Some of the best entrepreneurship education ever recorded is sitting on video, free, from Stanford’s entrepreneurship series and top business schools. Founders of companies like Stripe, Slack, Intuit, and Pixar-adjacent ventures sharing what actually happened, not the cleaned-up version. We have curated these talks for years and used them in innovation programs, intrapreneurship trainings, and workshops with teams learning to think like founders inside larger organizations.
This guide collects the best entrepreneurship videos organized by the stage of the journey they speak to, with a note on how to use each in a training or team setting. If your organization wants people who can spot opportunities, test ideas, and pitch solutions like entrepreneurs, that is exactly the skill set we build in our design thinking workshops.
Videos on Starting: Ideas and Opportunity
Where to Start: The Power of Not Knowing (Liz Wiseman, Stanford)
Liz Wiseman argues that inexperience can be an advantage: newcomers ask better questions, take smarter risks, and learn faster than experts defending what they know. Workshop use: a strong opener for intrapreneurship programs where participants worry they are not qualified to innovate. Ask each person to name one advantage their rookie perspective gives them.
Serendipity in Design and Entrepreneurship (Stewart Butterfield, Stanford)
The Slack co-founder on how both of his major companies emerged sideways from failed games, and what it takes to recognize the valuable thing you built by accident. Workshop use: perfect for teams doing pivot discussions or reviewing “failed” projects for salvageable assets.
Accounting for Intuit’s Success (Scott Cook, Stanford)
Intuit’s founder on savoring surprises: treating unexpected customer behavior as the raw material of opportunity rather than noise to explain away. Workshop use: pairs directly with customer research debriefs. Have teams list the surprises from their last round of customer conversations and mine them for opportunity.
Crazy is a Compliment (Linda Rottenberg, Stanford)
The Endeavor co-founder on why bold ideas always sound unreasonable at first, and how entrepreneurs in emerging markets build anyway. Workshop use: useful when a group is self-censoring big ideas. Show it before a “worst idea” or wild ideas brainstorming round from our expert brainstorming series.
Opportunities and Challenges for Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Duke)
Kimberly Jenkins, the Director of Duke in Silicon Valley, and the Duke University Board of Trustees — Emeritus, presents the afternoon keynote address at the C200 Reachout Conference at Duke University.
Pursuing Opportunities and Pivoting to Growth (Harvard Business School)
It’s tough to build successful and sustainable businesses when the world is changing at warp speed. Yet each of the successful women entrepreneurs on this panel has done exactly that. The session will describe their journeys with special focus on two critical times in the life of a new venture. The first takes place early in the life of a new venture as the entrepreneur makes key decisions about becoming an entrepreneur, choosing an opportunity to pursue, and then experimenting to find the right business model to gain traction in the market. The second occurs as the new venture begins to gain traction in the market and the entrepreneur must pivot to high growth.
Leading Big Visions From the Heart (Stanford)
Asana Co-Founder Justin Rosenstein shares the philosophy and experiences that drive him to create positive impact on the world. Rosenstein also unpacks the values Asana focuses on in creating a thriving culture and offers ways for leaders and individuals to effectively manage their personal psychology.
Moving from Hubris to Confidence (Stanf0rd)
MuckerLab Co-Founder William Hsu shares his professional journey from young, headstrong entrepreneur to experienced leader working to support a thriving startup environment in Los Angeles. Hsu focuses on why building a company is different than starting a company, the importance of getting as many “at-bats” as possible, and the immense value of a pay-it-forward culture.
Building Insights with Bricks and Mortar (James Beshara, Stanford)
James Beshara, CEO and co-founder of mobile-crowdfunding platform Tilt, breathes new life into tired cliches, explaining the insights and inspiration they hold for entrepreneurs. Beshara, who has pushed the crowdfunding envelope since 2007, shares his belief in the power of the collective and seeing beyond individual data points to understand larger trends in behavior and business.
Creativity Unleashes Value for the World (Chinedu Echeruo, Stanford)
Serial entrepreneur and investor Chinedu Echeruo shares lessons from starting multiple companies, including HopStop, which was acquired by Apple in 2013. Echeruo discusses the beneficial attributes of founders, learning from his missteps, and why he sees creativity as a tool for unleashing value for the world.
Do Something You Love (Leah Busque, Stanford)
TaskRabbit Founder and CEO Leah Busque tells how a need for dog food on a snowy night in Boston turned into a rapidly growing venture connecting people in neighborhoods around the country. Busque also explains the value of sharing your idea freely and the importance of cultivating an atmosphere of mentorship and collaboration.
Figure Out What’s Important (Stanford)
Kathryn Gould, one of the first women venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, shares what she’s learned after many years of picking successful startups and forging her own career path. In conversation with tech-industry author and journalist Mike Malone, the co-founder of Foundation Capital tells entrepreneurs to identify a true target customer and market opportunity, and be prepared to give 100 percent.
Find Your Niche, Help the World (Stanford)
National Geographic Explorer Shah Selbe describes how much Earth needs technologists with an entrepreneurial spirit to address global challenges and conserve the planet’s resources. A spacecraft-propulsion engineer by training, Selbe shares profound experiences from expeditions in the wild and calls on the next wave of innovators to find their passion and realize that opportunities exist everywhere.
Revel in the Adventure of New Ideas (Stanford)
Steve Teig, president and CTO of Tabula, believes entrepreneurs get the most from life by committing fully to “making work you love.” In this expansive talk, Teig shares how to turn fear into a superpower, and weaves together insights from his career to explain the importance of always striving and why life is too short to not work with nice people.
Videos on Building: Execution and Hard Decisions
Nailing the Hard Things (Ben Horowitz with Tom Byers, Stanford)
The a16z co-founder and author of The Hard Thing About Hard Things on the decisions with no good options: layoffs, demotions, betting the company. Workshop use: excellent case discussion material for leadership cohorts. Pause the video at a decision point and have the group decide before hearing what Horowitz did.
Simple Rules for a Complex World (Kathleen Eisenhardt, Stanford)
Stanford strategy professor Kathleen Eisenhardt on why fast-moving organizations run on a few simple rules rather than thick playbooks. Workshop use: have teams draft the three simple rules for their own project or department. This connects naturally to the alignment work in our strategy workshops.
The Startup Journey: A Marathon, Not a Sprint (Joshua Reeves, Stanford)
The Gusto CEO on pacing, focus, and building a company you can run for decades without burning out. Workshop use: resonates in founder wellbeing and sustainable performance discussions, and with long-horizon internal ventures.
Putting Startup Success in Perspective (John Collison, Stanford)
The Stripe co-founder, recorded early in the company’s rise, on keeping perspective while building fast. Workshop use: good discussion starter on what success metrics actually matter at each stage of a new venture or internal initiative.
Business Models For Social Entrepreneurs (Duke)
From the “How Business Models, Capital Markets, and Ecosystems Help Scale Social Change” CASE event on October 22, 2010. Matt Nash, Cathy Clark, J. Gregory Dees and Jordan Kassalow.
The Discipline of Entrepreneurship (Duke)
Professor Fjeld’s session took place on December 18, 2013.
Creatively Entrepreneurial (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Carl Nordgren, founder of creativepopulist.com, discusses the importance of all people becoming more “creatively entrepreneurial.” In this talk he addresses four practices that enhance one’s ability to be creatively entrepreneurial.
Disruptors, Innovators and Entrepreneurs (Milken Institute)
Joe Cerrell, Director, Europe and Middle East, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Ryan Kavanaugh, Founder and CEO, Relativity Media
Nanxi Liu, CEO, Enplug, Inc.; Founder, Nanoly Bioscience
Geoff McGrath, Managing Director, McLaren Applied Technologies
Saad Mohseni, Chairman and CEO, Moby Group
The Mideast’s New Resource: Entrepreneurs (Milken Institute)
Amid the chaotic politics and widespread privation in the Arab world, a passionate cohort of entrepreneurs is striving to bring jobs, diversified economies and a culture of enterprise to the region. Christopher Schroeder spotlights their aspirations and achievements in “Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East.” Himself an entrepreneur, financier and member of the tech cognoscenti, Schroeder sees much cause for optimism as home-grown talent cross-pollinates with the venture investors and leading global technology firms that have made sizable commitments there, including Google, Cisco Systems and LinkedIn.
At this Milken Institute Forum, the author will describe the entrepreneurial landscape in a range of Middle East nations. He’ll explain how these intrepid and inventive trailblazers are overcoming the barriers they face, and how their efforts could transform the region’s place in the world. Expert observers have lauded Schroeder’s book for “shattering our stereotypes of the Middle East” and “brilliantly demonstrating that peace and prosperity is attainable for the region.”
Making Government More Entrepreneurial (Notre Dame College of Business)
Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. is the 49th Governor of the State of Indiana. Governor Daniels came from a successful career in business and government, holding numerous top management positions in both the private and public sectors.
From Lockup to Startup (Stanford)
Imagine trying to bring entrepreneurship education to one of the most challenging environments in the world: San Quentin State Prison in California. In this powerful talk and interview, The Last Mile Co-Founders Chris Redlitz and Beverly Parenti, along with program graduate Heracio Harts, discuss the benefits of commitment and entrepreneurial thinking in supporting individuals to make the successful transition from prison to living productive lives in society.
Magician Leadership (Stanford)
Magic experience designer Ferdinando Buscema brings an engineer’s background and a performer’s flair to this call to all entrepreneurs to think like a magician to achieve the impossible. Drawing from a rich variety of sources including psychology, the arts, and magic performance, Buscema illustrates a new leadership archetype for the 21st century.
Adventures in Entrepreneurship (Stanford)
Heidi Roizen, operating partner at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, shares personal and professional truths learned from her career as an entrepreneur, investor, and educator. Among other topics, Roizen examines the need for resiliency, the importance of valuing relationships over transactions, and why ethics should never be compromised.
Blue is Where You Should Be (Stanford)
Mike Rothenberg, founder and CEO of Rothenberg Ventures, describes the entrepreneurial approach he took in starting his firm and how failures along the way were actually opportunities to reset. He also explains the business concept of red versus blue ocean, where the latter represents an uncharted market that entrepreneurs should swim toward at all costs.
Creating Your Own Canvas (Stanford)
Rebecca Lynn, partner and founder at Canvas Ventures, shares her unlikely journey from the humble farming town of her childhood to the hotbed of technology innovation, fueled by engineering talent, entrepreneurial drive and solid guidance from mentors. Lynn describes her strategy for investing and observations about the world of venture capital.
Elon Musk’s Vision for the Future (Stanford)
The iconic entrepreneur behind SpaceX, Tesla Motors and Paypal shares his predictions for artificial intelligence, renewable energy and space exploration, in conversation with DFJ General Partner Steve Jurvetson at Stanford on Oct. 7, 2015. University President John Hennessy introduces the future-focused discussion, which follows Musk’s journey from his first Internet startup in the mid-nineties to his dream of a Mars colony in the next 20 years.
Entrepreneurship Takes Flight (Stanford)
Founder and CEO William Marshall takes us inside how Planet Labs seeks to benefit humanity by leveraging continuous imaging to understand the challenges facing the planet. Marshall discusses founding ventures with purpose, the opportunities possible from open access to data, and the novel technologies that bring their “dove” satellites to life in space.
Experience is Your Reward (Stanford)
Sean George, president and chief operating officer of genetics-information company Invitae, explains how the rewards of entrepreneurship come from facing the major challenges along the way. In this insightful talk, the serial entrepreneur also underscores the necessity of a team’s focus on mission to see a venture through adversity.
Find Your Venture’s Emotional Core (Stanford)
Susan Koger, co-founder and chief creative officer of the online retailer ModCloth, shares lessons that transcend the fashion industry. Reflecting on her startup’s early years and challenges along the way, Koger explains how emotion not only connects customers to a brand, it connects a team to the work.
Impact Will Keep You Motivated (Stanford)
Ron Gutman, founder and CEO of digital-health startup HealthTap, dares entrepreneurs to enjoy, not just endure, the journey by doing something that matters deeply to many people. A serial entrepreneur, inventor and big believer in the power of positivity, Gutman also describes how the heart of success is understanding human need at a granular level.
Life is Too Short for Bad Software (Stanford)
Lew Cirne, founder and CEO of New Relic, discusses his experiences as a serial entrepreneur, in conversation with Stanford Engineering Professor Tom Byers. Cirne talks about finding one’s strengths as a leader, the challenge of discovering a company’s second act, and why the best engineers must possess real empathy for the users of their products.
Making Complicated Things Simple (Stanford)
Alon Cohen, co-founder and president of Houzz, a leading platform for home remodeling and design, shares insights on being an immigrant entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, and how the drive to work hard and persevere are more essential than mere talent. Cohen explains that success rests on building products that are both useful and simplify complicated tasks.
Optimal Traits and Sustainable Advantages (Stanford)
Kevin and Julia Hartz discuss what it really takes to be a thriving startup organism in challenging ecosystems. As well as sharing insights from the early founding days of Eventbrite, the husband and wife co-founders explain the importance of continual focus on cultivating talent, maintaining sustainable advantages, and driving relentless evolution inside a company.
Tackle Projects Others Don’t Want (Stanford)
Nest Co-Founder Matt Rogers explains why careers can be made on taking on the challenges and projects unloved by others. Rogers discusses what he learned working at Apple on the original iPod and iPhone, the importance of not chasing the money when raising capital, and how he and Nest Co-Founder Tony Fadell went about building an innovative consumer electronics company.
The Power of Not Knowing (Stanford)
Author and leadership educator Liz Wiseman shares why cultivating a “rookie mindset” is an advantage in a rapidly changing world. Wiseman presents insights from her books, “Rookie Smarts” and “Multipliers,” including frameworks and techniques for how entrepreneurs, leaders and employees can embrace a life of constant learning and build a passion for multiplying the genius of those around them.
The Road to IPO (Stanford)
Yelp COO Geoff Donaker steps through the big questions and challenges faced in taking a company public. Donaker discusses working with bankers, developing a road show for investors, and many of the issues of pricing and timing faced by Yelp in the run up to their public offering in 2012.
The Science and Incentives Behind Solar (Stanford)
Lyndon Rive, Co-Founder and CEO of SolarCity, and Tim Draper, founding parter of the venture capital firm DFJ, discuss the clean-energy company’s mission to save the planet while exploring the many aspects of its business, from the science of solar power to the need for better government incentives and policies.
Be an Authentic Entrepreneur (Stanford)
Tristan Walker, founder and CEO of Walker and Company Brands, describes living your authentic brand as an entrepreneur. Traveling from the housing projects of Queens, New York to working on Wall Street and experiences at Silicon Valley tech firms, Walker discusses creating context to see opportunities and the importance of being in the problems and solutions business, in conversation with Stanford Professor Tina Seelig.
Entrepreneurial Role To Play In Southern California (UCLA)
William Ouchi explains why UCLA should take an active role in spurring economic growth in Southern California.
Digital Entrepreneurs (USC)
Today, human interaction has a mediator — the computer. Communication is regularly and expectantly happening over long distances and our daily exposure to individuals, brands and businesses is measured through an intricate system of cables and servers. Entire social existences are being lived online and the latest generation of innovators understands this phenomenon and how to make an impact in a seemingly infinite space. The Digital Entrepreneurs Panel invites such innovators to discuss the online market, how they have achieved success by creating engaging and interactive digital assets for both brands and consumers and why this is important. It will explore the topics of new media, social media, interactive marketing and the role of digital in business and outreach. The discussion is intended to be lively, engaging and of course, digitized. Panelists come from several industries including, retail, tech, agency, and social, but all share that they are young (30 and under), savvy individuals who have founded and grown their businesses and achieved success largely through their use of social media and the web. They represent the future — where current USC students could be in the next few years.
News Entrepreneurship (USC)
As traditional news organizations flounder, journalists are striking out on their own. But the skills of an entrepreneur are different than those of a journalist. Dean Ernest J. Wilson III welcomes Vikki Porter, director of the Knight Digital Media Center, and Tom O’Malia of the USC Marshall Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies to explain how the KDMC’s News Entrepreneur Boot Camp helps digital entrepreneurs create a sustainable business model for their innovative ideas to serve the information and news needs of their communities by applying successful entrepreneurship strategies.
Social Entrepreneurship (Yale)
Panelists: Seth Goldman ’95, Co-Founder, President, and TeaEo, Honest Tea; Neal Keny-Guyer ’82, CEO, Mercy Corps; Linda A. Mason ’80, Chair & Co-Founder, Bright Horizons Family Solutions; and Chuck Slaughter YC ’85, ’90, Founder & CEO, Living Goods, Founder and former President, TravelSmith
Moderator: Sharon M. Oster, Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, Director, Program on Social Enterprise, Yale School of Management
Videos on Scaling and Leading a Venture
An Emphasis on Excellence (Morris Chang, Stanford)
The TSMC founder, who started one of the world’s most important companies at age 55, on operational excellence as a competitive weapon. Workshop use: a powerful counter-example for groups who assume entrepreneurship is a young person’s game or that innovation means abandoning discipline.
Growing a Creative Company (Jeanne Gang, Stanford)
The award-winning architect on scaling a firm whose product is creativity itself without diluting the work. Workshop use: fits creative agencies, design teams, and any group wrestling with how to grow without losing what made them good.
Injecting Innovation into Intractable Systems (Laurene Powell Jobs with Tom Byers, Stanford)
On bringing entrepreneurial approaches to education, immigration, and other systems that resist change. Workshop use: ideal for public sector, nonprofit, and social innovation cohorts who face constraints a startup never sees.
Make Government Work Better for All (Jennifer Pahlka, Stanford)
The Code for America founder on applying startup methods inside government. Workshop use: the go-to talk for government innovation teams and civic tech programs.
Inside the Case Method: The Entrepreneurial Manager (Harvard)
There are special moments that pull everything we have learned into focus. When theory, practice, experience and talent all come to one sharp point — a decision that shapes a definitive course of action. When it’s no longer an issue of what can be done, but of what you will do.
Entrepreneurship and New Economies (Stanford)
Researchers and investors explored the hurdles and opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurs in post-transition economies. The panelists were Niall O’Cathasaigh, George Foster, Gayle Lemmon, and David Welch.
Own Your Own Success (Stanford)
Kate Mitchell, managing director of Scale Venture Partners, demonstrates why an optimistic, but realistic mindset is a central key for successful entrepreneurs. Mitchell also challenges entrepreneurs to play an active role in civic life by actively telling their stories to affect policy at the national and international level.
Acquisitions, Lessons from All Sides (Stanford)
Jeff Seibert, senior director of product at Twitter, describes what went well and what didn’t during the acquisition of his earlier startups by big-name technology companies, stressing the importance of culture fit, maintaining your team’s trust throughout, and continued investment in growth after being acquired. Seibert also explains how an acquisition isn’t always the best exit strategy for a promising startup.
Consumers and Brands in the Digital Age (Stanford)
Tina Wells, founder and CEO of Buzz Marketing Group, answers questions on trend-spotting, ethics in marketing and new approaches to audience engagement. Wells also tells the story of her journey from school-age entrepreneur to leading a firm that helps companies create ways for consumers to express their true experiences with brands.
Non-Linear Path to Leadership (Stanford)
Kyle Forster, co-founder of Big Switch Networks, discusses pivotal moments from his career in Silicon Valley when expertise in early stage technologies propelled him into leadership roles. Forster also shares insights from several of his favorite books and the powerful lessons all aspiring entrepreneurs should heed.
Seeking the Full Potential of Education (Stanford)
Jennifer Carolan, managing director of the NewSchools Seed Fund, talks about the opportunities for technology companies interested in contributing to the changing landscape of education. In conversation with Stanford Engineering Consulting Associate Professor Steve Blank, Carolan discusses common mistakes of ed-tech founders and the need for engineers and consumer technologists in creating innovation in education.
Videos on the Entrepreneurial Mindset
What You Learn by Doing (Stanford Entrepreneurship Series)
The case for action over analysis: entrepreneurs learn what markets want by shipping, testing, and adjusting. Workshop use: show at the transition from ideation to prototyping, when teams are tempted to keep planning instead of building. This is the Action stage of the Challenge, Ideas, Action arc we facilitate in our innovation workshops.
Create More Value Than You Capture (Stanford Entrepreneurship Series)
A durable principle for platforms, ecosystems, and any business that depends on others succeeding alongside it. Workshop use: useful in business model design sessions. Ask teams to map who else must win for their idea to work.
Forecasting the Future of Technology (Steve Jurvetson, Stanford)
Venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson on spotting technology curves early and betting ahead of the obvious. Workshop use: pairs well with trend-scanning and futures exercises in strategy and foresight workshops.
Using Founder Stories in Training
Founder talks work in workshops for a reason we lean on constantly in our own facilitation: stories teach what frameworks cannot. A team will forget a slide about pivots. They will remember Stewart Butterfield discovering Slack inside a failing game. A few ways to get the most from these videos:
- Use the story as a case, not a lecture. Pause before the outcome and let the group decide what they would do. Then compare.
- Extract the pattern. After watching, ask: what did this founder do that we could do this quarter? Push for one concrete move, not admiration.
- Pair stories with pitching. Founder videos naturally set up pitch practice. Have teams present their own ideas Shark Tank style after studying how these founders tell theirs.
Entrepreneurial thinking is a trainable skill, inside organizations as much as in startups. If you want your team to practice spotting opportunities, testing ideas quickly, and pitching solutions with confidence, we design workshops that turn these lessons into lived experience. Explore our creativity and innovation training or contact us to design a session for your organization.