Yearly Archives: 2015

Goodbye Silicon Valley, Hello Brazil

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He was always interested in world, politics, business, and entrepreneurship. That’s how I met him. We were both undergraduates living at the International House at UC Berkeley. After leaving for his Master’s at Harvard, he came back to Stanford to study how to build companies. But Raj Patel’s hometown San Francisco felt like well-traveled territory already. He needed a change in lifestyle and culture. He needed something more international. So he packed his bags to become an entrepreneur in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In this week’s interview, Raj Patel will tell you what it’s like to pack your bags and head to Brazil to start a company.

Does Going to Law School Mean You’re a Lawyer for Life?

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Law school, medical school, graduate school, or something else. That’s the way a lot of American non-engineering college students think about their future choices. Jason Gross chose the law school route. He practiced for years as a successful litigation attorney but then decided he wanted to work in a new area. It’s a daunting thought to change fields after putting so much time into school and developing a specialization. So if you’re a lawyer who went to law school and has been working, what do you do if you want to change careers? This week we interview Jason Gross who went from being a litigation attorney to working at UCLA in development. He’ll tell you about his journey and what you can do if you’re thinking about switching careers.

What Does Financial Investing Have in Common with the Rest of Life?

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Ted Siegel has over 13 years of experience in finance. But he’s a big picture guy. He doesn’t just think about work relating to finance, but thinks about how his work in finance can relate to other parts of life. In this interview, he’ll tell you about some of his work in financial services and how those insights can be applied to other areas of life.

How to Design with Empathy

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Hooman Anvar is not only a User Experience (UX) design thought leader, but he’s also a good-hearted person. I met him because he was one of the winners of our Inventathon competition. Afterwards, he told me that he wanted to further deepen his design practice into building products and services to change and improve people’s lives. He’s an ideal person to work on that mission as his approach to UX is based on designing with empathy. In this interview, he’ll tell you what that means and how to apply it to you life.

How to Avoid Spending a Lot of Money Hiring an IP Lawyer like Erik Birkeneder

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Erik Birkeneder is not your stereotypical lawyer. He’s more like Marshall from “How I Met your Mother.” He’s a really nice guy, loves helping people, and from the midwest. But he’s also a smart and savvy IP lawyer. He specializes in patents related to medicine and bioengineering and is talking to us today about what people can do to protect themselves from getting sued for patent infringement and some common mistakes he sees people make in this area. This interview will be especially relevant for first-time entrepreneurs.