In the early days, admits GoldieBlox founder and CEO Debbie Sterling, the company had a focus problem. Small, under-resourced teams were hacking together numerous projects and exploring all opportunities at once. A more orderly and strategic rollout might have been more efficient, she concludes. On the other hand, she adds, some of those early projects — like the award-winning GoldieBlox mobile app — benefitted from that scrappy, nimble structure. She finds that a sudden influx of people and resources can sometimes bog down a project, and that small, scrappy teams have a place in mature companies as well.
Related

Luke Sykora,
Stanford University
Starting Up in a Downturn
An Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders mini-guide for aspiring founders facing a troubled economy.
Article
5 minutes

Josh Makower, MD,
Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign
The Biodesign Innovation Process [Entire Talk]
Innovation isn’t random – it’s a process that can be learned, improved, and effectively deployed to solve specific problems.
Video
52 minutes
Josh Makower, MD,
Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign
The Biodesign Innovation Process [Entire Talk]
Innovation isn’t random – it’s a process that can be learned, improved, and effectively deployed to solve specific problems.

John Felts,
Cruz Foam
Engineering Green Materials [Entire Talk]
To scale a technology, engineers need to think beyond the technology itself.
Video
53 minutes
John Felts,
Cruz Foam
Engineering Green Materials [Entire Talk]
To scale a technology, engineers need to think beyond the technology itself.