Volunteer to Mentor or Speak

Welcome to our active Alumni community!

There are so many ways you can become and stay involved with the entrepreneurs of the future, connect with current programs and help us shape our offerings here at the CES. For all programs and further information, please email us at [email protected].

Support Student Activities

Entrepreneurial Advising

Our active Advising program engages professionals from the entrepreneurial community who spend several hours to a full day advising students 1:1. Initial commitment is only one session, with additional sessions optional. If you would be interested in becoming involved, we would welcome hearing from you.

Stanford Venture Studio

The new Stanford Venture Studio is a vibrant collaboration space and place of practice for everything students are learning about entrepreneurship and Stanford Total Venture Design. Fall applications will be due in October for new teams or existing teams to continue. We host many programs through the Studio, including small group sessions with entrepreneurs and investors to get the scoop on what happens in the real world and coaching on their ideas. We also offer 1:1 advising for Stanford Venture Studio teams, focusing on their venture projects. The feedback and enthusiasm from students has been fantastic and they are highly appreciative of the time and expertise of advsiors.

In addition, we are planning workshops on various topics, which are open to all Stanford entrepreneurial graduate students so that the whole campus enjoys the Stanford Venture Studio to learn, collaborate and innovate and we need experienced alumni entrepreneurs to do workshops, advising, and small group sessions.

Entrepreneurial Summer Program

Through our Summer Program, we subsidize about 13% of our MBA1s to work for small, entrepreneurial companies (with 10-100 people) over the summer months. We will match whatever the company agrees to pay the students (there is a cap), which allows start ups who could not normally afford to fund an intern, to do so. We ask that companies outline the project the intern will work on, and demonstrate a positive commitment to mentoring.

If you and your company are interested in participating, we want to hear from you!

Case development and In-Class Speakers
We are always looking for alumni who are willing to do a case on their companies and to be a case protagonist in class, or who would like to be involved in speaking and/or panel discussions in the classroom. This is an opportunity to engage in current class discussions and engagement with students, please let us know if you are interested.

Participate in events

We also welcome alumni to participate in our programs, such as attending monthly Nuts & Bolts of Entrepreneurship sessions and our E-Provocateur series.

E-Provocateur Series

    Each quarter, we host a conversation with an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial thought leader who challenges conventional wisdom.

      Last year, we hosted Bill Campbell, the coach of Silicon Valley and Eric Reis, author of The Lean Start Up. This year we hosted: Andrew Mason, founder of Groupon on October 4 at 12pm in partnership with View From The Top; and pending speakers include Steve Blank, author of 4 Steps to an Epiphany on Oct 23 at 6:30pm; and Tory Burch, designer and entrepreneur on January 15, time TBD, in partnership with SEED.

      The Nuts & Bolts of Entrepreneurship
      CES holds practical skills workshops every month. Topics can include legal 101 (i.e. incorporating a company), equity considerations and valuation, storytelling for entrepreneurs, laser focus on priorities, etc.
      Whilst we hope to be able to invite alumni to most events, these can be more intimate sessions and space may restrict how many people we are able to accept.

      The Annual Conference on Entrepreneurship
      As part of E-Week across the Stanford campus, the GSB will host our annual Conference on Entrepreneurship on the evening of March 5, 2013, featuring Vinod Kholsa and an interactive program. We look forward to welcoming our alumni community to this event and will be posting more information on our website later this fall.

      The Alumni Entrepreneur Reunion
        The next reunion will be in Fall 2013. Stay tuned - we will be sending out invitations when we can.

        Entrepreneurial Alumni Advising

        Sheryl O’Loughlin, Executive Director CES, co-founder Nest Collective and former CEO of Clif Bar as well as Leah Edwards, Associate Director of the CES and serial entrepreneur, hold office hours weekly for 1:1 advising sessions with alumni and student entrepreneurs.

        Entrepreneurial Alumni Commitment Groups

          The CES Entrepreneur Commitment Group (ECG) is an alumni “support group” for early stage entrepreneurs and has been in existence for over ten years. The group gathers once a month in the CES to receive advice from each other about thorny business issues that face them all. Facilitated by GSB alumnus and serial entrepreneur, Alex Tauber (MBA ’97), membership is composed of 20 GSB alumni who have launched their companies and typically have raised their first round of funding.

            This summer, the CES inaugurated a second ECG section. “ECG 2.0” is for recent graduate students from Stanford who are about to launch their businesses. Our first session was in September and was very well received. Using our current successful ECG model, we plan to launch additional alumni entrepreneur groups throughout the country (starting in 2013). We encourage alumni to apply for membership and/or offer to facilitate a group in their area.

            Entrepreneur Online learning

              At the beginning of 2013, the CES will be launching an experiment to support entrepreneurial alumni online learning to support alumni and their start ups. We welcome alumni to help support this effort so we can develop the learning environment that best fits your needs. We will be announcing this initiative through alumni emails and the alumni discussion board.
              If you are interested in any of our initiatives or would like further information, please contact us at [email protected]/ces, it will help us answering you as quickly as possible if you can highlight which of our programs you are enquiring about. We look forward to hearing from you.