Stanford eCorner

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg shares her trilogy of ideas for a successful start-up and a fulfilling career. Her thoughts include building an enterprise with scalable vision, building personalized, scalable products, and the ability to scale your own connections and capabilities.

Spencer E. Ante, BusinessWeek editor and author, quotes excerpts from his book, Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital , and offers a historical portal into the start and evolution of venture capital. He draws an investment timeline starting with the post-WWII economy, delves into the dominance of Silicon Valley, and discusses current recessionary activity.

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

The team behind Cooliris - CEO Soujanya Bhumkar, Product Manager Josh Schwarzapel, and CTO Austin Shoemaker - discuss in detail the launch and management of their innovative web-discovery business. Topics discussed include cultivating vigorous start-up energy, building monetization into the product, and building an effective and talented team.

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.

In contrast to simply donating dollars for public relations benefit, in-house altruism today means ubiquitous dedication to real causes. Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director for Google.org, points out that effective business-backed giving means global outreach, partnerships with experts at the heart of solving problems, and a dedicated percentage of gross income to keep these projects afloat.

Today's revolutionary breakthroughs are yesterday's crazy ideas. And Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation and entrepreneur behind numerous commercial space travel ventures, speaks at length about finding support for new business frontiers that, literally, are out of this world.

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.

Elizabeth Holmes, President, CEO, and Founder of Theranos, discusses her decision to leave Stanford to launch a biotech company, and what she's learned about raising capital and attracting top talent. Holmes allows the audience to pose numerous inquiries, and she discusses her personal conviction, development process, and path of entrepreneurship.

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.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, shares his optimism for emerging innovation in the midst of economic turmoil, and the story of his own entrepreneurial path. He also speaks of his company's continued investment in Internet-ready hardware and software that seeks progress in healthcare, education, and science.

Whereas the 20th century belonged to the scientist, the 21st century, says Sun Micosystems' CTO Greg Papadopoulos, is the domain of the engineer. Rather than secretly toiling away on new discoveries, modern engineers are concerned about social responsibility, renewable materials and product lifecycles, collaborative and open source discovery, and furthering industry-wide innovation.

Hip-hop artists Quincy Jones III and Chamillionaire discuss mastering the business side of the music industry. Keeping up with cutting-edge technologies, production logistics, and finding creative ways to gain direct audience contact are essential tactics for the self-produced artist in the digital age.

Speaker, author, and entrepreneur Eric Ries shares rapid fire wisdom on building nimble, responsive, and efficient online software-based businesses. He also offers his wisdom on streamlining processes and progressing engineering systems, and puts forth front line insight into why some new ideas succeed where others have failed.

Steve Jurvetson, partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, offers perspective on the market opportunities in innovation and technology. Topics discussed include the necessity for utter market disruption, interdisciplinary solutions (particularly across the "bio-nano" life sciences and engineering), and advice for those interested in working in the venture capital arena.

Intel Corporation legend, former CEO, and Chairman of the Board Craig Barrett discusses his personal career path from a Stanford Associate Professor, to Silicon Valley consultant, to a 35-year career inside one of the globe's most prominent players in technology. His talk concentrates on Moore's Law and the myriad factors in place to ensure its continued progeny.

Stanford instructor and seasoned serial entrepreneur Steve Blank looks back at the commonalities and quirks of the quarter's previous speakers. Blank outlines a thorough checklist of questions and analysis helpful to any new enterprise leader, and offers insight and case studies from industry giants and new technology plays alike.

Serial entrepreneur and Zynga founder Mark Pincus and Bing Gordon, longtime Electronic Arts creative mind and investor on behalf of KPCB, provide a very laid-back and desultory conversation. Topics touched upon include successful CEOs, building sustainable companies, mentorship, and the consumer pay-driven Web 3.0.

Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, speaks in detail about the launch and growth of the company and the search engine. He discusses how its intimate understanding of Chinese language and culture - and a unique social approach to search - have allowed it to succeed where many North American search giants have faltered.

Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO at the marketing and sales software firm HubSpot, distills his 128-slide presentation on company culture down to its essence, describing it as a business's "operating system" that lets people do their best work. Shah says entrepreneurs must create a company culture they love, because one will eventually emerge no matter what.

Lisa Lambert, Vice President at Intel Capital, speaks at length on the experience of working for a mammoth, corporate-backed strategic venture capital firm. She unpacks the challenges of the post-recession VC world, and speaks at length about the industry at large. In addition, Lambert discusses critical issues of work/life balance and the conundrum of personal choices faced when climbing the corp...

David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago, says that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. He argues that constraints--fiscal, temporal, or otherwise--drive innovation and effective problem-solving. The most important thing, Hansson believes, is to make a dent in the universe with your company.

Six young Stanford grads and entrepreneurs -- Steven Garrity, Clara Shih, Kimber Lockhart, Jeff Seibert, Josh Reeves, and Tristan Harris -- share their experiences starting companies and raising capital. While being in their 20s may seem to be an obstacle to outsiders, they said they "flipped" this liability into an asset -- focusing instead on their raw ability to bring innovative ideas to life....

Dr. John Adler, Jr. and John "Trip" Adler III discuss their entrepreneurial experience and evolution as a business leader: For Dr. Adler, he describes his bumpy course in developing his biotechnology company, Accuray Incorporated; for his son Trip, he emphasizes the persistence and luck in developing Scribd, a social publishing site. Despite building companies in different fields, the two offer th...

What can extreme surfing and World of Warcraft teach the enterprise? Independent Co-Chairman of the Deloitte Center for the Edge and former Xerox PARC Chief Scientist John Seely Brown holds them as examples of the power of frequent benchmarking and full industry info-share. He also uses them to show how the core ecosystem can be made stronger by sharing knowledge gathered from learning on the edge...