Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

An outstanding office culture trumps all, says Ken Wilcox, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, who heads the most noted financial hub for the technology sector. Wilcox discusses how his financial services institution has scaffolded against recession, and bullet points the uniqueness of commercial banking for the tech start-up.

The co-founders of B Lab, Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan, and Andrew Kassoy, unveil their infrastructure play that seeks to give voice to the burgeoning panoply of green business. They explain how a higher set of corporate standards accountable to the environment, employees, and the community, can craft a healthier corporate ecosystem for all.

Parallel entrepreneur Mir Imran, CEO of InCube Labs, has launched twenty companies - at times simultaneously. He shares his solutions-focused expertise and identifies the vitality and growth of the biomedical healthcare vertical.

Brett Crosby, Group Manager of Google Analytics, describes the ebb and flow of the process by which his web analytics company, Urchin, was acquired by Google. He also shares some inspirational lessons in making small business loom large.

The Humane Society of Silicon Valley had gone to the dogs before president Christine Benninger took hold of the leash in 1993. By nearly every metric - profits earned, animals saved, customers satisfied - she outlines how proven business practices transformed the HSSV into best of breed.

Retired serial entrepreneur Steve Blank interviews MissionPoint Capital co-founder Jesse Fink. The two discuss the manifold investment opportunities in alternative energies and environmental conservation.

Experienced angel investors, Ron Conway, Founder of Angel Investors LP, and Mike Maples, Founder of Maples Investments, provide a rare look into the ins and outs of angel investing. Conway and Maples discuss how angel investors assess opportunities, provide assistance to entrepreneurs and transition start-ups to larger venture investments or exit. In addition, Conway and Maples provide advice to entrepreneurs about finding one's passion and developing that passion into new ventures, including insight into how much money to raise and how to manage that money after it is in the bank.

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. Kapor emphasizes the elements of company building that technology has changed, such as faster feedback cycles and lower barriers to entry, as well as the elements that remain the same, such as how to establish culture and trust. Kapor illuminates his observations with contemporary and historical examples that create a context-rich primer on building vibrant companies.

Ping Li from Accel and Ashwin Navin, the President and Co-Founder of BitTorrent, Inc. talk about BitTorrent's journey from an open-source project to being a global standard for delivering high-quality files over the Internet. He discusses how their team worked on changing the landscape of digital media distribution. His company evolved to provide a revenue proposition to some of the largest media companies in the world. Navin mentions the company's plan of scaling internationally in countries like Japan as being key to its success in the future.

Armen Berjikly, the Founder and CEO of The Experience Project, and Julio Vasconcellos, VP of Business Development discuss their experience of building a technology start-up that unites people who can improve each other's lives. Berjikly discusses how he built his new venture from fund raising to establishing the company infrastructure. He talks about the importance of hiring the right people to work in a start-up and illustrates the key role of a "Mentor Capitalist" in the journey of an entrepreneur. Berjikly also describes the financial and psychological challenges an entrepreneur faces while building a company.

Larry Bawden is a co-founder of Jadoo Power, an innovative supplier of fuel cells, and Q1 Nanosytems, a next-generation photo-voltaics provider. Bawden addresses the new landscape in technology and energy and notes the pivotal role of newer technologies in the global economy. He talks about the four fundamental planetary crises - Global Warming, Peak Oil, Population Peak and Resource Depletion that are driving changes in world. Bawden also acknowledges the rise of third generation technology and the fundamental shifts in business that it has created. He believes that these changes have created a favorable environment to launch new ventures.

Stan Christensen is a partner at Arbor Advisors, an investment banking firm where he negotiates on behalf of mid-market technology companies. In this lecture, Christensen builds a framework and illuminates a few of the classical mistakes in negotiation. He defines negotiation as an attempt to persuade or influence a situation. He emphasizes relationship management and problem solving as being fundamental to negotiation. He also alludes to the conceptual framework by illustrating examples from his vast global experience.

Dominic Orr is the President and CEO of Aruba Networks, a supplier of secure mobility and wireless Local Area Network (LAN) solutions for enterprises. Orr unveils Aruba's approach to building solutions for mobile workforces at Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies like Microsoft, NTT Data, and SAP. He articulates Aruba's strategies for competing with mammoths like Cisco, and emphasizes that speed of execution in this highly competitive market is key to his company's success.

Martin Eberhard is the Co-Founder, President of Technology and former CEO of Tesla Motors, a company that produces the Tesla Roadster, a battery-powered electric sports car. Eberhard discusses his inspiring journey of diverse experiences in building Tesla Motors. He describes the lessons he learned: from the realization of doing something meaningful to thinking an idea through and aggressively following all leads. Tesla Motors which started with two employees is now more than 250 employees strong.

Donna Novitsky, CEO of Big Tent Design and a former venture capitalist at Mohr Davidow Ventures contrasts her experiences as an executive in a start-up, a venture capitalist and as an entrepreneur. Novitsky addresses the role of risk mitigation in investing in new ventures and the importance of having a singular focus, aligning company goals with funding requirements and team work in an entrepreneurial environment. Her motto, "Go big or don't go!" has driven her endeavors from her first job to her new venture.

In this audio podcast, Professor Bob Sutton discusses "breakthrough" ideas in his latest book about dealing with difficult and conflicting relationships in a work environment. Sutton describes strategies to deal with "jerks" in an organization, and he illustrates the application of his ideas by using real-world examples sourced from readers' email responses to his new book.

Mitchell Baker, "Chief Lizard Wrangler" at Mozilla, discusses the organization's unique, community-based culture and how it has contributed to their success. She explains how freedom, openness, and dedication to improving Internet usability fosters extraordinary contributions from Mozilla's employees and volunteers.

Secretary Shultz discusses what he learned about negotiation while serving in both the Nixon and Reagan administrations. Topics covered include how to know when to go to the negotiation table, the role of trust in negotiation, confronting the dilemma of when to use force in a dispute, as well as the Secretary's opinions on negotiating in the current political landscape. Current events covered include the Arab Israeli conflict, the war in Afganistan, the fall of the Soviet Union, and how the media has changed the modern negotiation landscape.

Steve Young, former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, describes the lessons he's learned in negotiating with teammates, agents, and in his personal life. Interviewed as a guest in Stan Christensen's Negotiations course, Young provides insight through humorous anecdotes across a broad range of experience. In particular, he describes different negotiation tactics that were useful throughout his career as a quarterback, lawyer, and entrepreneur. While earning his spot as the fiery leader of the 49ers, balancing life with children, and undergoing multiple business ventures, Young highlights the use of accountability, soft skills to deal with personal feelings, and working hard with no excuses, to achieve success.

Warren Packard, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Andrew Frame, CEO of Ooma, present 10 lessons for building a successful start-up. They highlight the importance of dislocating large markets, active recruiting, organizational design, board construction, alignment of vision, managing mis-hires, building for scalability, product development, intellectual capital, and mentorship in establishing a lasting enterprise that adds value in the marketplace.