Stanford Alumni Founders & Investors Monthly Networking Mixer - October
The Bay Area Founders Club (BFC) is excited to co-host "Stanford Alumni Founders & Investors Networking Mixer" with Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs (SA&E) at Stanford University on October 30th from 6 PM to 8 PM. Join us on campus for an evening of networking with influential angel investors, industry leaders, and entrepreneurial experts. You'll have the chance to connect with passionate supporters of the startup ecosystem while exploring opportunities to engage with Stanford's dynamic innovation and entrepreneurship community. Don't miss this opportunity to expand your network and learn valuable strategies for building strong, successful teams!
All BFC members are warmly invited to participate! Want to support BFC? Like, comment, or share this LinkedIn post! Your support can make a significant difference, helping more founders join us, benefit from our future events, and potentially secure their own investments!
Agenda:
30 min: Distilled wisdom on team formation from Perry Klebahn and Steve Blank, and QA from the audience.
5 min: Alec Walker talks about Stanford Angels (Focusing in particular on resources available to help startup founders build teams).
5 min: Jerel Lim talks about DECODE (Non-profit helping support student-founded and recent alumni-founded startups).
5 min: Paul Fang talks about Bay Area Founders Club (Focusing in particular on resources available to help startup founders build teams).
Network. Until the building requires us to leave, we will be mixing around and connecting with each other.
Here’s a lineup of our esteemed speakers.
Founder of the Lean Startup movement, Stanford Professor, and recent author of The Secret History of Silicon Valley
Steve’s journey took him from repairing fighter planes during the Vietnam War to joining Silicon Valley during its boom in 1978. Over 21 years, he worked at eight high-tech companies, including co-founding E.piphany, a dot-com success. His startups ranged from semiconductors to supercomputers, and his achievements include founding Rocket Science Games and serving as CEO of Ardent. Steve later shifted to teaching entrepreneurship at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and other top universities, where his "Customer Development" model became central to the Lean Startup movement. He also helped develop the National Science Foundation's I-Corps program and has helped spread entrepreneurial best practices into the corporate and government worlds. Steve is an iconic figure in Silicon Valley, renowned for distilling best practices from empirical and logical deduction and using them to shape modern entrepreneurship education.
Director of Executive Education at Stanford d.school and co-founding member of the d.school faculty
Perry is a seasoned entrepreneur, product designer, and executive with over 20 years of experience. Perry founded and sold Atlas Snowshoe Company off his invention of the world's first high-performance snow shoe, became Head of Sales and Marketing for Patagonia, and then served CEO of Timbuk2. Despite his success in startups and corporate leadership, Perry’s true passion is teaching. He challenges students to exceed their expectations by bringing rigor and precision to their design work. Perry started the d.school's famous Launchpad, d.leadership, and Bootcamp courses, and he teaches Designer in Society and d.org. He believes it’s always possible to see a problem differently and encourages his students to reflect rigorously on the past to shape their decisions.
CEO at DECODE | Board Member | Limited Partner
Jerel is the CEO of DECODE and an LP at IOVC. DECODE, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, aims to democratize knowledge and opportunities in tech entrepreneurship. With roots at UC Berkeley and Stanford, it has become the largest student-focused entrepreneurship community across top US universities. DECODE helps students and alumni turn their entrepreneurial passions into thriving careers and offers a UC Berkeley entrepreneurship course for both undergrads and grads each semester.
President at Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs TC
Learn about Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs (SA&E) and how it serves the alumni network and beyond: how the organization is organized as a non-profit to not take carry, how we provide deal flow through pitch sessions and curated blind introductions for our angel members, how we assemble and deliver educational content on timely startup-related topics, and insight into our strategies for how we choose which startups we support. Discover opportunities to get involved.
Founder at Bay Area Founders Club
The Bay Area Founders Club (BFC), founded by Dr. Paul Fang in Silicon Valley in 2022, is a thriving community led by Stanford alumni and students. With a network of over 10,000 members, including 120+ startups and more than 200 venture capital firms, BFC is a powerful resource for entrepreneurs and investors alike. BFC excels at helping members with hiring and co-founder matching. The BFC website functions as a specialized platform, much like a vertical LinkedIn, making it easier for members to find co-founders or recruit talent. Members can post job opportunities or co-founder requests directly within the community, providing instant access to top-tier talent. Additionally, BFC's Substack, boasting over 12,000 subscribers, reaches more than 100,000 views in 30 days, offering a prime channel for sharing job openings and finding the right candidates.