thanks to generous sponsorship by Deloitte, we are in the process of formalizing the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network (SEN). This is a federation of at least 15 groups on campus that are related to entrepreneurship through teaching, research and/or outreach.

The organization's official kickoff is on October 10, but in the meantime, the website has launched. We'll be beefing it up over time, so do send suggestions for what you would find useful. A big "thank you" goes out to STVP Program Coordinator, Christina Harvett, for all of her work to put this together.

STVP Professor Bob Sutton on CNN: Is Your Boss a Bully?

2007-09-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

Professor Bob Sutton seems to have started a movement with his latest book, The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't. He comments on the subject in a short CNN video talking about a new survey that says 37% of Americans are bullied at work, mostly by bosses. Are lawsuits on the way?

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2007/09/02/finnstrom.bad.bosses.cnn

Teaching Educators In India To Teach Entrepreneurship

2007-08-29T20:26:00.000-07:00

This article offers a glimpse into a wonderful partnership between the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) and the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) to encourage entrepreneurship education throughout all of India. This article talks about one of several initiatives we have together: the Entrepreneurship Educators Course (EEC) to enhance the efficiency of Indian entrepreneurs.

Stanford Was Named Today by Fortune as One of America's Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs

2007-08-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

The Stanford Technology Ventures Program was named as one of 25 top programs for undergrads.

Here’s what they said about us. (Note: The reference to a lack of formal curriculum is misleading, considering we offer at least 20 courses for undergrads.)

“With its extensive network of Silicon Valley contacts and successful integration of entrepreneurship into its engineering program, Stanford wins rave reviews from entrepreneurship professors nationwide. Even though it does not have a formal undergraduate curriculum on the subject, the school fosters entrepreneurship through organizations such as the Business Association of Stanford Engineering Students, which connects both undergrads and grad students across campus at networking and educational events. "We teach students the skills that help them take their ideas out of the lab and into the real world to make a global impact," says Tina Seelig, Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. Entrepreneurship Week, launched this year at Stanford, featured a contest to create value out of a pad of Post-Its.”

Entrepreneur’s Podcast Spotlight: Entrepreneurship Visionary and Author Carl Schramm

2007-08-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

The Positive Impact of Entrepreneurship in the American Economy

Carl J. Schramm, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

Listen to this inspirational podcast of Carl Schramm talking about the vital role of entrepreneurship in the changing economy. For example, half of the U.S. jobs created in 2007 are from firms less than five years old. Though focused on the American economy, his points apply across the world.

STVP Faculty Chosen as Sloan Industries Fellow

2007-08-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

We are very pleased to announce that STVP’s Riitta Katila, Assistant Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, has been chosen as a Sloan Industry Studies Fellow, 2007-2009.

Sloan Industry Studies Fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in the interdisciplinary field of Industry Studies. Awarded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, these fellowships support the development of industry studies, a multidisciplinary field of research on industries that is grounded in direct observation.

Awards are made to scholars who show the most outstanding promise of making important contributions to understanding the complex systems of companies, product and labor markets, institutions and their interactions that shape the multifaceted environment of modern industrial enterprises.

Sloan Industry Studies Fellows, once chosen, are free to pursue any direction of original investigation in industry studies, subject to an expectation that they will establish or maintain close working relationships within a chosen industry.

Entreprenuer's Podcast Spotlight: Interview with Legendary NFL Quarterback Steve Young

2007-08-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Negotiations On and Off the Field

Stan Christensen interviews Steve Young, Former NFL Quarterback

Steve Young, former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, was named the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XXIX and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005. He’s also a lawyer and entrepreneur. Here he describes the lessons he's learned in negotiating with teammates, agents, and in his personal life. Interviewed as a guest in STVP instructor Stan Christensen's Negotiations course, Young provides insight through humorous anecdotes across a broad range of experience.

STVP-AlwaysOn Stanford Summit Coverage - Part 3

2007-08-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

Day Three of the conference has proven to be just as interesting as the other two.

Highlight #1: How to Get Acquired By One of the Big Players

If your exit strategy is acquisition by one of the big technology brands, you’ll want to listen to the archive of “Who do the Big Brands Want to Eat to Grow Their Businesses?” The panel consisted of Google, Microsoft, Intel, IAC and Cisco. Panelists offered some great advice and practical tips on how to engage in discussions with them. Entrepreneurs will find this one so useful that I’ll probably do a separate posting based on detailed notes I took during this session, so stay tuned.

Go here to watch and learn for yourself. -- View Archive --

Highlight #2: How Students Created Enterprises From a Pack of Post-Its in Four Days

Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program, gave a wonderful talk on “Entrepreneurship as an Extreme Sport.” -- View Archive --

Her main point: Yes, entrepreneurship can be taught. And she proved it by sharing the outcomes of a global competition held during national Entrepreneurship Week last year. Student teams around the world had four days to create as much value as possible from a pack of Post-It Notes®. Again, this one warrants its own posting at a future date, but suffice it to say that the stories were pretty fascinating. So fascinating, in fact, that a feature-length documentary shot during the competition is due for broadcast sometime this fall or winter.

She talked about what some of the more creative, ambitious teams accomplished and showed some video clips of their stories. She also played the brief promotional trailer for the film, which you can view yourself.

Other Highlights

Pretty much every session was fascinating, but a couple that you might especially want to check out are:

The New News -- View Archive --

Moderator: Andreas Kluth, Technology Correspondent, The Economist
Ann Grimes, Acting Dir., Graduate Program in Journalism, Stanford University
Alan Warms, CEO, BuzzTracker
Chris Tolles, CEO, Topix
Dan Cohen, CEO, Pageflakes

Social Networking 3.0 -- View archive --
Moderator: Charlene Li, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research
Travis Katz, SVP, MySpace International
Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder, Facebook
Rich Rosenblatt, CEO, Demand Media
Gina Bianchini, CEO, Ning
Karl Jacob, CEO, Wallop

STVP-AlwasyOn Stanford Summit Coverage - Part 2

2007-08-01T13:52:00.001-07:00

I'm here at the Stanford Summit Day 2. STVP hosts this technology trends conference with AlwaysOn. It was a non-stop parade of high-tech celebrities. Here are a few highlights from today.

View the program/agenda here.

View any presentation in full via the webcast archive here.

The Rise of Virtual Worlds

Just go see this session for yourself in the archives. Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, opened with a demonstration of Second Life. If you aren't familiar with what Second Life is, you soon will be. It's fast becoming a household name on the order of You Tube. (Beyond the mere fun of creating an alternate existence, it's very tempting to go out there and start a business as an extra income stream! And now that I think about it, this could be a place for young entrepreneurs to go test their skills.) The panel discussion was also very interesting. There was a very compelling discussion about how virtual worlds will go mainstream, what drivers could affect that, and interesting behaviors of their users. The panel consisted of:

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, VP, IBM
Philip Rosedale, CEO, Linden Lab
Craig Sherman, CEO, Gaia Online
Chris Melissinos, Chief Gaming Officer, Sun Microsystems

Why Aren't VCs Happy?

This panel discussion was interesting. It started with a brief presentation by Paul Deninger, Vice Chairman, Jeffries & Company, who argued as to why VCs shouldn't be happy right now. He offered up many statistics to support his point of view. He also addressed what he considers a myth: That the IPO market is back. In his view, it may feel like it's back compared to the crash, but it's still way behind the average pre-bubble level in the 1990s. He also said that about 90% of the current deals are M&A, and the majority of those are being done by only ten huge companies ($100 billion market cap). He noted that twice as much money is being poured into companies, yet the number of exits is the same ("exit" defined as an IPO or $100+ million merger or acquisition). He said that industry is mortgaging its future by selling its best companies too early.

With that, the rest of this impressive panel joined him on stage. The full panel consisted of:

Mark Stevens, Managing Partner, Fenwick & West
Roger McNamee, Partner, Elevation Partners
Erik Straser, General Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures
Paul Deninger, Vice Chairman, Jefferies & Company
Bill Gurley, General Partner, Benchmark Capital

There was a lot of point/counterpoint during this discussion. Again, it's worth watching this one online, especially if you'd like a quick primer on capital market dynamics and interrelationships as they relate to new ventures. A few of the many viewpoints the panelists expressed:

Gurley sees a real problem: few executives willing to run public companies because of Sarbanes-Oxley
Straser sees an abundance of inexpensive money; the challenge is companies around the world taking advantage of it in a productive manner
McNamee argues that today's environment (low IPO count) is the norm vs. what was going on in the '90s (not the norm); it doesn't make sense to use the volume of the '90s as the bar
Companies on the leading edge of technology are of big interest for M&A right now
Another driver of M&A is that younger companies are easier to integrate; you also get more network effects with young Internet companies
McNamee says that in the near-term, we're going to "vaporize" a LOT of venture money, private equity money and public money first, then there will be a bull market (natural cycle)
Sarbanes-Oxley: Government is going to have to loosen up the enforcement in order to enable U.S. companies to compete in today's truly global capital markets
This is a great time to be an entrepreneur - just be prepared to bootstrap it for awhile and eventually the market will be right for accepting money and putting it to work

John McCain

Regardless of one's politics, it was interesting to hear John McCain's views up close and personal (in my case, about 20 feet away, to be more precise). He was in town for a fundraiser and came by the conference to share his position on some key issues and take questions from the audience. Up on the stage for a full hour, he was fully engaged and also expressed his appreciation for the impact that members of the audience have on the world through their contributions to technology.

STVP-AlwaysOn Stanford Summit Coverage - Part 1

2007-07-31T18:21:00.000-07:00

For the rest of this posting, I'll write in real-time as I listen to the presentations:

6:23 p.m. Our co-host Tony Perkins (you remember him as founder of Upside and Red Herring magazines and now AlwaysOn) is giving STVP a nice plug right now -- thanks, Tony.

6:30 It's worth checking out Tony's slides in the web archive, if you didn't watch live -- he shows some interesting trends and statistics re the Web and the "green" movement.

6:58 An exciting new company just won the overall AO100 award as the most promising new company of the year, so check it out: virtual reality company Gaia Online.

7:03 Guy Kawasaki, who is always hilarious and insightful, is leading a panel of three very interesting new companies, and you'll just have to go watch it yourself. He's got the audience in stitches with his fantastic way of ripping into the panelists such that he elicits fascinating information. It's hysterical and educational, so just go watch it. These guys are telling great stories and giving terrific, real-world advice for would-be entrepreneurs (and investors, for that matter).

We've Launched the New Stanford Technology Ventures Program Blog!

2007-07-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the inaugural posting of the STVP technology entrepreneurship blog! For those of you who aren’t familiar with us, The Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) is the entrepreneurship education and research center at Stanford University's School of Engineering. We provide engineers and scientists with the entrepreneurial skills needed to use technology innovations to solve major world problems related to the environment, human health, and other global issues. Our goal is to inspire and prepare students for leadership roles within existing organizations, new ventures, and academia.

STVP conducts scholarly research and teaches numerous courses which are open to all students at Stanford. We also aim to serve others throughout the world interested in entrepreneurship. Our global outreach program includes annual conferences on four continents and the Educators Corner, a website with thousands of video clips and podcasts on entrepreneurship for students, faculty, and entrepreneurs around the world.

If you’ve never been to it, definitely check out the Educators Corner – it’s the next best thing to having lunch with almost every major player in Silicon Valley to ask them for advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.

We thought that coverage of the AlwaysOn and STVP Stanford Summit, a technology trends conference being held in Silicon Valley would be a fitting occasion for launching our new blog. It will be starting just minutes from now. Stay tuned. OR watch the free live webcast here. All of your commentary during the webcast will be visible to the the speakers and the entire audience of over 1,000 executives. So join in now!