This starts off as a talk about startup methodology but somehow manages to morph into a sales pitch for an intriguing new solar technology. If you’re able to keep up with Bill Gross’s sometimes ferocious pace of delivery, stick with it, it’s well worth the ride
There’s something very reassuring about hearing the experiences of a devotee of lean startup ideas whose anecdotes about ‘pivoting’ date back to way before the web existed and whose insistence upon ‘minimum viable product’ as a strategy proves that it works just as well on something as down to earth as selling cars as it does with with ‘yet another mobile app’
My reaction to this talk was that, as a pivoting tale, it rivals the brilliant story told by Brian Chesky about the bizarre twists and turns in the early days of AirBnB.
This talk, given on the 23rd of February 2011 was called:
DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders – Bill Gross
The talk was one in a series of events hosted by the Stanford Entrepreneurship Network called Entrepreneurship Week 2011
Bill Gross founded Idealab in March 1996 and serves as the company’s Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Bill founded Idealab to create and build successful businesses that capitalize on innovations in areas with significant growth opportunities, including the Internet.
A lifelong entrepreneur, Bill started several companies prior to Idealab. In high school, he founded Solar Devices, a firm that sold plans and kits for solar energy products. In college at the California Institute of Technology, he patented a new loudspeaker design and formed GNP Loudspeakers, Inc.