From Scratch with Jessica Harris

By Jessica HarrisBusiness Entrepreneurship Marketing Careers

From Scratch with Jessica Harris episodes

August 27, 2015 Dr. Robert Langer
Dr. Langer is a chemical engineer who has pioneered the fields of drug delivery and tissue engineering. His lab at MIT receives roughly $10 Million in annual grants and has 100 researchers. Dr. Langer has helped to launch close to 30 start-ups, and his lab’s innovations have been licensed or sublicensed by 250 companies. Dr. […]
32 min
August 13, 2015 Devi Shetty
“Hands which help are better than the lips that pray” are the words that hang in Dr. Devi Shetty’s office with a picture of Mother Theresa, a former patient of his. Dr. Shetty is a cardiac surgeon who pioneered low cost cardiac surgery for India’s poor population. Dr. Shetty founded the Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital in Bangalore India in 2001. Doctors at Narayana Hrudayalaya perform over 7,000 heart surgeries per year without comprising quality. Through its scalable, low cost model, the hospital is able to treat patients who otherwise could not afford health care. Dr. Shetty is now expanding his vision globally– through another low cost hospital in the Cayman Islands.
Jessica Harris speaks to Dr. Devi Shetty about his new model for treating patients cheaply, yet effectively, from scratch.
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32 min
August 06, 2015 Neil Blumenthal
Warby Parker is an online eyeglass retailer that sells low cost vintage inspired glasses. For each pair sold, Warby Parker provides a pair of glasses to low income people in more than 36 countries through non-profit partners like VisionSpring. VisionSpring trains female entrepreneurs to give eye exams and sell glasses in their communities. Neil co-founded […]
32 min
July 30, 2015 Jonathan Bush
athenahealth is helping to build the internet architecture for the healthcare industry. It is a cloud based software enabled company that helps physicians manage patients’ electronic medical records, among other services. The company was initially focused on childbirth services in San Diego before transitioning into a digital management company for the healthcare industry. Jonathan speaks […]
32 min
July 23, 2015 Mark Morris
Mark started the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) in 1980. Headquartered in Fort Green, Brooklyn, the company is on tour more than 20 weeks per year. MMDG collaborates with leading artists, including the cellist Yo Yo Ma, the pianist Emanuel Ax, the designer Isaac Mizrahi, and the dancer Baryshnikov. Mark speaks with Jessica about how […]
32 min
July 16, 2015 Daphne Koller
Coursera offers online courses to the public through partnerships with leading universities internationally. Coursera was launched in 2012 and reached its first one million users faster than Facebook or Twitter. Coursera is one of a number of companies offering massive open online courses– or MOOCs– to address a growing global population and the rising costs […]
32 min
July 09, 2015 Bre Pettis

Bre co-founded Makerbot Industries in 2009 after working as a public school teacher in Seattle, Washington. Makerbot makes 3-D printers that make actual objects. Instead of producing ink on paper, a Makerbot makes items ranging from bottle openers and toys to homes for hermit crabs(!).
Bre talks to Jessica Harris about how he launched Makerbot Industries, from scratch. After this interview was recorded, Makerbot was acquired by the 3D Printing company Stratasys in a stock deal worth approximately $400MM in Spring, 2012.
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32 min
July 02, 2015 Joan Ganz Cooney
Since the 1970s, The Children’s Television Workshop—now called the Sesame Workshop—intended to help low-income children become better prepared for school by using television as a tool. The Sesame Workshop’s shows—including Sesame Street, The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact—ended up being much more far reaching, teaching and entertaining children from all backgrounds, internationally. Jessica speaks with television […]
32 min
June 22, 2015 Jay Kimmelman
Bridge International Academies is a private network of nursery and primary schools educating the poorest students in developing countries including Kenya, Uganda and India. Bridge charges families roughly six dollars per month for a pupil to attend school and uses economies of scale to keep costs low across its more than 400 academies. Jay speaks […]
32 min
June 18, 2015 Jeremy Stoppelman
Yelp provides user-generated reviews of local businesses through its website and mobile app. Its contributors provide their opinions on a variety of businesses, ranging from clothing stores to restaurants. Prior to launching Yelp, Jeremy worked at Paypal. Yelp went public in 2012.
Jeremy speaks with Jessica Harris about how he launched Yelp, from scratch.
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32 min