Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)

Latest Episodes:

Negotiating Your Career Nov 12, 2008

Show notes

Stan Christensen, a partner at Arbor Advisors, offers advice on transactional negotiations and relationship management geared toward the student embarking upon their career. Topics covered include choosing a career, on-the-job expectations, work/life balance, and benefit mediation.

Tom Kelley (IDEO) - Young at Heart: How to Be an Innovator for Life Nov 12, 2008

Show notes

Tom Kelley, general manager at the world-renowned design firm, IDEO, presents five core practices that enhance creativity. Through entertaining stories and examples, he describes how these techniques help us all become more innovative in every aspect of our lives and lead to more success.

Anna Patterson (Cuil) - A Cuil Tune-up for Search Engines Nov 05, 2008

Show notes

As a research scientist at Stanford University, Anna Patterson committed herself to indexing the world's online information. Her latest venture, Cuil (pronounced "cool") is a search engine that is challenging Google. She explains how she is using her experience with startups and non-profits to take on her former employer.

Judy Estrin (JLABS, LLC) - Is Innovation Withering on the Vine? Oct 29, 2008

Show notes

JLabs LLC CEO and author Judy Estrin puts the processes and philosophies of innovation under the microscope. Her current analysis indicates that we're short-changing the business arena and culture at large, as we've stopped planting the seeds for true, monumental invention and problem-solving.

Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures) - The Black Swans of Energy Invention Oct 22, 2008

Show notes

Toss the old notions of environmentalism into the recycling bin. Investor Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures shatters conventional wisdom of energy reduction, and instead encourages entrepreneurs to solve environmental problems via cost-effective, innovative, and scalable engineering.

William McDonough (William McDonough + Partners) - Balancing Economy, Equity, and Ecology Through Design Oct 15, 2008

Show notes

How do we love all of the children of all species for all time? The unlikely answer comes from architect, materials designer, VC, and eco-efficiency expert William McDonough, who sees the challenge of cycling biological and technical "nutrients" as industry's ultimate goal.

Erik Straser (Mohr Davidow Ventures) - The Next Wave of Industry: Global Clean Tech Oct 08, 2008

Show notes

Mohr Davidow Ventures partner Erik Straser offers insight on the unfolding sector of new energy technologies, and discusses how it will be affected by an economy in credit crisis. He unveils the market's high level of industrial innovation, and offers students of entrepreneurship sound advice on finding the next crest in grand socioeconomic opportunity.

Steve Blank (Stanford Engineering) - Retooling Early Stage Development Oct 01, 2008

Show notes

Ninety-percent of Silicon Valley's start-ups fail not because of faulty product, but because they don't tap the right market and they don't know their customer. Well-seasoned serial entrepreneur Steve Blank drafts a new model for plotting the path between good idea and market success.

Beth Seidenberg (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) - A VC Perspective on the Life Sciences May 28, 2008

Show notes

Beth Seidenberg, partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, speaks at length about KPCB's current areas of interest, and its litmus test for projects worth supporting. Seidenberg also offers a case study of a life sciences firm moving from research lab toward market.

John Melo (Amyris Biotechnologies) - Under the Microscope: Socially Responsible Biotech May 21, 2008

Show notes

Amyris Biotechnologies CEO John Melo explains his company's endeavors in the sustainable sciences; working both to fight disease and to create renewable energies. Melo also reflects upon his personal career path, from immigrant, to start-up, to Big Oil - and back to start-up again.