Stanford Entrepreneurship Videos

Jonah Greenberger, co-founder of Bright, a solar-energy startup that delivers subscriptions to homes in developing countries, shares advice he learned from “The Power of Habit,” a book by Charles Duhigg that posits how things people always do seem easy, while things we rarely do seem difficult. Greenberger says the more you fail, the more comfortable failure becomes, making it easier to recover and try again.

A panel of Stanford alumni who have gone on to entrepreneurial careers tell STVP Faculty Co-Director Tina Seelig what leadership means to them. Some of the most important traits identified by the panelists include taking responsibility for actions and consequences, leading by example and empowering others through trust, and being able to let go and depend on your team.

Jane Marie Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace Innovations, describes how her social-enterprise startup’s infant warmer for premature and low-birth-weight babies came into the world. She discusses how optimism fuels the drive to overcome setbacks big and small, how Embrace has expanded into retail to support its humanitarian efforts, and explains why we should “choose to see the world through the lens of beauty.”

Jane Marie Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace Innovations, talks about overcoming obstacles and the high-profile support her organization has received to continue making low-cost infant warmers for mothers in the developing world — donations inspired by her team’s dedication to the mission. Chen emphasizes this point by quoting novelist Paulo Coelho: “When you truly believe something, the universe will conspire to help you achieve it.”

Embrace Innovations Co-Founder and CEO Jane Marie Chen describes how the sudden loss of a corporate customer threatened to end her organization’s operations and served as a wake-up call that a more sustainable business model was needed, prompting Embrace to adopt one where its humanitarian efforts would be supported by the sale of baby products intended for retail consumers.

Midway through sharing some takeaway lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, Embrace Innovations CEO Jane Marie Chen explains how courage and persistence are critical because failure inevitably lies ahead. She also warns against becoming too personally attached to certain outcomes: “We are not defined by our successes or our failures. We are defined by our values and the journey that we take.”

Jane Marie Chen, co-founder and CEO of Embrace Innovations, points out the freedom we have to focus either on the negative or the positive, and how choosing the latter can carry you through tough times. Immersed in grinding poverty as she sought to supply India and other developing nations with low-cost infant warmers, Chen says her inspiration came from seeing mothers with very little do whatever it takes to save their babies.

JetBlue Airways pilot and executive Bonny Simi explains how she came to head the airline’s startup investment and incubation division despite having no prior experience in venture capital. Simi, who previously oversaw the hiring of 3,000-plus crew members annually as JetBlue's head of talent, said, “At the end of the day, early-stage investing is all about the talent.”

Go to a good college. Be in the Olympics. Work in TV and become a pilot. These were the goals of a 14-year-old girl who grew up in a town tucked into the mountains just east of Los Angeles. That girl went on to compete in three Olympics, become a sports commentator, an airplane pilot and three-time Stanford graduate. Here’s how Bonny Simi, now the president of JetBlue Technology Ventures, did it all.

Bonny Simi, president of JetBlue Technology Ventures, talks about how her willingness to take risks during college got her closer to her goal of becoming an Olympic athlete. Then known as Bonny Warner, she also discusses how the sport of luge requires both high precision and an ability to stay calm under extreme conditions — critical skills for life as well.

JetBlue Technology Ventures President Bonny Simi explains the importance of self confidence when taking risks. Citing widely known data on how men and women assess their qualifications for a job opening differently, Simi recalls how determination got her through her bumpy start in luge and eventually allowed her to become one of America’s top athletes in the sport.

Three-time Winter Olympian Bonny Simi recounts how she parlayed her athletic accomplishments into the next chapter of her career, as a local TV sports reporter. She describes how her curiosity about flying soon turned into a passion, and how working in TV news and as a pilot instructor simultaneously shows that pursuing goals in parallel can hedge risks.

Bonny Simi, an airline pilot and president of Jet Blue Technology Ventures, tells job seekers to be clear about what type of work culture they prefer. She talks about her decision to step away from a senior position at United Airlines and start over as a junior-level pilot at JetBlue because she favored the airline’s then-startup culture over that of a large incumbent.

Distinguished professor and serial entrepreneur Joseph DeSimone discusses the vibrant chemistry that takes place at the intersection of science and the humanities, academia and industry, and within the walls of his 3D manufacturing startup Carbon. He describes how on-demand parts manufacturing could one day eliminate the need for business inventory and even end up in hospitals.

Entrepreneur and university professor Joseph DeSimone shares a favorite saying about how scholarly research is “an expression of faith” and “a form of optimism about the human condition.” The co-founder of Carbon 3D, Inc. explains how Steve Jobs helped Apple achieve true innovation at the nexus of the applied and social sciences, technology and the liberal arts.