Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

Scott Harrison, founder and CEO of charity: water, shares his entrepreneurial path from a life of pure self-interest to one driven by a desire to bring clean water to millions. In this compelling talk, Harrison shares his interest and approach in re-inventing the charity sector, along with the powerful stories of those affected by his organization's work.

Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton shares new ideas on how the world can transition to a place where everyone is a contributing change-maker. Drayton also sits down in conversation with Stanford Professor Tina Seelig to discuss critical skills for changemakers, the possibilities for collaborative entrepreneurship, and the importance of giving yourself permission to make change.

Steve Teig, president and CTO of Tabula, believes entrepreneurs get the most from life by committing fully to "making work you love." In this expansive talk, Teig shares how to turn fear into a superpower, and weaves together insights from his career to explain the importance of always striving and why life is too short to not work with nice people.

Cyriac Roeding, co-founder and CEO of mobile app company Shopkick, shares personal stories and insights on dealing with the essential questions facing entrepreneurs. He also provides unique perspectives on the nature of mobile interaction, and offers essential tips for building truly awesome teams.

Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's chief technology and strategy officer, offers a vision of how value will be created as the magnitude of technology change rapidly increases. Warrior also touches on balancing analytical and empathetic leadership, cultivating a culture of innovation at enterprise scale, and how the Internet of Everything will shape the future of individuals and organizations.

Serial entrepreneur Dr. Matthew Rabinowitz discusses how letting go of ego can empower entrepreneurs to solve problems that change the quality of life. As the founder of molecular diagnostics company Natera, Rabinowitz also shares unique financing insights, the value of being irreverent, and ways to manage your entrepreneurial destiny for as long possible.

Magic experience designer Ferdinando Buscema brings an engineer's background and a performer's flair to this call to all entrepreneurs to think like a magician to achieve the impossible. Drawing from a rich variety of sources including psychology, the arts, and magic performance, Buscema illustrates a new leadership archetype for the 21st century.

Director of Engineering Jocelyn Goldfein takes us on a trip inside the innovative culture of Facebook. In this illuminating conversation with STVP Executive Director Tina Seelig, Goldfein explains why code wins arguments, employees must have the right to take risks, and how Facebook strives to remain a hungry, yet humble, company.

Imagine trying to bring entrepreneurship education to one of the most challenging environments in the world: San Quentin State Prison in California. In this powerful talk and interview, The Last Mile Co-Founders Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti, along with program graduate Heracio Harts, discuss the benefits of commitment and entrepreneurial thinking in supporting individuals to make the successful transition from prison to living productive lives in society.

Asana Co-Founder Justin Rosenstein shares the philosophy and experiences that drive him to create positive impact on the world. Rosenstein also unpacks the values Asana focuses on in creating a thriving culture and offers ways for leaders and individuals to effectively manage their personal psychology.

Kate Mitchell, managing director of Scale Venture Partners, demonstrates why an optimistic, but realistic mindset is a central key for successful entrepreneurs. Mitchell also challenges entrepreneurs to play an active role in civic life by actively telling their stories to affect policy at the national and international level.

Pulse Co-Founders Akshay Kothari and Ankit Gupta were curious Stanford graduate students always interested in taking on side projects to learn something new. In this light-hearted and insightful lecture, Kothari and Gupta discuss their experiences integrating what they learned into developing an elegant product, which eventually led to their startup's acquisition by LinkedIn.

MobiSocial Founder and Stanford Computer Science Professor Monica Lam offers a compelling case for why mobile can disrupt the social space to create genuine and frictionless experiences. Lam discusses the importance of cross-platform capability and the high potential for open, non-proprietary systems for communication.

Based on his continuing exploration of the decision making process under opaque circumstances, Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, shares how the benefits of random conditions can be successfully harvested to help navigate a world we do not fully understand.

Sharing inspirations from both innovative companies and works of art, entrepreneur and technology sage Tim O'Reilly weaves together a series of thoughtful lessons for startups. From rethinking workflows and experiences to the valuable role of idealism in business, O'Reilly makes the case for entrepreneurs to work on the hard problems that matter.