After 21 years in 8 high technology companies, Steven Blank retired in 1999. His last company, E.piphany, was co-founded in his living room in 1996. Blank also founded two semiconductor companies, Zilog and MIPS Computers, a workstation company Convergent Technologies, a consulting stint for a graphics hardware/software spinout Pixar, a supercomputer firm, Ardent, a computer peripheral supplier, SuperMac, a military intelligence systems supplier, ESL and a video game company, Rocket Science Games.

In retirement, Blank wrote Four Steps to the Epiphany, a book about building early stage companies. His latest book, The Startup Owners Manual integrates 10 years of new knowledge (and fixes lots of typos.)

Blank now teaches entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program.

Dr. Alexander Osterwalder works as an independent author, speaker and advisor with a particular focus on business model innovation, strategic management and management innovation.

Besides his independent activities he is partner at Arvetica, a consulting boutique focusing on the private banking and wealth management industry. His role includes business development and the management of a peer knowledge exchange platform for senior executives in private banking (www.privatebankinginnovation.com).

Before that Dr. Osterwalder founded and ran BusinessModelDesign.com, a consulting boutique active in strategy consulting with a focus on business model innovation.

Dr. Osterwalder has a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems (MIS) from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where he worked as a teaching and research assistant and published extensively. He also developed and taught a seminar on Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).

Nathan Furr
Brigham Young University

Nathan Furr earned his Ph.D. at Stanford University in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and is currently an assistant professor of entrepreneurship at Brigham Young University. Nathan’s research focuses on market development and early stage entrepreneurial processes. In particular, Nathan has been working on ideas around Customer Development, Lean Startup, and the Nail It then Scale It methodologies which propose processes that entrepreneurs can use to dramatically transform their business models. In addition, Nathan’s other research examines issues of change, innovation, cognition and strategy in entrepreneurial and dynamic environments.

Professionally, Nathan has acted as the founder or advisor to startups in web 2.0, clean technology, retail, professional service, and financial services industries. In addition, Nathan is currently on the investment board of the Kickstart Seed Fund, an innovative early-stage fund. Nathan was also a consultant at Monitor Group, a premiere international strategy consulting firm, working with senior executives on a range of strategic and market discovery initiatives including strategy development, organizational change, technology commercialization, communication processes, strategic planning, competitive analysis, and marketing. In addition to his doctoral studies, Nathan has a BA, MA, and an MBA.

Education

Jerome Engel currently acts as the Faculty Director, The Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, UC Berkeley and is also the chairman for the New Venture Creation & Venture Capital Program, the faculty chair of Entrepreneurship Group (Haas School of Business) and a adjunct Professor for the Haas School of Business.

Engel is a general partner in the Monitor Ventures Partners also serves as a board member for four corporations and the Kauffman Fellows Program.  These including Adaptive Planning, Inc., MedAmerica, Inc., Electrascan, Inc., and Jupiter Systems, Inc.

Engel has several publications and focuses his research and teaching executive and entrepreneurial education. Currently his reseach includes the following areas Venture capital and private equity transactions, corporate venturing and innovation initiatives, clusters and networks of innovation, management practices in emerging enterprise ,technology management and licensing, mergers and acquisition, initial public offerings, financing high-tech ventures

Tina Seelig
Stanford University

Dr. Tina Seelig is the Executive Director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at Stanford University's School of Engineering. She teaches courses on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the department of Management Science and Engineering, and within the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford. Dr. Seelig is also the Director of the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter), which is dedicated infusing entrepreneurship and innovation skills into undergraduate engineering in the United States.

In 2009, Dr. Seelig won the Gordon Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, recognizing her as a national leader in engineering education. She also received the 2008 National Olympus Innovation Award, and the 2005 Stanford Tau Beta Pi Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2004, STVP was named the NASDAQ Entrepreneurship Center of the Year.

Dr. Seelig earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University Medical School in 1985 where she studied Neuroscience. She has worked as a management consultant for Booz, Allen, and Hamilton, as a multimedia producer at Compaq Computer Corporation, and was the founder of a multimedia company called BookBrowser.

Thomas Eisenmann
Harvard University

Thomas R. Eisenmann is the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration in the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School. He studies lean startups and management challenges in platform-based businesses that exploit network effects. Professor Eisenmann is Chair of Harvard's MBA Elective Curriculum. He teaches Launching Technology Ventures in the MBA Elective Curriculum, is course head of The Entrepreneurial Manager in the MBA Required Curriculum, and faculty co-leader of the Harvard Innovation Lab-sponsored Silicon Valley Immersion Program.

Professor Eisenmann received his DBA ('98), MBA ('83), and BA ('79) from Harvard University. Prior to entering the HBS Doctoral Program, Eisenmann spent eleven years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. As co-head of McKinsey's Media and Entertainment Practice during the early 1990s, he directed teams addressing strategic, organizational, and operational issues for clients engaged in network broadcasting; cable programming; newspaper, magazine, and book publishing; and motion picture production.

Professor Eisenmann is a member of the Strategic Management Journal editorial board. He is the editor of Internet Business Models: Text and Cases, (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2002).

Eisenmann is a director on the boards of Harvard Business Publishing; Harvard Student Agencies, the world's largest student-run corporation; and Brilliant Film Fund LLC, a UK-based motion picture production fund.