The Stanford Technology Ventures Program: It Keeps Getting Better

The
Stanford Technology Ventures Program is
a bit over 10 years old now. I remember when it was just a pretty dream that
Tom Byers had, to build the greatest technical entrepreneurship program in the
world.  In the early days, I helped Tom
start an intense, year-long class now called the Mayfield Fellows program,
where 12 smart Stanford students first heard about what it was like to work in
the high-tech start-up for a quarter,  then each student worked in one for the  summer (and we all visited all 12 start-ups),
and then we met the next term to think about what we learned about entrepreneurship
and, especially, what each student learned about him or herself. We just
celebrated the 10^th anniversary of that adventure.

STVP
really took off when Tom brought Tina Seelig aboard as Executive Director about
8 years ago.  Tom and Tina, with help
from Kathy Eisenhardt as Research Director, have built a program of classes,
sparked and funded splendid academic research, and developed a set of materials
and conferences –- now held throughout the world –- to spread effective entrepreneurship
teaching. If you teach or want to teach entrepreneurship, or if you are an entrepreneur
yourself and want to see some great videos of world-class people in the world
of technology ventures, download podcasts, and find a host of other material,
visit their newly updated educators
corner. For example, check out a video of JetBlue founder David Neelman or the
one with Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the modern pen-based computer. 

The
thing that always impresses me about Tina and Tom is that they don’t just talk
about entrepreneurship, they never stop doing it: They are constantly starting
new programs and classes, partnering with new folks, and viewing everything
they as something that is could be even better. I talk to Tina a lot, and one
of the things I like about her most is how she is always coming with new ideas
about what to do next, and when she decides that something is worth doing, she implements
it at breathtaking speed. Things often move slowly in Academia, but not at
STVP.