To build a successful B2B venture driven by voice recognition technology, Omar Tawakol leaned on his network, recruited a stellar tech team, set clear expectations with customers, and found new ways to generate competitive advantages.

Successful breakthrough innovation requires deeply understanding and processing the needs of customers.

Thinking long-term — on a scale of decades rather than years — can drive a principles-driven culture and sustainable growth.

For many entrepreneurs, confidence doesn’t emerge out of thin air, but instead comes from building a concrete skillset over the course of the career.

Scaling a startup isn’t a linear path. Sometimes you can launch with the wrong assumptions, fail to attract initial users, miss some big opportunities, and still succeed if you stay committed.

Data can be a powerful tool in the push for diversity and inclusion.

Founders from underrepresented communities are reshaping the entrepreneurial landscape.

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.