Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)

Creativity isn’t a luxury for entrepreneurs; it’s a necessity. Stanford University’s David Kelley, co-founder of the Stanford d.school and human-centered design pioneer, shares seven ways to cultivate creativity in everyday life – from savoring small moments to embracing messy prototypes. His insights serve as a reminder: entrepreneurship begins with curiosity, expands through experimentation, and thrives when we give ourselves permission to think differently. Read here: https://lnkd.in/gsY8arRe

The Strategic Management Society has honored two members of the STVP community for their impact on the field of strategy. Steve Blank, Stanford Adjunct Professor and Lean Startup pioneer, received the Strategy Leadership Impact Award for transforming how startups and institutions approach strategy and innovation. Henning Piezunka, STVP PhD alum and now Associate Professor at The Wharton School, received the Emerging Scholar Award for his research on collaboration, competition, and crowdsourcing. 🔗 Read the full story on our website: https://lnkd.in/g5chdapd

STVP hosted an in-person Fellows Fair at the STVP offices, where prospective fellows networked with program alumni. Each fellows program had its own breakout space for honest, ask-me-anything discussions. Big thanks to all the alumni who came back to share their journeys, and to everyone who showed up with curiosity and great questions. Learn more about our fellows programs here: https://lnkd.in/eNkJnUw3

What happens when the world’s largest firms keep getting larger? Traditional strategy theory suggests there are limits to growth due to diseconomies of scale. But today’s ultra-behemoth firms challenge that idea. At The Strategic Management Society Conference, four leading scholars debated a timely question: Are there limits to firm scale? Stanford’s Professor Kathleen Eisenhardt, STVP Co-Director Emerita, and Professor Jay Barney of The University of Utah argued that there are limits. Professors Alfonso Gambardella of Università Bocconi and Mary Tripsas of UC Santa Barbara made the case that there are not. Professor Vibha Gaba of INSEAD moderated the discussion. As questions of scale dominate today’s business landscape, do you think there’s an endpoint to scaling?

What does it take to build a company that powers the real economy? Sanjit Biswas, co-founder and CEO of Samsara, shares how he went from grad student founder to leading a global platform using data, AI, and IoT to make physical operations safer, more efficient, and more sustainable. Biswas reflects on: • Identifying meaningful problems • Pivoting industries with purpose • Running feedback loops that matter • Building talented teams 🎥 Watch the full conversation or listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://lnkd.in/e7NPzPRH

"Move fast and build wisely.” Stanford alum and VC Brandon Farwell is helping student founders lead with integrity through classroom case studies, role-plays, and deep mentorship rooted in lived experience. Explore how Brandon’s journey from BASES to Xfund is fueling a new model for ethical entrepreneurship at STVP, through the Xfund Ethics Fellow program. https://lnkd.in/eMe4uGFU

Grant Lee, CEO and Co-founder of Gamma, shares his company’s story with Stanford’s Ravi Belani. In this episode of ETL, Grant gives advice for early-stage entrepreneurs on building conviction, finding good co-founders, and gauging product-market fit. Watch here or listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://lnkd.in/exXmjBcD

How do academic entrepreneurs turn tough feedback into breakthrough progress? New research by STVP’s Professor Riitta Katila and PhD alumni D. Carrington Motley (Carnegie Mellon University) and Michael Leatherbee (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), explores how founders respond to critique, and what leads to real results. Drawing on data from 316 academic-led teams using the Lean Startup Method, the study finds that pivots to the core of a business idea are linked to greater commercialization success. The research, supported by the Stanford Initiative for Entrepreneurs' Resilience & Well-being (SIER) offers timely insights into resilience, adaptation, and how meaningful innovation often emerges from discomfort. 📄 Read the full article in Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal: https://lnkd.in/eTB_BdAb #SIERWellbeing

How do founders make decisions when the pressure is high and the path forward isn’t obvious? Applications are open for ENGR 148/248: Principled Entrepreneurial Decisions, one of Stanford’s flagship courses on entrepreneurial leadership. Taught by Jack Fuchs and Scott Sandell, this Winter course dives into real-world inflection points faced by tech venture leaders, exploring how values and principles shape critical decisions. Speakers include Parag Agrawal (former CEO, Twitter), Michelle Zatlyn (Co-Founder & COO, Cloudflare), Aaron Levie (Co-Founder & CEO, Box), KR Sridhar (Founder & CEO, Bloom Energy), and more. Stanford students can apply by Nov. 21 for early consideration, or Dec. 5 for regular review.  https://lnkd.in/dWqyE5Ks

Drew Endy, Stanford bioengineering professor and pioneer in synthetic biology, shares a compelling vision for the future of biotechnology in this episode of ETL. As co-founder of The BioBricks Foundation and the iGEM Competition, Endy has spent decades helping students around the world reimagine what’s possible. Find out what he thinks of U.S. policy hurdles, why biotech needs democratizing, and how aspiring entrepreneurs can adapt his framework to imagine their own futures. https://lnkd.in/eDukKxfi