Work Play Love Stanford MBA Survival Guide

Transporting your best friend in a precarious perch above you moped? Keep your pooch safe, with a doggy holster! Safety trumps dignity ...

Wrote an article on speed reading a few weeks ago that got picked up on the blog of Steve Yoshida, an MIT Sloan School MBA: Above: Excerpt from Steve Yoshida’s post on speed reading I can’t read Japanese, so I ran Steve’s blog through Microsoft Translator, an online service transforming websites from one language to ...

David Lieb would have been a second year MBA at Booth had he not dropped out to found Bump Technologies—famous for the iPhone app letting people exchange contact information via fist tap. Below: 35 second video on how Bump works Released in March 2009, Bump became the billionth iPhone app downloaded from iTunes. It’s become ...

Did I read this right? Is a VC offering startups $10K plus use of a Menlo Park office, fully-stocked kitchen and even a shower—without taking an equity stake? Above: Info page on Summer Fellowship Program from Lightspeed Venture Partners Lightspeed Venture Partners offers a Summer Fellowship program that surprised me last week. I’d spent the ...

I use the word “cheat” here as in “cheating death”—to avoid something unnecessary that gets in the way of enjoying yourself and having a good time (i.e. no Honor Code violations, just time savings).  This habit began at the age of 7. My parents bought us the World Book Encyclopedia. It included a special service: ...

JobNob connects Startups with job seekers open to working for either traditional or alterative pay. In my mind, it’s a huge service to both audiences. Last Thursday, they packed Illusions Supper Club in Palo Alto with an Ivy League Happy Hour where I and fellow Stanford MBAs met some of the hottest new companies coming ...

A couple of weeks ago Keith Ferrazzi expressed shock that only 5 Stanford MBAs at his talk used Twitter. I wasn’t super surprised. Most people don’t think of social media beyond personal sharing. Did a quick post on my thoughts, tweeted Keith my opinion and that was the end of that. Yeah, wrong answer. Ryan ...

The Stanford MBA Diversity Lab impressed me today. The experience rose head and shoulders above the patronizing hear-this-so-we-don’t-get-sued corporate training I took in the past. Above: Stanford MBAs en route to Diversity Lab discussions. First, a short talk to set context, then half a dozen sharply dressed actors flown in from New York play out ...

Found an article at the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies I wanted to share: Top Ten Legal Mistakes Made by Entrepreneurs. #10: Failing to incorporate early enough #9: Issuing founder shares without vesting #8: Hiring a lawyer not experienced in dealing with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists #7: Failing to make a timely Section 83 (b) election ...

Dick Kovacevich spoke at the Stanford GSB last week on what’s he’s learned in the 43 years since graduating from the GSB. Above: Dick Kovacevich speaks in Bishop Auditorium at the Stanford GSB Highlights for me: Culture saved Wells Fargo. Sub-prime mortgages and CDOs didn’t fit with Wells Fargo’s cultural framework, so they were never ...