Stanford Entrepreneurship Videos

Neuroscientist David Eagleman discusses his pivot from academic researcher to entrepreneur and how it was fueled by a desire to create a positive and practical impact. Eagleman, who teaches part time at Stanford University, contrasts the conservative approach that public agencies take when funding scientific research, versus the fervor venture capitalists feel for “the big, leapy questions.”

Neuroscientist David Eagleman talks about how America’s high incarceration rate presents problems and opportunities for improvement. He explains how one of his startups scales an innovative practice by one jurisdiction, using software that automates an inefficient step in the legal process for deciding if someone who is arrested should be charged with a crime or released.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman answers a question about people’s obsession with their smartphones, saying that he believes today’s instant access to the world’s knowledge may actually enhance human learning. On stage with Stanford’s Tina Seelig, Eagleman describes how all the information we now have at our fingertips creates a more enriched context for curiosity within the brain.

Carlos Watson, co-founder and CEO of Ozy Media, describes how its forward-focused digital news magazine, Ozy, looks more toward innovators in business sectors outside traditional media. The Emmy-winning journalist shares the unlikely origins of his entrepreneurial drive, and explains how his wide-ranging career has been fueled by family, curiosity and the thrill of starting fresh.

Carlos Watson, co-founder of the daily news site Ozy, explains how his vision for reimagining news coverage began by asking himself what he disliked and what would delight the audience. The entrepreneur also talks about observing how innovators in other business sectors — ranging from transportation to technology — managed to enter and dominate already-crowded markets.

Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson discusses the realities of entrepreneurship versus the sometimes-glorified depiction of startup life in popular culture. He stresses the importance of hiring heads of finance and human resources to oversee business fundamentals, and emphasizes that working at a startup requires commitment and hard work — in the face of likely failure.

Entrepreneur and Emmy-winning journalist Carlos Watson talks about best practices he has observed in the startup world, noting that ventures that embrace proven processes over chaos tend to do better. He recalls the words of the late Silicon Valley leader Bill Campbell, who advised CEOs ranging from Steve Jobs to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and described how today’s visionaries are also masters at implementation.

Carlos Watson, co-founder of the daily digital news magazine Ozy, sums up the appeal of entrepreneurship for those who find fulfillment through creation: “There is nothing like going from a blank sheet of paper to a big win.” Prior to Ozy, Watson built a college-prep company that was sold to Washington Post/Kaplan, and then went on to work in media, anchoring shows on CNN, MSNBC and PBS.

Ozy Media Co-Founder and CEO Carlos Watson explains that he built his company in the Silicon Valley town of Mountain View — home to Google, LinkedIn and other leading tech firms — to be among the biggest innovators and disruptors of this generation. He says he would rather be in this entrepreneurial ecosystem than be among all the traditional news organizations on the East Coast.

Tim Kentley-Klay and Jesse Levinson, co-founders of autonomous-vehicle startup Zoox, detail a not-too-distant future when we’ll get into their cars and do nothing other than say where we need to go. In conversation with Stanford Professor of the Practice Tina Seelig, the two entrepreneurs explain how self-driving cars work and how their fleet of electric vehicles could make owning a ride obsolete.

Jesse Levinson, co-founder and chief technology officer at Zoox, discusses how creating everything in-house is intended to give the autonomous-vehicle startup a strategic advantage, likening the arrangement to Apple’s decision to control all aspects of creating the iPhone. For such a complex undertaking, Levinson says vertical integration makes sense, especially in order to introduce true innovation.

Tim Kentley-Klay, co-founder and CEO at Zoox, talks about how his biggest worries as an entrepreneur are the risks that his team doesn’t yet know about. He also describes the importance of bringing in domain experts and conducting experiments and collecting data, as opposed to having theoretical discussions about possible problems that the autonomous-vehicle startup might encounter.

Zoox Co-Founders Tim Kentley-Klay and Jesse Levinson make the case for a fleet of autonomous vehicles that is owned and operated by the company instead of individual consumers. They say it would allow the cars to be in use at all times, as well as let the company push updates — eliminating the problem of traditional ownership, where automobiles in time become obsolete.

Tim Kentley-Klay, co-founder and CEO at autonomous-vehicle startup Zoox, discusses the costs and benefits of industry disruption. While job losses and business closures get a lot of attention, not as much is paid to the resulting emergence of new ecosystems, according to Kentley-Klay, an animator, filmmaker and serial entrepreneur who has founded three design and technology-driven companies.

Zoox Co-Founder and CTO Jesse Levinson describes how autonomous vehicles navigate, and how much faster they can perceive and react to problems on the road. The computer scientist earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University in 2007 under entrepreneur and educator Sebastian Thrun, the first director of Google’s self-driving car program. “The fact is, 40,000 Americans are dying every year in car accidents,” Levinson explains.