Purposeful Entrepreneurship Convening 2022
In June 2022, we co-hosted an invite-only convening to discuss how the Stanford community can better inspire, educate, and support our students, researchers, and faculty to translate their research into impact addressing global and systemic challenges in the areas of Climate Change, Inequity and Societal Health through purposeful innovation and entrepreneurship.
Why this convening?
Stanford has built a strong presence in entrepreneurship, and according to a 2011 survey, conservative estimates indicate that 40,000 active companies can trace their roots to Stanford. To put this into context, “if these companies collectively formed an independent nation, its estimated economy would be the world’s 10th largest. Extrapolating from survey results, those companies have created an estimated 5.4 million jobs and generate annual world revenues of $2.7 trillion.” However, more has to be done to collectively consider the long term impact of our innovations in the health of our planet and our society.
Our faculty, students, and researchers are passionate about translating their research to solving global challenges more than ever before. This convening intends to bring together the Stanford entrepreneurial community to open the dialogue around entrepreneurship, ethics, impact, and unintended consequences and come to a collective understanding of our responsibilities as educators and business leaders. Together we can build consensus around what the Stanford community can do, through existing courses and programs, as well as new ones, to educate the next-generation of responsible entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders.
We have a significant opportunity at Stanford to accelerate the translation of research into impact, and to shift the entrepreneurial culture in Silicon Valley and beyond to be more inclusive, sustainable, equitable, and responsible. To lead by example, we have to start innovating our courses, programs, language, and tools. The results of this convening could be manyfold, from establishing cross-campus collaborations, new courses and co-curricular programs, to thought-leadership and engaging students and leaders at Stanford and beyond.
Participants and activities
The convening was aimed first and foremost at Stanford faculty and staff who believe that purposeful entrepreneurship and ethical innovation are crucial to tackling global challenges in the areas of climate change, inequity, health, and beyond. We also brought in external partners interested in purposeful entrepreneurship and innovation. A select group of students was also part of this convening, as their perspective is crucial for us to design new educational programs and resources for them. The convening had discussion and brainstorming sessions aimed at creating new partnerships between the participants and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Long-term purpose
We are gathering crucial stakeholders, potential partners, and students to build a network that advances our ecosystem for purposeful and responsible entrepreneurship. We intend to build momentum and grow a community of researchers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, and cross-sector innovators and thought leaders to catalyze the emergence of new innovations and ventures driven by purpose and a sense of urgency in addressing the most pressing challenges humanity is facing. We intend to create more opportunities for such an ecosystem to grow from the fringes into the mainstream of technology entrepreneurship
Partners
Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign
Stanford Ethics, Society & Technology Hub
Stanford TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy
Stanford School of Sustainability
Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES) and Center for Social Innovation (CSI)
Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP)
Office of Technology & Licensing (OTL)
