Steve Blank spoke about his theory that dysfunctional families breed entrepreneurs @Smart$Money in Silicon Valley. I find this is a fascinating subject & had shared his original article many years ago with many folks. He also spoke about how Founders often need to move on when a startup grows. As long as everyone is clear about this fact that Founders’ skills are more about research & that building a company requires other skills, then there is nothing wrong. His original article which is brilliant is on VentureBeat You can find Steve @his blog & on Twitter @sgblank
Steve Blank
Bjoern Herrmann: Benchmarking Female Startups
Video interview with Bjoern Herrmann. Bjoern is the 26 year-old founder of the Startup Genome. One year ago he & his team set out to find a scalable way to accelerate businesses across the world. After releasing two research reports on success & failure of startups that were downloaded 25,000 times he most recently released the first software product that is best described as a virtual mentor for now more than 13,000 software businesses. The published research has been adopted by more than 50 universities globally -including Stanford and Berkeley. Harvard Business School Professor Thomas Eisenmann called the findings an important contribution. You can try the product at Startup Compass Genome and learn more about the research at their blog. Before, Bjoern founded and led 4 for and nonprofit ventures in Germany, Bangladesh & the US. He also worked as an executive in Russia for one year for a mid sized marketing company. His personal passion or “leitmotif” is: unleashing human potential. His higher purpose is to strive to maximize the capitalization of every single individual. You can find Bjoern on Twitter @bjoernlasse
Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate: Women Should Just Play Entrepreneurial Game!
Video interview with Ann Miura-Ko, CoFounding Partner Floodgate. Ann’s investment interests include the innovations in e-commerce, security, and big data. In addition to serving at FLOODGATE, Ann is a lecturer in the School of Engineering at Stanford University, where she got her PhD focused on mathematical modeling of computer security. She teaches High Tech Entrepreneurship with Steve Blank and is a frequent lecturer in courses such as Technology Venture Formation, High-tech Entrepreneurship, and the Mayfield Fellows Program. Many of her students have gone on to secure Angel and VC funding for their ideas. Prior to joining FLOODGATE and her stint at Stanford, Ann worked at Charles River Ventures and McKinsey and Company. You can find Ann on Twitter @annimaniac