Stanford Ignite Helps Entrepreneurs Gain Business Knowledge

A certificate program designed to help entrepreneurs develop and execute their ideas, the Ignite program at Stanford Graduate School of Business aims to provide students and business owners worldwide with the business fundamentals essential for launching their entrepreneurial ventures.

The Ignite program is geared toward entrepreneurs with innovative ideas who may not have the necessary means to successfully develop an innovative concept into a thriving business. The participants in the Ignite program are a varied mix of individuals from a wide range of professional backgrounds—from students who are just starting graduate school to scientists and engineers in top positions at large companies. Any leading innovators who have not received business degrees at the graduate level are encouraged to apply for a spot within Stanford Ignite.

Upon acceptance, entrepreneurs will participate in a seven-week course led by notable faculty members from Stanford Graduate School of Business. Instruction covers basic subjects related to core business skills, such as marketing, accounting, and strategy, as well as more specific skills such as product design. Students in the Ignite program will also learn functional skills related to areas such as negotiation, leadership, and teamwork. Apart from the standard courses, Ignite students will hear guest speakers and attend panels comprised of executives from major corporations and investment firms, some of whom also serve as mentors.

As a part of the curriculum, participants will work together in groups of five to six to conduct a venture project. Projects can be designed as new, independent ventures or to innovate a product or service that an existing company already provides. Ideas for ventures can be submitted prior to the beginning of the course through an online portal, where program participants can then vote on the concepts that most appeal to them. Those who submit the most popular ideas can then give video presentations on the first day of Stanford Ignite, and each participant can rank the presentations based on the degree of interest. Stanford Ignite’s faculty director then places participants into teams. The projects established through Stanford Ignite will end either with the seven-week program or will be carried forward by the original idea generator.

Altogether, Stanford Ignite requires a time commitment of around 100 hours of instruction, and an additional 100 to 150 hours outside of class for preparation and participation in venture projects. Although not all venture projects will continue on to the funding phase, all participants who complete the program will earn a certificate from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Some participants may choose to move forward with their venture projects and establish businesses outside of the program. Current ventures founded by entrepreneurs who participated in Stanford Ignite include ALICE Technologies, Bell Biosystems, Driptech, and HeyCrowd.

Stanford Ignite celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2016. In one decade, it helped to facilitate the creation of over 100 thriving businesses led by around 1,600 program participants from all over the world. What began as a single, on-campus course has blossomed into an international program with locations in India, China, Chile, Brazil, the United Kingdom, France, and New York City.

A Brief Look at the History of Blockchain

A Brief Look at the History of Blockchain

Although blockchain technology was only introduced eight years ago, it has begun to show significant potential for influencing the way that business transactions are conducted around the world. While the technology is still in its early stages, experts believe that it could disrupt every industry, and evidence of the truth behind this idea is already starting to manifest. To understand the possible effects that blockchain could have on the future of business, one must first consider its history.

Blockchain began in response to an escalating degree of public distrust in the supervision and regulation of the finance sector. The effects of the financial crisis of 2007-2008 were far-reaching, and the dependability of trusted third parties was called into question when an inquiry commission determined that the financial crisis was entirely avoidable. In October of 2008, an anonymous person known as Satoshi Nakamoto authored a paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” which introduced an alternative method of conducting financial transactions that eliminated the need for trusted third parties such as banks and other financial institutions.

In the paper, Nakamoto outlined the mechanics of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, which relied on what would later be conceptualized as blockchain technology. The blockchain technology facilitated the sending and receiving of Bitcoin between two parties in a completely secure manner by establishing a permissionless, public ledger—an anonymous record of all transactions conducted that was viewable to anyone on the Bitcoin network. Each Bitcoin transaction could be conducted through and stored within the blockchain, with each “block” of the blockchain connected to the preceding transactions through an unalterable digital signature.

In January 2009, the first “block,” known as “Genesis,” launched, and Nakamoto became the first person to conduct a transaction using blockchain technology. The success of the first transactions conducted within the Genesis block provided crucial proof that blockchain technology was viable, which then spurred further interest in Bitcoin.

While one cannot reference blockchain’s history without mentioning Bitcoin, its future is another matter. The conceptualization of blockchain technology allowed for the creation of other forms of cryptocurrency in the years following the invention of Bitcoin. However, by 2014 technology experts were referring to “blockchain 2.0,” a suggested application for the technology in the form of smart contracts. Experts believed that the same technology that allowed for the exchange of cryptocurrency could be used to conduct other kinds of secure transactions. In this same year, tech professionals founded the first startups focused on the development of blockchain technology and its applications. A year later, in 2015, NASDAQ announced its commitment to using blockchain technology on a trial basis. While some of the fervor over cryptocurrency has ebbed since the development of Bitcoin, the excitement over the technology that allowed it to exist continues to grow. Many technology experts today believe that every industry can and will eventually apply blockchain in some way, which is expected to make for more efficient and secure contracts in the future.