Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Video Series

Latest Episodes:

Shiza Shahid (Our Place) - A Meaningful Entrepreneurial Path Feb 28, 2024

Show notes

Shiza Shahid is the co-founder and co-CEO of Our Place, a mission-driven startup reimagining kitchenware for the modern, multiethnic, global kitchen. Prior to Our Place, Shahid also co-founded the Malala Fund with Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. She led the organization as founding CEO, advocating for the rights of all girls to attend school. Shahid also launched NOW Ventures, an angel fund to invest in mission-driven startups. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Shahid shares how her life and career have shaped her view of entrepreneurship and offers advice for infusing mission and meaning into products and brands.

Daniela Amodei (Anthropic) - ‘Helpful, Honest, Harmless’ AI Feb 23, 2024

Show notes

Daniela Amodei is president and co-founder of Anthropic, an AI safety and research company. Amodei manages the senior leadership team, leveraging her people and management experience to further the company’s goal of building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Emily Ma, Amodei talks about how Anthropic’s team of co-founders have built values and ethical guardrails into their AI tools from day one, and how this can inform other AI companies.

Ernestine Fu (Brave Capital) - Taking Action for Startup Success Feb 14, 2024

Show notes

Ernestine Fu is managing general partner of venture capital firm Brave Capital. Over the past decade, Fu has worked across the startup ecosystem, including negotiating merger and acquisition agreements, organizing SPVs for later-stage companies, angel investing in and advising companies that have since been acquired, and advising banks on venture debt. Alongside her role at Brave Capital, she is also a Venture Partner at Alsop Louie Partners. In this presentation and conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Fu inspires students and aspiring entrepreneurs by sharing things she wished she knew before coming to Stanford as a student.

Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao (Stanford) - Smart Leaders Understand Friction Jan 31, 2024

Show notes

Robert I. Sutton is an organizational psychologist and professor emeritus of Management Science and Engineering in the Stanford School of Engineering. Hayagreeva “Huggy” Rao is the Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, the Sociological Research Association, and the Academy of Management. In this conversation with Stanford lecturers Ravi Belani and Emily Ma, Sutton and Rao discuss their new book, “The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder,” and offer advice and insights from their years of research and observation.

Adrian Rodriguez (Dreamlinks) - A Visually Impaired Founder’s Journey Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

Adrian Rodriguez is the co-founder and CEO of Dreamlinks, a startup developing AI-powered building blocks that make creating virtual 3D worlds as fun as playing with LEGO bricks. Prior to founding Dreamlinks, Rodriguez taught game design at StreetCode Academy, created a web design course for blind programmers, and worked as the CTO of AMPAworks, a company that uses computer vision to automate inventory tracking in hospitals. In this presentation, Rodriguez shares his journey as an entrepreneur who is visually impaired, his dreams for helping other blind and visually impaired people with technology, and his lessons for other aspiring innovators.

Jessica Jackley (Kiva and Untapped Capital) - ‘What If?’ Changes the World Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

Jessica Jackley is an entrepreneur and investor best known as the founder of Kiva, the first microfinance crowdfunding platform, with $2 billion in loans since 2005. She is currently a founder and general partner at Untapped Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm championing unexpected founders. In this presentation, Jackley shares her journey to becoming a mission-focused entrepreneur and offers insights to inspire others to ask, “What if things were different?”

Sarah Lamaison (Dioxycle) - Climate Tech Insights Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

Sarah Lamaison is the co-founder and CEO of Dioxycle, which is pioneering sustainable chemistry by building breakthrough technologies that convert industrial carbon emissions into everyday chemicals with unprecedented energy and cost efficiency. In this presentation, Lamaison explains how her company fits into the future of carbon-capture technology, then shares advice for tech founders — especially in the climate tech industry —who want to build successful companies.

Michelle Lee (Medra) - From Conviction to Company Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

Michelle Lee is the founder and CEO of Medra, which combines recent advances in robotics and computer vision to build lab automation technology. She has previously worked at NVIDIA, SpaceX, and McKinsey. Prior to founding Medra, Lee was an assistant professor in computer science and electrical computer engineering at New York University. In this presentation and conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Lee explains why she decided to start her deep tech company and uses her experiences to give advice to aspiring founders.

Andy Dunn (Bonobos) - Mental Health for Entrepreneurs Nov 08, 2023

Show notes

Andy Dunn is an entrepreneur, author, and investor. Dunn co-founded the menswear e-commerce brand Bonobos in 2007 and served as the company’s CEO for its first 10 years, pioneering the digitally native brand movement. In 2022, Dunn published a memoir lifting the veil on the mental health demons he’d been privately battling as he built Bonobos. “Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind” chronicles his journey at the intersection of entrepreneurship and bipolar disorder. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Dunn shares his experiences with bipolar disorder and encourages everyone to acknowledge mental health challenges, including in the world of entrepreneurs. This talk includes discussions of suicide and self-harm. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a trained listener, call 988. Visit 988lifeline.org for crisis chat services or for more information. The Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To text with a trained helper, text SAVE to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.

Kathleen Eisenhardt (Stanford) - Strategy for New Companies Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

Kathleen Eisenhardt is the Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor in the Stanford School of Engineering. She is also a faculty member with STVP, the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center, and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Among the most widely cited entrepreneurship scholars in the world, Eisenhardt is the author of over 100 articles and several books, most recently (with Don Sull), “Simple Rules: How to Survive in a Complex World.” In this presentation, Eisenhardt shares strategies for founders of new companies in new and disrupted markets, providing case studies from her extensive research.

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