E-Week Blog
Seelig helps students turn worst vacation ideas into the best at Stanford creativity workshop
By Anna Li
Tuesday, 12 March 2013 - 1:51pm
Wondering how to unlock the secrets of creativity? Just ask Tina Seelig, the executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and a faculty member at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, known on campus as the d.school.
At a Stanford University event Tuesday evening entitled, “InGenius: Levers for Unlocking Creativity,” Seelig opened by introducing her philosophy about where creativity comes from. She said there are six components to creativity: imagination, attitude and knowledge, which originate from within a person, and culture, resources and habitat, which are external influences in the environment.
Creativity is an art and a skill highly valued in Silicon Valley,...
Growing markets drive new generation of high-tech entrepreneurs in China
Riva Gold
Friday, 8 March 2013 - 1:02pm
For Americans thinking of starting a high-tech company in China, now may be the right moment. According to a panel speaking on the last day of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Week, market growth and the international flow of capital has caught the eye of a number of Americans looking eastward at trans-pacific opportunities.
“It’s a good time to be an entrepreneur in China,” said Qiming Huang, vice president of product development at the Chinese internet forum Tianya. Located in Hainan Province, Tianya is a popular online community that recently released an online shopping street platform.
In Huang’s view, China is experiencing a lot of entrepreneurial activity today, and has...
Ventures need more risk-taking, says Khosla
Xiaohuo Cui
Wednesday, 6 March 2013 - 10:52am
Entrepreneurship is the favorite word in the Silicon Valley. That explains why a name like Vinod Khosla itself is sufficient to attract the pious to hear about the word to convene at the Stanford campus on Tuesday night.
Khosla, Stanford MBA ’80, who founded the leading venture capital firm Kholas Ventures, told entrepreneurs to break rules, not be afraid of being unreasonable, and embrace failure. Khosla spoke at the Experience Entrepreneurship conference, an annual event sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies of the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), and part of the Entrepreneurship Week program at Stanford this year.
Although the discussion seemed...
Yelp, the Digital Age’s Yellow Pages, Endeavors to Stay Revolutionary Globally
Emily Tian
Tuesday, 5 March 2013 - 5:13pm
Yelp Chief Operating Officer, Geoff Donaker, is well aware of the competitive landscape and global expansionary challenges for Yelp, Inc., the online review site.
Speaking Tuesday to a group of students as part of the 15th anniversary of the Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society (ASES) Summit and Stanford Entrepreneurship Week, Donaker emphasized the scurry required to capture the opportunities that mark the shift from offline local advertising to online platforms.
“Print yellow pages is horrible for consumers, and the industry is ripe for disruption,” Donaker said during the hour-long session. “Digital replacing the yellow pages is a lucrative industry… There is...
Stanford entrepreneurs learn tips for getting green cards
Rachel Estabrook
Monday, 4 March 2013 - 9:59am
Close to 200 Stanford students packed an event Sunday evening to learn about a key aspect of getting their business ideas off the ground. The event wasn’t about securing venture funding or making connections at Google, though; it was about how to start a company without getting deported.
Part of Stanford’s Entrepreneurship Week, the event featured a panel of four foreign-born, Stanford-connected inventors and entrepreneurs who shared stories of their own successes and failures in getting visas to work in the United States. Moderator Tony Lai, an associate at Stanford-sponsored accelerator Start X, said “there is a...
Don’t celebrate failure, but learn from it, Google Ventures partner says
By Anna Li
Sunday, 3 March 2013 - 7:32pm
Many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs tout failure as the special sauce to their long-term success. Rick Klau disagrees.
“Celebrate failure – I don’t think that’s true,” said Klau, a partner at Google Ventures’ Startup Lab. “I don’t celebrate failure. I embrace it though. I’ll learn from it. Failure ultimately is just data. It’s a binary thing that’s helpful.”
Klau joined 12 entrepreneurs and 70 participants Friday evening to discuss the start-up process at “Stories from the Field,” a Stanford Entrepreneurship Week event with Google Ventures-backed founders.
Silicon Valley is a region rich with entrepreneurship and innovation. According to...
At GameJam, teams compete to design games in one day
Lauren Wilson
Sunday, 3 March 2013 - 5:46pm
At 7 p.m. Saturday night, the final gong sounds. Six weary but enthusiastic teams scramble to put finishing touches on their products – educational games aimed at teaching K-12 students subjects from financial planning to conflict resolution.
They are contestants in a GameJam, part of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Week and co-sponsored by Epicenter, an endeavor that coordinates faculty and student programs to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in engineering.
Hosted at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, the GameJam featured experts from design firm IDEO and GameDesk, a gaming research and development organization. The teams had10 hours to think of an idea for a...
Entrepreneurship opportunities evident in Africa, but capital is far behind
Galen Perkins
Saturday, 2 March 2013 - 5:38pm
African-based entrepreneurs are shifting away from the social impact model in favor of a for-profit model, which delivers both revenue and scoial benefit, according to a panel of experts who spoke Friday as part of Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford.
"It's definitely going in the capitalist direction," said Telerivet Chief Executive Officer Joshua Stern. "There's a lot of lost faith in non-profits, especially after poorly handled aid efforts."
The entrepreneurs and venture capitalists heard pitches from two Africa start-up entrepreneurs. The panel included Clickateel Founder and CEO Pieter de Villiers, Khosla Impact Fund partner Mark Straub and Richard Essex of East Africa Captial Partners.
...
What’s love got to do with it? Humanity at the core of entrepreneurial success, says Stanford Professor Tom Byers
By Gus Ellis
Friday, 1 March 2013 - 5:21pm
Stanford Professor and Hi Tech Guru, Tom Byers explained that humanities-focused students don’t have to miss out on their slice of the entrepreneurial pie.
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Speaking at an Entrepreneurship Week panel buzzing with the energy of about 50 aspiring entrepreneurs from around the globe, Byers assured all humanities students that entrepreneurial exploits are for them as well—in fact, he said, these ventures depend on them. “Raise your hand if you know who this is,” Byers asked the crowd while showing a picture of Cosimo Medici. He then explained that the Medici family was the “venture capital firm” of the Florentine Renaissance.
Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurs are...
Back to basics: VC’s remind today’s generation of entrepreneurs what it takes to succeed
Natasha von Kaeppler
Friday, 1 March 2013 - 10:59am
STANFORD–More startups die of indigestion than starvation, said Marguerite Gong Hancock, Associate Director of the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Moderating a panel featuring several Silicon Valley venture capitalists at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business’, Hancock advised young entrepreneurs to be mindful they not lose focus amidst the plentiful resources available in the Valley.
Another panelist, Cindy Padnos, who is founder and managing partner of Illuminate Ventures said that many companies fail due to what she termed “immature scaling.”
Ernst & Young Venture Capital Leader Jeff Grabow said he sees many young...
