Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago
Michelle Lee, CEO of Medra, explains how she applies first principles thinking to guide her company’s goals and focus. She gives examples of how she determines which problems to solve and advises founders to find clarity by imagining how things would turn out if taken to an extreme.
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Michelle Lee, CEO of Medra, explains how she applies first principles thinking to guide her company’s goals and focus. She gives examples of how she determines which problems to solve and advises founders to find clarity by imagining how things would turn out if taken to an extreme.
—-----------------------------------
Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram
Facebook: facebook.com/StanfordTechnologyVenturesProgram
YouTube: youtube.com/user/ecorner
LEARN MORE
eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
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Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.
![Vinay Hiremath (LoomAI) - The Uncertainty After Success [Entire Talk] [Explicit]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qKgfWY-6O80/mqdefault.jpg "Vinay Hiremath (LoomAI) - The Uncertainty After Success [Entire Talk] [Explicit]
Vinay Hiremath shares his entrepreneurial journey as the co-founder of LoomAI, a video messaging platform that grew to 30 million users and was acquired by Atlassian for nearly $1 billion. Vinay chronicles his entrepreneurial journey and its many pivots and adaptations – as well as his post-acquisition period of profound questioning and self-discovery.
This talk includes references to mental health challenges and substance use. The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (also at 988lifeline.org) is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. The Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support, text SAVE to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential.
(EDS NOTE: THIS EPISODE INCLUDES EXPLICIT LANGUAGE.)")
![Strategy for New Companies [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qxtU2z3ihZE/mqdefault.jpg "Strategy for New Companies [Entire Talk]
Kathleen Eisenhardt is the Stanford W. Ascherman M.D. Professor in the Stanford School of Engineering. She is also a faculty member with STVP, the Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center, and the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. Among the most widely cited entrepreneurship scholars in the world, Eisenhardt is the author of over 100 articles and several books, most recently (with Don Sull), “Simple Rules: How to Survive in a Complex World.” In this presentation, Eisenhardt shares strategies for founders of new companies in new and disrupted markets, providing case studies from her extensive research.
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Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
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![Jane Chen (Embrace Global) - Doing the Inner Work [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/r4nRLflRSVw/mqdefault.jpg "Jane Chen (Embrace Global) - Doing the Inner Work [Entire Talk]
Jane Chen is the co-founder of Embrace Global, which created a low-cost infant warmer that has helped more than one million babies in low-resource settings. Her new book, Like a Wave We Break: a Memoir of Falling Apart and Finding Myself, tells the story of her globe-spanning journey to break free of the narratives that once defined her and confront the long-buried truths of a traumatic past. In this conversation with Adjunct Lecturer Emily Ma, Chen encourages entrepreneurs to focus on journeys instead of outcomes, sharing her experiences with burnout and healing to illustrate the importance of self-compassion and finding the worthiness within.
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders and other Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at the Stanford School of Engineering. STVP empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
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![Good Friction [Explicit] - Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao (Stanford)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rYMlsG_hByA/mqdefault.jpg "Good Friction [Explicit] - Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao (Stanford)
Bob Sutton, Stanford professor emeritus of management science and engineering and co-author of “The Friction Project,” observes that friction isn’t always bad. He gives the example of a military employee who successfully pushed back against using a non-FDA approved device invented by Elizabeth Holmes, who has since been discredited because the device didn’t work.
(EDS NOTE: THIS CLIP INCLUDES EXPLICIT LANGUAGE.)
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Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
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Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.")
![Steve Cousins (Stanford University) - Real-World Robotics [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t0bORNw_-Lw/mqdefault.jpg "Steve Cousins (Stanford University) - Real-World Robotics [Entire Talk]
Steve Cousins is the executive director of the Stanford Robotics Center and founder of Relay Robotics (formerly Savioke), which builds autonomous service robots for hotels and healthcare. Cousins’ career reflects a commitment to advancing robotics from research to real-world applications. In this presentation, he shares stories of his time in research, startups, and academia to illustrate practical advice about hiring, developing robotics products, and bringing robotics into new industries.
Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders and other Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at the Stanford School of Engineering. STVP empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner
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eCorner by STVP: https://stvp.stanford.edu/ecorner
Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://stvp.stanford.edu/giving-to-stvp/.")
![What No One Tells You About Entrepreneurship [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tXfCQHcPFcM/mqdefault.jpg "What No One Tells You About Entrepreneurship [Entire Talk]
Clara Shih is CEO of Salesforce AI, the world’s most trusted enterprise AI for customer relationship management. A digital pioneer, Shih has been named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, TIME’s Most Influential People in AI, and the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She is a member of the Starbucks board of directors and serves as executive chair of Hearsay Systems, a privately held digital software firm she founded in 2009. In this presentation, Shih shares unconventional advice for finding professional and personal success as an entrepreneur.
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Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ECorner
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Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.")
![From Conviction to Company [Entire Talk]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t_R_kP8xIew/mqdefault.jpg "From Conviction to Company [Entire Talk]
Michelle Lee is the founder and CEO of Medra, which combines recent advances in robotics and computer vision to build lab automation technology. She has previously worked at NVIDIA, SpaceX, and McKinsey. Prior to founding Medra, Lee was an assistant professor in computer science and electrical computer engineering at New York University. In this presentation and conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Lee explains why she decided to start her deep tech company and uses her experiences to give advice to aspiring founders.
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Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. At STVP, we empower aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.
CONNECT WITH US
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ECorner
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/
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eCorner Website: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/
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Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://ecorner.stanford.edu/give.")
