Building Momentum
Building Momentum Diversity and Entrepeneurship Diversity and Entrepreneurship

Conference Session Recordings

Intro and Charley Moore Keynote

What does it mean to become an entrepreneur, and why take this path? Charley Moore, Founder and CEO of Rocket Lawyer, shares insights and reflections on his entrepreneurial journey in a chat with Amanda Irizarry, Stanford GSB MBA ’23

  • Charley Moore, Founder and CEO - Rocket Lawyer
  • Amanda Irizarry, GSB ’23, Director of Partnerships and Development - Galvanizer

Important Truths in Going from Zero to One

How does an entrepreneur decide to take the greatest leap possible to create something radically new, despite all the risks? Serial entrepreneur Collin Wallace, Managing Director at Techstars, leads a discussion with founders building products and services which solve big problems.

  • Collin Wallace, GSB '15, Managing Director - Techstars (moderator)
  • Beatriz Ayala Muñiz, Founder and CEO - Musicasa Concerts
  • Kimiloluwa Fafowora, Founder and CEO - Gander
  • Samuel Ulloa, GSB '05 Cofounder and CEO - Listo Unlimited

Finding Product Market Fit

What is the elusive product-market fit, and how do you find it? Khalil Fuller, Founder & CEO at Gift Card Bank, leads a discussion with other founders and venture capitalists who will share their stories and lessons. Learn about running experiments, identifying the right metrics for your business, generating and growing revenue, and knowing when to pivot.

  • Khalil Fuller, GSB ’20, Founder - Practitioner Capital (moderator)
  • Alan Chiu, GSB ’11, Cofounder and CEO - Enya Labs
  • Rosa Li, GSB ’15, Founder and CEO - wildwonder
  • Chad Munroe, GSB ’19, Cofounder and CEO - Jupiter

Venture Fundraising

Valeria Martinez, GSB ’21, Investor at VamosVentures, leads a panel of venture capitalists as they break down how venture works and offer tactical advice on bootstrapping, metrics, identifying the right sources of capital and all the unwritten rules of VC fundraising. They will also discuss bias in the VC ecosystem, the changing landscape, and where the opportunities lie.

  • Valeria Martinez, GSB ’21, Investor - VamosVentures (moderator)
  • Sara Deshpande, GSB ’09, General Partner - Maven Ventures
  • Amit Sridharan, GSB ’18, Founding General Partner - First Rays Venture Partners
  • Sydney Sykes, GSB ’22, Partner - Lightspeed Venture Partners & Co-Founder - BLCK VC

Building a Company Organically (without VC)

Deb Whitman, Director at the GSB Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, leads a discussion with entrepreneurs who launched and are growing their companies without taking venture equity investment. They will share their perspectives on the challenges, comparative advantages and disadvantages of not raising institutional capital, as well as how to stay competitive with venture backed startups.

  • Deb Whitman, GSB ’86, Director Center for Entrepreneurial Studies - Stanford GSB (moderator)
  • JeVon McCormick, President and CEO - Scribe Media
  • Arjun Nair, Co-founder and President - Great Learning
  • Nina Vaca, Chairperson & CEO - Pinnacle Group

Scaling and Building Successful Teams

Founders who have successfully scaled their companies discuss how their roles evolved as they navigated growth. They will share insights on how to scale sales, operations, and hiring strategically and efficiently while managing the needs of all stakeholders.

  • Rollins Stallworth III (moderator), Investor - Nava Ventures
  • Melissa Uribe Gil, Executive Vice President - Costex Tractor Parts
  • Dr. Michelle Longmire, Cofounder and CEO - Medable
  • Ritu Narayan, Founder and CEO - Zum

Who’s Building Momentum?

There are many organizations actively working to change the playing field for founders from communities historically underrepresented among entrepreneurs. This is your chance to hear which organizations are making change and having an impact — from funding under-represented founders to offering incubation, acceleration, and education, see who is building momentum toward more diversity in entrepreneurship.

  • Fern Mandelbaum, GSB ’88, Managing Director - Emerson Collective (moderator)
  • Jennifer Garcia, COO - Latino Business Action Network (LBAN)
  • Sean Mendy, Founding Partner - Concrete Rose Capital
  • Jennifer Neundorfer, GSB ’09, Cofounder and Managing Partner - January Ventures

Startup Spotlight

In this interactive, experiential learning session, a group of founders will give short pitches and receive feedback from an expert panel as a way for the founders and attendees to learn best practices around pitching, how investors react to pitches, and what they look for when making decisions.

Expert Panelists:

  • Sara Deshpande, GSB ’09, General Partner - Maven Ventures
  • Charles Hudson, GSB ’05, Managing Partner - Precursor Ventures
  • Jo Zhu, GSB ’22, Head of PearX - Pear VC