Stanford Entrepreneurship Videos

While acknowledging that entrepreneurs must at times "fake it until you make it" in order to convince investors and others that a venture can succeed, ModCloth Co-Founder Susan Koger says that constantly pretending to be competent or optimistic can inhibit you from showing enough vulnerability to question convention and discover new opportunities.

Founder and CEO William Marshall takes us inside how Planet Labs seeks to benefit humanity by leveraging continuous imaging to understand the challenges facing the planet. Marshall discusses founding ventures with purpose, the opportunities possible from open access to data, and the novel technologies that bring their "dove" satellites to life in space.

William Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs, describes how the startup began building Earth-imaging satellites many times smaller than the aerospace industry traditionally produces. Marshall, a former NASA scientist, also explains how rapid iteration helped Planet Labs cut down production time and costs for its "dove" satellites.

William Marshall, a NASA scientist turned entrepreneur, explains how important timing and context were in the launching of Planet Labs. Marshall, the startup's co-founder and CEO, says the maturity of technology today and the confidence among his peers to question convention allowed them to leap ahead of their counterparts in industry.

William Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet Labs, says that starting a business should not be the first response to every pain point in the market, but decided only after it becomes clear that there is no other solution. Marshall also describes how passion and a breakthrough idea, not business skills or an MBA, are central to entrepreneurship.

Planet Labs' William Marshall shares advice on raising venture capital, based on first-hand experience. Among his rules for fundraising, Marshall says entrepreneurs should: only pitch to the people who actually make decisions, carefully calculate how much money to raise, avoid slide presentations, don't get into details, specify a deadline and ask investors what they can do for the startup.

Planet Labs Co-Founder and CEO Wiliiam Marshall explains a principle familiar to engineers: To affect a system, data on it must be gathered faster than the timescale of change. He says daily images of Earth will capture conditions quickly enough to address global challenges such as deforestation and natural disasters.

Serial entrepreneur and investor Chinedu Echeruo shares lessons from starting multiple companies, including HopStop, which was acquired by Apple in 2013. Echeruo discusses the beneficial attributes of founders, learning from his missteps, and why he sees creativity as a tool for unleashing value for the world.

Entrepreneur and investor Chinedu Echeruo explains why building teams and minimum viable products are not entrepreneurial virtues in and of themselves. According to Echeruo, the true source of human capital and potential lies in the ideas that we create.

Serial entrepreneur Chinedu Echeruo shares why his obsession with product proved beneficial in solving numerous business challenges during the founding of HopStop.

Entrepreneur and investor Chinedu Echeruo urges aspiring entrepreneurs to not look for ideas, but to discover new ideas through activity and action. Rather than seeing creativity as an abstract concept, Echeruo argues that it be used as a tool to unleash value in the world.

Mike Rothenberg, founder of Rothenberg Ventures, says a common trait among good entrepreneurs is an ability build supportive relationships in an unfamiliar environment. He also describes how being authentic and engaging are key to building a network, as is ensuring alignment with others by explaining how the relationship will benefit them.

Mike Rothenberg, CEO of Rothenberg Ventures, discusses how learning improvisation has taught him the valuable skills of avoiding saying "no" and finding the good in what others say, even if he disagrees. The art of improvising also demands you adapt to disappointing outcomes and turn them around, which Rothenberg says is important in business and life.

Mike Rothenberg talks about turning "one shot" business interactions, where the relationship ends once the goal is achieved, into "multi-shot games" that extend collaborations. The founder and CEO of Rothenberg Ventures says the key to empathizing and creating win-win solutions is to first understand that "everyone is rational" and incentive driven.

Mike Rothenberg encourages entrepreneurs to avoid "red oceans," a business-strategy term for cutthroat markets where competitors struggle for incremental gains. The CEO of Rothenberg Ventures says entrepreneurs should instead swim toward blue oceans, rivers and ponds, while developing the instincts to discover these emerging, wide-open markets.