New Video of My Stanford Talk on the Birth of America’s Entrepreneurial Economy

Stanford just posted videos from the talk I gave for its Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Series back in February.

The school created three short videos from my talk on the birth of venture capital and America’s entrepreneurial economy, which runs 56 minutes in its entirety. One video focuses on the birth of the industry: another is on the industry’s first home run (Digital Equipment Corp.); and the last asks and (hopefully) answers the question: why did Silicon Valley take over leadership of the tech world in the 1970s?

Click here to see the videos. The Stanford ecorner also has hundreds of other great videos from pioneers and current leaders in Silicon Valley. So it’s worth checking out even if you don’t want to see my stuff.

Speaking update: Looks like I am heading back to lovely Palo Alto. I just got invited to moderate a panel at Stanford’s Global Technology Symposium on Friday March 27. I am moderating the panel on corporate venture capital with executives from IBM (Claudia Fan Munce), Microsoft (Dan’l Lewin) and Google (David Lawee).

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History of U.S. Innovation and Venture Capital: Podcast of My Stanford University Talk

Check out a podcast of my talk from last week on the history of American innovation from Stanford Technology Ventures Program Entrepreneurship Corner, which publishes podcasts from the school’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Seminar Series.

The podcast runs about an hour and includes about 40 minutes of my talk, plus 15 minutes of questions and answers from those smarty-pants Stanford students as well as a few older folks in attendance, including a cool new entrepreneur/VC I met afterwards named Manu Kumar. Click here to listen to or download the podcast.

I have been getting a lot of positive feedback on the talks I gave in the Valley last week, including this one. I think the main reason is that I am sort of a contrarian who believes that great companies and innovations can emerge from a downturn. Let me know what you think if you listen to the podcast.

As one venture capitalist who attended a talk I gave at Quadrus, put it: “Thanks so much for putting the event together and for the invitation; it was inspiring to remind VCs to focus on the heart of entrepreneurship (vs. Being financial asset managers).”

[The Sierra Nevada mountain range from my plane window flying home.]

Book News & Good Reads

Apologies for not posting that much lately. In New York, the pace slows down in December. And the imperatives of the holiday season take over. (Yes, I am a last-minute gift getter!)

First, some good news on the book front. I have been invited to give a talk at Stanford University’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Seminar next Feb. 4. I am really excited about that invite given the high quality of speakers (Vinod Khosla, Judy Estrin and Guy Kawasaki recently spoke) and the role that Stanford has played in the birth of Silicon Valley.

I have also been invited to give a talk at my alma mater–UC Berkeley. On Feb. 5, I will be speaking at the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation of Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Finally, I want to give a few shout-outs to my colleagues at BusinessWeek who wrote some great stories this week illustrating our global reach and collective intelligence. Check out the following:

* New York online writer Arik Hesseldahl’s Tech Trends to Expect in 2009
* European correspondent Jennifer Schenker’s piece, Alcatel-Lucent’s Perpetual Turnaround
* Silicon Valley bureau writer Peter Burrows on Elevation Partners problems with its Palm investment.