Stanford University contributes significantly to the Silicon Valley innovation ecosystem through several key activities: 1. Interacting with industry and funding basic research that leads to creative ideas. 2. Providing a nearby environment in Silicon Valley for these ideas to grow into startups. 3. Educating students who become inventors, disseminators of new technologies, and skilled workers for startups. 4. Effectively transferring technologies through licensing to help launch new companies. 5. Encouraging entrepreneurship through progressive faculty policies and education programs.

1. How the Silicon Valley
Innovation Ecosystem Works:
Stanford University’s Contributions
Professor Tom Byers
Stanford University
UNCF HBCU Innovation Summit
October 31, 2013
Copyright © 2013 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University and Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP).
This document may be reproduced for educational purposes only.

2. Welcome to Silicon Valley

3. Domains of the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem

4. Silicon Valley Highlights
1. MARKETS: Many early adopters of new technology
2. HUMAN CAPITAL: A talent pool and social networks
– Loyalty to the technology with a unique openness
– Highly skilled and motivated
– Diverse (highly multicultural)
3. SUPPORTS: A services infrastructure with many suppliers for
outsourcing (accounting, public relations, etc.)
4. FINANCE: A venture capital industry that provides more than financing
(e.g., strategic advice, contacts, and recruiting of teams)
5. CULTURE: An entrepreneurial spirit and culture
– Role models that demonstrate audacity and humility
– Flat organizational structures and meritocracy
– OK to talk and partner across company boundaries about common issues and challenges
– OK to fail, learn from it, and then try again (e.g., a willingness for experimentation and
tolerance for risk)

5. Welcome to Stanford!

6. Stanford’s Economic Impact Through
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Data from “Stanford University’s Economic Impact via Innovation and Entrepreneurship” survey conducted in 2011 by Charles E. Eesley and William F. Miller, Stanford University

7. Stanford’s Activities
1. Interaction with industry, basic research funding, and
bold and creative thinking
2. Silicon Valley as a nearby planting ground for ideas
3. Students as inventors, disseminators, and workforce
4. Effective technology transfer and licensing operations
5. Progressive faculty policies toward entrepreneurship
6. Encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation
education on campus…

8. Stanford’s Activities

9. Stanford Technology Ventures Program
Courses
Entrepreneurship and innovation courses for undergraduate and graduate students offered in
collaboration with Stanford’s Department of Management Science and Engineering
Research
Leading-edge basic and applied research that enhances understanding of how new technology
businesses form, survive and grow
DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar
Weekly lecture series where entrepreneurial leaders share the lessons of their experience with
students, the Stanford community and the public
Mayfield Fellows Program
Nine-month work/study program designed to help undergraduates develop a theoretical and
practical understanding of the techniques for growing technology companies
Accel Innovation Scholars
Yearlong program for Stanford engineering Ph.D. students focusing on technology
commercialization, opportunity evaluation and entrepreneurial leadership

10. National Reach: Epicenter
Professor Sheri Sheppard, co-PI
•
Funded by the National Science Foundation and managed by Stanford
University and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance
•
Empowers U.S. undergraduate engineering students to bring their ideas
to life for the benefit of our economy and society by helping them
combine their technical skills, their ability to develop innovative
technologies that solve important problems, and an entrepreneurial
mindset and skillset
Tom Byers
Sheri
Sheppard
Kathleen Eisenhardt Tina Seelig Leticia Britos
Cavagnaro
Laurie Moore
Phil
Weilerstein
Angela Shartrand
Humera Fasihuddin

12. Epicenter’s Key Activities
Faculty
Host conferences and workshops on innovation and
entrepreneurship (I&E) education for engineering faculty
Students
Empower engineering students to catalyze grassroots I&E
movements at their schools
Leadership
Guide entrepreneurship-ready schools through process of
institutional change in engineering education
Research
Examine models for educating engineers in entrepreneurial
thinking and build a national research community
Online
Expand I&E learning resources to students and faculty via
online courses and modules

13. Conversation with
Two Current Students
Kai Kight
B.S. candidate
Product Design Engineering
Stanford University
Theresa Lynn Johnson
Ph.D. candidate
Aeronautics and Astronautics
Stanford University

14. Q&A and Suggested Resources
sen.stanford.edu
stvp.stanford.edu
epicenter.stanford.edu
Entrepreneurship: Its Role in Engineering Education
by Tom Byers, Tina Seelig, Sheri Sheppard, and Phil Weilerstein
Summer 2013, Vol 42, No 2
epicenter.stanford.edu/nae-bridge-summer-2013
How to Start an Entrepreneurial Revolution
by Daniel J. Isenberg
MIT Enterprise Forum Colombia
bit.ly/epi-revolution