Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)

Nikil Viswanathan is the co-founder and CEO of Alchemy, the world's leading web3 developer platform. Alchemy is hailed as the fastest growing company in history, going from public launch to a $10 billion valuation in just 16 months. Alchemy powers over $100 billion in transactions globally, including the majority of the NFT industry, top web3 companies, and traditional enterprises. In this present...

Dave Vasen is the founder and CEO of brightwheel, the leading subscription software platform for early education. In April 2016, Vasen appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and secured a $600,000 investment at one of the highest all-time valuations for the TV show. In this conversation with Stanford lecturer Emily Ma, Vasen shares his experience creating a software solution customized to fit the particul...

Annie Hockey is the co-CEO of Column, a nationally chartered bank that publicly launched in 2022 for developers who are building modern financial products and services. Hockey leads, among other functions, the regulatory, legal, accounting, and human resources aspects of Column. In this conversation with Stanford lecturer Emily Ma, Hockey discusses how she and her co-founder/co-CEO have navigated...

Elise Densborn is the co-CEO of Splendid Spoon, a direct-to-consumer meal delivery platform that offers ready-to-eat, plant-based meals. Densborn was first introduced to Splendid Spoon as a customer. After over a decade in the finance industry, she joined the Splendid Spoon team as a consultant in 2018 and quickly rose through the ranks in permanent roles as VP of finance and insights and COO, bec...

Dante Disparte is chief strategy officer and head of global policy at Circle, a global financial technology firm at the center of digital currency innovation and open financial infrastructure. He is responsible for overseeing the company strategy, communications, policy and public affairs. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Disparte discusses important lessons from hi...

Dr. Trevor Martin is the CEO and co-founder of Mammoth Biosciences, which addresses challenges across healthcare, agriculture, environmental monitoring, biodefense, and more through discovery of novel CRISPR systems to power the next generation of CRISPR-based synthetic biology products. Ursheet Parikh is a partner at the venture capital firm Mayfield, where he co-leads the Human and Planetary Hea...

Charles Hudson is the founder and managing partner of Precursor Ventures, an early­ stage venture capital firm focused on investing in the first institutional round of investment for the most promising software and hardware companies. Under his leadership, Precursor Ventures has raised four funds and has over $175 million under management. He has invested in 250 companies and supported more than 4...

Dr. Jerrica Kirkley is the chief medical officer and co-founder of Plume, a virtual healthcare center of excellence dedicated to the transgender community that provides gender-affirming medical care at the convenience of a smartphone. Kiki Freedman is the CEO and co-founder of Hey Jane, a virtual clinic offering telemedicine abortion care, which she founded while at Harvard Business School. In thi...

Dr. Lisa Dyson is the founder and CEO of Air Protein, a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer company that is reinventing how food is produced in order to sustainably feed the global population, which is estimated to reach 10 billion people by 2050. Air Protein uses an innovative process that makes meat from elements of the air. In this conversation with Stanford Professor Tom Byers, Dyson discu...

Tim Brown is the co-founder, co-CEO, and creative vision behind Allbirds, the sustainability-focused shoe company he co-founded in 2015. His experience as a World Cup soccer player for New Zealand led him to think about things on a grand scale, whether that be crafting shoes or running a business. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Brown discusses his predictions for...

Meirav Oren is the CEO and co-founder of Versatile, which aims to turn construction into a fully controllable manufacturing process and help professionals make rapid, data-driven decisions that support jobsite productivity and safety. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Oren encourages new founders to filter advice, learn how to ask for help, and build their companies...

Jenny Lay-Flurrie is chief accessibility officer at Microsoft. Her team is at the forefront of creating positive experiences that apply technology to make a difference in the world and in the lives of individuals, from how Microsoft hires and supports people with disabilities in employment to innovative technology that aims to revolutionize what’s possible for people with disabilities. In this con...

Josh Makower, MD, is the Boston Scientific Applied Bioengineering Professor of Medicine and of Bioengineering at the Stanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering, and is the director and co-founder of the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Makower unpacks the center’s biodesign process and encourages entrepreneurs to fin...

John Felts is the co-founder and CEO of Cruz Foam, which produces bio-benign foam and eco-friendly alternative packaging solutions that power key industry leaders to be the catalyst for a cleaner environment. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Toby Corey, Felts shares how his engineering studies and career led him to launching a startup, and offers advice for new tech entrepreneur...

Kristen Fortney is the co-founder and CEO of BioAge Labs, a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing a pipeline of treatments to extend healthy lifespan by targeting the molecular causes of aging. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Toby Corey, Fortney discusses strategies for reducing risk along the path to developing world-changing therapies. -------------------- Stanford...

Alfred Lin is a partner at Sequoia Capital, where he focuses on consumer and enterprise investments and co-leads Sequoia’s early-stage investment business in the United States and Europe. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Lin offers advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and early-stage founders who want to identify worthwhile ideas and seed excellence in their startups....

Jorge Rios is the founder and CEO of Bridgefy. Bridgefy’s technology helps millions of people around the world use mobile apps without an internet connection, through Bluetooth-based mesh networks for mobile. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Rios shares how his company’s success is rooted in a distinctly international approach to entrepreneurship. ------------------...

Patrick Schmitt and Jenny Xia Spradling are the co-founders and co-CEOs of FreeWill, a social venture that has helped charitable organizations generate more than $5 billion in new planned gifts, stock gifts, and qualified charitable distributions. In this conversation with lecturer Toby Corey, Schmitt and Spradling discuss how they’ve built values such as kindness into their company from the begin...

Irma Olguin, Jr. is the CEO and co-founder of Bitwise Industries, a startup founded in Fresno, California that aims to create diverse tech workforces that can reinvigorate underestimated cities across the United States. Morgan Simon is a founding partner of Candide Group, which works with families, foundations, athletes, and cultural influencers who want their money working for justice. She is als...

Ranjay Gulati is the Paul R. Lawrence MBA Class of 1942 Professor of Business Administration and the former unit head of the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. He is an expert on leadership in turbulent times, and his latest book, Deep Purpose: The Heart and Soul of High-Performance Companies (Harper Collins, February 2022), shows how companies can embed purpose to deliver im...

Russ Altman is the Kenneth Fong Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine, Biomedical Data Science and (by courtesy) Computer Science at Stanford University. His primary research interests are in the application of computing to problems relevant to medicine. Kim Branson is a senior vice president and Global Head of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at GSK, where he leads the GSK.a...

A lawyer, public policy expert, and tech entrepreneur, Paola Santana is the founder and CEO of GLASS, a software ecosystem using artificial intelligence to power high-performing governments. Her work includes engaging with The White House, the United States Congress, the FAA, and NASA to enact regulatory frameworks for new transportation technologies, and developing public infrastructure projects...

Alongside his wife Crystal, Chris Sacca built Lowercase Capital into an extraordinarily successful VC firm, leveraging very early-stage investments in transformational technology companies like Twitter, Uber, Instagram, and Stripe. He retired in 2017, but came out of retirement to head up the science and investing team at Lowercarbon Capital, which is pursuing ambitious solutions to the climate cr...

Payal Kadakia is the founder of ClassPass, the health and wellness app that ​​connects users to fitness classes and other health-positive experiences in 30 countries worldwide. Kadakia is also the founder and artistic director of The Sa Dance Company. Kadakia’s first book, LifePass: Drop Your Limits, Rise to Your Potential, is forthcoming in February 2022. In this conversation with Stanford adjunc...

Jessica McKellar is the founder and CTO of Pilot, an accounting firm powered by software that has raised more than $160 million in venture capital funding. She also founded Zulip, a group collaboration tool that was acquired by Dropbox in 2014, and Ksplice, which was acquired by Oracle. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Emily Ma, McKellar discusses her 15-year journey founding th...