Stanford Entrepreneurship Videos

Carbon 3D, Inc. Co-Founder and CEO Joseph DeSimone insists businesses must be intentional about achieving diversity because it can drive innovation just as much as people’s talents. He also discusses how a lack of cognitive diversity among team members can serve as a structural disadvantage. “We learn the most from those that we have the least in common with,” DeSimone says.

Joseph DeSimone, co-founder of Carbon 3D, Inc., talks about how 3D printing has yet to cross the “chasm” between early adoption and mainstream success, citing the work of bestselling author Geoffrey Moore. Besides the structural flaws inherent in most 3D printed objects, DeSimone says the standard technology isn’t yet an economically viable option for most consumers and companies.

Serial entrepreneur Joseph DeSimone explains the subscription aspect of his latest startup, where customers essentially rent Carbon’s 3D printers instead of owning them. This protects customers from having to keep equipment updated in the rapidly evolving 3D printing sector, according to DeSimone. “Our total reason for being, as a company, is to create a new industrial category of 3D manufacturing.”

William Reilly shares his past experiences as president of the World Wildlife Fund and Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency with Stan Christensen, lecturer in civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. Reilly recounts inspecting the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the possible ban of French wine in the United States and negotiating with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Richard Miller, president of Olin College, describes disruptive ideas about education and learning that universities should adopt to graduate more creative, entrepreneurial and impactful engineers. He explains how a focus on math and science alone won't result in more innovation, and that higher education must instill traits like grit and independent thinking.

Olin College President Richard Miller, a prominent voice in the movement to reform engineering curriculum, explains how higher education can create more innovators by better integrating studies that have traditionally segregated students, in order to show them that the potential for large-scale impact is at the intersection of feasibility, viability and desirability.

Richard Miller, president of Olin College of Engineering, explains the importance of grit and mindset over traditional intelligence. Beyond equipping engineering students with formal skills, the nationally ranked university makes creativity and entrepreneurship core to its curriculum. "Twentieth-century innovators require a lot more than technical knowledge," Miller says.

Olin College of Engineering's Richard Miller points out how some of the tech industry's most iconic entrepreneurs were not even engineering majors and how the success of Facebook stems from its ability to satisfy a basic need rooted in human psychology, not just technical genius. Miller cites research by others showing that improvisation is a necessary skill for innovation.

In discussing how education is moving away from a prescriptive model to one that encourages more autonomy, Olin College President Richard Miller contrasts older tenets of learning with newer principles. These include long-held beliefs such as learning before doing, versus learning experientially; or that teaching is necessary for acquiring knowledge, versus learning independently.

Retired Stanford Professor William Perry describes his transition from early entrepreneur to government appointee and how he reluctantly agreed to answer the call in 1977. In conversation with Steve Blank, Perry says officials in Washington wanted him to introduce digital technology into America's weaponry, as he had successfully done in industry.

In conversation with entrepreneurship educator Steve Blank, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry discusses the three revolutionary technologies developed for the military during his first four years in Washington as undersecretary for research and engineering: GPS for guiding missiles, stealth aircrafts and the early network that would later become the Internet.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry recalls major chapters from his illustrious career with entrepreneurship educator Steve Blank in a discussion that spans Silicon Valley's evolution, digital technology's emergence and its adoption by the military, to Perry's time in Washington and his deep expertise in world affairs.

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry talks about the landscape of Silicon Valley before the region earned that name. In conversation with entrepreneurship educator Steve Blank, Perry recalls how he left a senior position at a large corporation to start his own company after realizing that the emergence of semiconductors would render existing technology obsolete.

William Perry, emeritus professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University, explains how employee ownership of his early startup, ESL, resulted in a positive workplace culture. "To succeed, the leadership of the company has to identify and associate themselves with the customers' problems," the former U.S. Secretary of Defense tells interviewer Steve Blank.

Bobby Lee, the co-founder and CEO of leading Bitcoin financial platform BTCC, answers some of the most common questions about the cryptocurrency, explains how its value is set and why it is the perfect monetary system for the digital age. Lee also shares familiar lessons for entrepreneurs that he learned launching his first startup in China.