Innovator Stories (Video)

Peter Biggs experienced the transition from slavery to freedom a decade before the outbreak of the Civil War. Jarred Webb portrays the historical figure who lived in Los Angeles and was one of only twelve people in Los Angeles marked 'Black' on the 1850 US Census. Webb is then joined Dan Lynch (UCLA History) to discuss the high (and low) points of his life. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34370]

Dafina Toncheva invests in emerging technologies in the enterprise space with focus on Enterprise SaaS applications and security. She recounts her personal history; born and raised in Bulgaria with its political instability and financial hardships and her road to success. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34369]

As a music supervisor and executive on such films as The Big Lebowski, Sweet Home Alabama and Dead Man Walking, Dawn Solér joined ABC Studios in 2006 to bring her extensive film experience to the world of television. Once there, she established a full-service music department that manages every musical component on all of its shows -- the hiring of music supervisors and composers, budgets and integrating music from programming into marketing. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34368]

Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which eventually led to her current book, Thinking In Bets. Here, Annie explores bad experiences as opportunities to learn from. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Humanities] [Business] [Show ID: 34445]

Bing Chen is a digital media pioneer and entrepreneur. As a founding architect behind YouTube's multi-billion dollar global digital creator and influencer ecosystem, he was responsible for numerous groundbreaking initiatives that engaged more than 500 million content creators worldwide. Here Chen shares his three rules of job networking. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 34036]

Bing Chen is a digital media pioneer and entrepreneur. As a founding architect behind YouTube's multi-billion dollar global digital creator and influencer ecosystem, he was responsible for numerous groundbreaking initiatives that engaged more than 500 million content creators worldwide. Here Chen shares his three rules of job networking. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34036]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn how to start a business. This eight-month educational experience, with activities and curriculum spanning the entire academic year, culminates with the New Venture Finals, where the finalist teams present an investor pitch to a panel of judges for prize money. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33938]

Randy Modos is the president and a founder of PayJunction, where he provides vision and leadership for the company as it pioneers green payment technology and delivers operational efficiencies for businesses. The founders of PayJunction took an inspired idea and grew it into a company that process over $4 billion annually. But it’s one thing to create a world-class product, it’s another to leverage your core beliefs into a revolutionary approach. PayJunction is a leader in ethical payment processing and prioritizes long-term relationships over short-term profit. Modos has been a champion of this approach over PayJunction’s 18 years in business. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33673]

Eytan Elbaz is an American entrepreneur and investor best known for co-founding Applied Semantics. In 2003, Applied Semantics was acquired by Google for $102 million in a deal that included pre-IPO Google company stock. As part of the acquisition, Elbaz served as Head of Domain Channel at Google from 2003 to 2007. Eytan is an Angel investor and founder of many Los Angeles companies, most notably Scopely, a mobile gaming startup. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Render Media, a new-age digital media start up. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Science] [Business] [Show ID: 33473]

With over twenty-five years of sales and operations experience within the technology sector, Lars Nilsson is a global leader in enterprise software and selling solutions. He is currently the VP of Global Inside Sales for Cloudera, the company that has revolutionized enterprise data management by offering the first unified platform for data management and analytics. He explores his professional wins and his personal losses. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Business] [Show ID: 33675]