Unlearn Your MBA…and Other Provocative Thoughts for Entrepreneurs

Two years ago, Ray wrote a blog indicating that he had listened to a particularly insightful lecture from Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, all of which are available to listen to via podcast, or for select speakers, watch via video. This lecture series is a real class in entrepreneurship (for which students receive credit) and I feel like I'm stealing course credit from Stanford when I listen--it's that good. As opposed to the short and wide variety of content offered by Ted/TedX, these podcasts are always incredibly focused on the key issues facing entrepreneurs, and there is enough time for more-than-sound-bite length discussion. The people who appear are a veritable who's who in successful entrepreneurship (although I would argue that there are more folks outside of Silicon Valley who would add greater diversity to the list; that said, one of the seminar's objectives is to strengthen the Valley community, so I see why they have made their choices). Some of the podcasts that I most enjoyed...

1. A Panorama of Venture Capital and Beyond by Marc Andreessen: He comments on both what he learned from his experiences leading companies and what he is now wanting to accomplish in VC. Steve Case of AOL also did a seminar in a similar vein (People, Passion, Perserverance: You've Got Entrepreneurship), as he's now at Revolution Partners and can talk about what he learned as an entrepreneur and what he is now looking for as a VC.
2. A Cuil Tune-up for Search Engines by Anna Patterson, one of the earliest SEO engineers for Google and now CEO of her own venture-backed company: This one'sfor anyone interested in learning about search's evolution and Google, and getting into the head of a very advanced software engineer turned business manager.
3. Panel of Young Entrepreneurs: 6 of 8 panelists who recently graduated commented on the real questions of students--when do you start your company, in school or out of school? What's the best major? How do you consider if you want to take external VC dollars? Perfect for any kid in a university right now contemplating entrepreneurship or any of these questions.
4. Is Innovation Withering on the Vine? by Judy Estrin,now at JLabs and serving as the co-chair of the Board on which Ray sits in Washington (the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship): Her take on how to generate transformative, not just incremental, innovation is a do-not-miss.
5. Unlearn Your MBA by David Heinemeier Hansson (who invested in Ruby On Rails): Three things to say here: insightful, provocative, and 100% enjoyable to listen to.
6. Success and Failure Drive Innovation: Two women, Polly Sumner and Liz Tinkham, talk about innovating in large and small companies. Polly Sumner has been at a large number of fast-growing startups (she's now at Salesforce.com)--her advice regarding career management was particularly relevant.
7. Honest Advice on Starting a Company by Mark Suster: Refreshingly different point of view, yet also incredibly practical.

Shockingly (based on the depth of offerings in the list above, alone) I've listened to fewer than half of the offerings. As I listen to more, and find others you can't miss, I'll pass them along. Happy listening and learning (or, perhaps more appropriately...listening and unlearning). Cathy Belk is the Chief Relationship Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business and relationship management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.