Stanford Innovation Lab

In the final episode of our “Entrepreneurship and Ethics” miniseries, Stanford professor Tom Byers asks two leading venture capitalists — Floodgate co-founding partner Ann Miura-Ko and NEA managing general partner Scott Sandell — how the VC community can incentivize ethical leadership in the companies they fund and manage.

Entrepreneurship educators Laura Dunham and Jon Fjeld discuss the importance of ethics in entrepreneurship education. They explore the ethical implications of disruptive business models like Uber and the temptation to stretch the truth for investor attraction. The speakers also emphasize the value of honesty, transparency, and ethical decision-making in entrepreneurship. They highlight the growing interest among students and teachers in teaching ethical frameworks in entrepreneurship courses.

Stanford professor Tom Byers speaks with John Mitchell, chair of Stanford's Computer Science department, and Mildred Cho, associate director of Stanford's Center for Biomedical Ethics. They discuss emerging ethical questions in computer science and biomedical research, ethical frameworks in different fields, the significance of ethics in education, the possibility of a hotline for digital technology ethics, and training students in ethical thinking.

Theranos whistleblower Erika Cheung discusses motivations for joining Theranos, challenges of speaking out, commitment to patient care, and importance of incorporating ethics into entrepreneurship.

Stanford lecturer Jack Fuchs and CEO of Jazz Pharmaceuticals Bruce Cozadd discuss the importance of principles in navigating a crisis. Topics include developing values and principles for entrepreneurs, patient centricity in healthcare, and the impact of values and principles on decision-making and leadership actions.

We all hear that having professional mentors is critical to career success. So how do you identify a mentor and sustain the relationship? In this episode, Tina Seelig, Professor of the Practice in Stanford’s Department of Management Science & Engineering, and guests Tania Abedian Coke, founder of TellUs, and Lauren Ottinger of Intercom say successful mentorships are characterized by gratitude and reciprocity. It helps to seek a mentor one or two steps ahead of you in their career.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...the best skills and qualities you bring to a team! In this episode, Tina Seelig, Professor of the Practice in Stanford’s Department of Management Science & Engineering, and guests Steve Garrity of Hearsay Systems and Juliet Rothenberg of DeepMind talk superpowers. We all have them—we just have to identify them and apply them to the right problems. Your superpower may not be the same thing as your passion (hint: what’s easy to you, but hard to everyone else?), but it can be just as valuable in your career.

When it comes to building teams, it’s all about the blend. You need optimists and realists, dreamers and doers, yes-idents and CE-nos. In this episode, Tina Seelig, Professor of the Practice in Stanford’s Department of Management Science & Engineering, and guests Justin Rosenstein of Asana and Elizabeth Weil of 137 Ventures compare notes on finding the right balance of backgrounds and personalities. It’s not enough to say you want diverse perspectives--you have to make it safe for people to be who they really are at work.

Negotiation—whether it’s over a job offer or a merger—is a dance. Each partner must be attentive to the other, and they’ve got to agree on style and tempo. In this episode, Tina Seelig, Professor of the Practice in Stanford’s Department of Management Science & Engineering, and guests Andrew Scheuermann, CEO and cofounder of Arch Systems, and Jessica Verrilli, general partner at GV, explain what makes a negotiation successful. The best negotiations stem from openness and mutual trust between the two parties, and it helps to know exactly what you want it, and say it clearly.

Employers aren’t expecting perfection. They want authentic candidates who are excited about the company’s mission and brimming with curiosity about the role. In this episode, Tina Seelig, Professor of the Practice in Stanford’s Department of Management Science & Engineering, Tess Hatch of Bessemer Venture Partners, and Josh Reeves, CEO and founder of Gusto, explain how to convey those qualities in the interview—without coming off like a braggart, a know-it-all, or a Debbie Downer. And they remind you not to panic too much about the job search. When you’re early in your career, any step is a step in the right direction.