Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

There’s no one path to a job in venture capital, and there’s a growing movement to make the VC world more representative of the real world.

An estimated one billion people live with some sort of disability. Accessibility solutions represent a massive opportunity to make a huge difference and reach an underserved market.

Stay focused on your customers — even if there are only a few of them — and celebrate the small wins.

Barbara Liskov was already breaking new ground in 1968, when she became one of the first American women to earn a doctorate in the emerging discipline of computer science. After receiving that PhD at Stanford, she went on to design several influential programming languages, including CLU, an important precursor to Java. More recently, as an Institute Professor at MIT and head of the institute’s Programming Methodology Group, she has undertaken crucial research on distributed systems, information security and complex system failure issues. She is one of fewer than 100 individuals to receive an A.M. Turing Award from the Association of Computing Machinery. In a conversation with host Ann Miura-Ko, a lecturer in Stanford’s Department of Management Science and Engineering and founding partner of the venture capital firm Floodgate, Liskov explores how she discovered the nascent field of computer science, how she recognized and surmounted a number of fundamental computing challenges, and shares her concerns and hopes about how computing will continue to transform our lives.

Want to become an impactful leader? Build your perseverance muscles.

In entrepreneurship, observational skills can be just as powerful as single-minded conviction.

Find the space where your creativity will thrive.

Building a technical career first can lead to entrepreneurial opportunities later.

Accelerate into opportunities, then slow down to sort out complexities.

With the right tool set of skills and perspectives, you can flourish far outside your comfort zone.

Bring self-awareness to your career, and innovate to change the global paradigm.

Pioneer new technology by incrementally retiring risks. When necessary, add a touch of “entrepreneurial reality distortion.”