Over the last nine years, Jennifer McFadden has played an integral part in developing and fostering an entrepreneurial culture across Yale University.

On the show, we dive into the net of who is an entrepreneur and who has the opportunity to become one. Jennifer explains why she feels that we all have a responsibility to think wisely about our organizations, why we're building them, who we include, how we reward them, and why she’s optimistic that these changes are coming. We also zoom in on the role of design and design research and how Jennifer advises that new founders approach it when preparing to launch their new business.

Jennifer serves as an advisor to the Yale Landscape Lab on Yale’s West Campus, which supports synergistic projects in health science, entrepreneurship, and more, and connects over 20 professional schools, departments, organizations, and student groups across Yale. She also launched the Women Entrepreneurs at Yale (WE@Yale) Initiative and is a co-founder and advisor at Skillcrush, an online education company that focuses on teaching women technical skills. Prior to joining Yale SOM, Jennifer worked in media and tech. She was an adjunct professor at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York, where she also conducted research at the intersection of media, tech, and entrepreneurship and worked with start-ups in the news space.

“You try to give as much as you can get, and so my perspective on all that is, you know, regardless of the industry in which someone operates, they always have something to offer.” - Jennifer McFadden

“It's equally as important to pull people through the process of just exploring what it's like to find a problem, to find people who have that problem, to talk to them, to figure out how you can solve that problem and to put something out into the world.” - Jennifer McFadden

05:25 How Jennifer pivoted to her current role working with founders

10:09 The most significant challenges new founders face 

12:21 Skillsets that new founders often undervalue 

16:37 Trends in the types of problems that founders are trying to solve today vs when Jennifer first started in her role as an adviser to entrepreneurs

20:31 How Jennifer is approaching her mentoring responsibilities in a virtual environment

25:19 Why she launched WE@Yale Initiative for women innovators, and its goals going forward

34:31 What Jennifer advises founders who have just received their first set of truly terrible feedback do to get back on track

37:30 How Jennifer’s approach to working with founders has evolved over the last decade

42:23 Jennifer’s reflections on the future of entrepreneurship as an industry and how it's taught at universities

Jennifer McFadden on LinkedIn

Skillcrush website

Skillcrush on Facebook

Skillcrush on Instagram

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/substantial/

Podcast: https://substantial.com/OptimisticDesign

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/substantial/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/substantial

Website: www.substantial.com