Stanford eCorner

Greg Waldorf, CEO of the online matchmaking service eHarmony.com, describes the essential components of a successful entrepreneurial career. He believes that working with great people, taking risks, adaptability, passion and timely execution of plans can lead to success for entrepreneurs. He draws parallels between the satisfaction found through finding the right career path and a fulfilling relationship.

Warren Packard, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Andrew Frame, CEO of Ooma, present 10 lessons for building a successful start-up. They highlight the importance of dislocating large markets, active recruiting, organizational design, board construction, alignment of vision, managing mis-hires, building for scalability, product development, intellectual capital, and mentorship in establishing a lasting enterprise that adds value in the marketplace.

Janice Roberts, General Partner at Mayfield, discusses how Mayfield is going global and carefully evaluating opportunities in countries like India and China. She stresses the importance of accessing the needs of young customers who are embracing new technologies at an extremely fast pace and demanding more products and services.

An outstanding office culture trumps all, says Ken Wilcox, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, who heads the most noted financial hub for the technology sector. Wilcox discusses how his financial services institution has scaffolded against recession, and bullet points the uniqueness of commercial banking for the tech start-up.

The Humane Society of Silicon Valley had gone to the dogs before president Christine Benninger took hold of the leash in 1993. By nearly every metric - profits earned, animals saved, customers satisfied - she outlines how proven business practices transformed the HSSV into best of breed.

Dominic Orr is the President and CEO of Aruba Networks, a supplier of secure mobility and wireless Local Area Network (LAN) solutions for enterprises. Orr unveils Aruba's approach to building solutions for mobile workforces at Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies like Microsoft, NTT Data, and SAP. He articulates Aruba's strategies for competing with mammoths like Cisco, and emphasizes that speed of execution in this highly competitive market is key to his company's success.

Martin Eberhard is the Co-Founder, President of Technology and former CEO of Tesla Motors, a company that produces the Tesla Roadster, a battery-powered electric sports car. Eberhard discusses his inspiring journey of diverse experiences in building Tesla Motors. He describes the lessons he learned: from the realization of doing something meaningful to thinking an idea through and aggressively following all leads. Tesla Motors which started with two employees is now more than 250 employees strong.

Shai Agassi discusses his entrepreneurial journey from the enterprise software industry to his current work in clean energy. In the process, he describes the "physics of startups", drawing parallels between principles of business and the laws of physics. He emphasizes the importance of acting on an idea before it's adopted by the mainstream and navigating the inevitable uncertainties that can result in success or failure.

Parallel entrepreneur Mir Imran, CEO of InCube Labs, has launched twenty companies - at times simultaneously. He shares his solutions-focused expertise and identifies the vitality and growth of the biomedical healthcare vertical.

The co-founders of B Lab, Jay Coen Gilbert, Bart Houlahan, and Andrew Kassoy, unveil their infrastructure play that seeks to give voice to the burgeoning panoply of green business. They explain how a higher set of corporate standards accountable to the environment, employees, and the community, can craft a healthier corporate ecosystem for all.