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Jeffrey Housenbold is President & CEO of Shutterfly, Inc., an internet-based social expression and personal publishing service. Shutterfly provides a full range of products and services that enable consumers to manage their digital photographs. Housenbold has a successful track record of building online consumer franchises by combining commerce and community. In June 2006, he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Retail and Consumer Products category for the Northern California region. Previously, Housenbold was Vice President of Business Development & Internet Marketing at eBay, where he managed customer acquisition and retention. At eBay he also held positions as Vice President & General Manager of its Business-to-Consumer Group and Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions. Formerly, he held senior management positions with AltaVista, including Vice President & General Manager, and was the Chief Operating Officer of Raging Bull, the community finance portal. He also served as Vice President of Corporate Development at WinStar Communications and as Manager and Founder of Accenture's Media & Entertainment Strategy Group. Housenbold completed his undergraduate degree with High Honors at Carnegie Mellon University in Economics and Business Administration and was also a Presidential Scholar. He went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Dean's Fellow. Housenbold is the co-author of The Shutterfly Guide to Great Digital Photos, an instructional book published by McGraw-Hill on the essentials of digital photography and managing images. He is an avid photographer with his Canon 30D.
Jeff Housenbold, entrepreneur and CEO of Shutterfly, captures a candid snapshot of what it means to be an entrepreneur. He focuses on his multi-decade shift from finance to photos, and spotlights how Shutterfly shapes memories, rather than moves product.
A company's name is a major intangible asset--but even a federal trademark may not be enough to protect it. This entrepreneur, owner of a media services business, discovered the difficulty in defending his intellectual property against a competitor with deeper pockets. Although he expected to win his case, the prohibitive cost of going to trial led instead to a settlement.
Jen-Hsun Huang co-founded NVIDIA Corporation in April 1993 and has served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors since its inception. Under his leadership, NVIDIA has become one of the largest fabless semiconductor companies in the world. NVIDIA has received numerous business and technology awards during Mr. Huang's tenure, including Fortune's Fastest Growing Companies, Wired Magazine's Top 40, and Stanford Business School's Entrepreneurial Company of the Year. Mr. Huang has served as on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation since 1999 and is often invited to speak on technology and business trends at industry events. Prior to founding NVIDIA, Mr. Huang was Director of Coreware at LSI Logic and a microprocessor designer at Advanced Micro Devices. Mr. Huang holds a B.S.E.E. degree from Oregon State University and an M.S.E.E. degree from Stanford University.
Mir Imran founded InCube Laboratories in 1995 to focus on his passion: creating medical device solutions that change the standard of care in critical healthcare markets. Mir began his career as a med-tech entrepreneur in the late 1970's. Over the decades, he has become one of the world's most successful inventors, entrepreneurs and investors in healthcare. Mir now holds more than 200 issued patents - and is perhaps most well known for his pioneering contributions to the first FDA-approved Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator. Mir's current crop of inventions includes advanced treatments for neural aneurysms, epilepsy, ulcerative colitis, obesity and chronic pain, among others. Most of these will enter clinical trials in the 2008 to 2010 timeframe. As an entrepreneur, Mir has founded over 20 medical device companies, including: Vidamed (acquired by Medtronic), Physiometrix, Cardiac Pathways, Advanced Cytomextrix (acquired by Oncotech 1997), Percusurge (acquired by Medtronic 2001), Reflow, Inc. (acquired 1999), Safeview (acquired by L3 2006) Intrapace (founded 2001), Spinal Modulation (founded 2005) and Zonare (founded 1999). As an investor, Mir serves as the Life Science Venture Partner for DFJ ePlanet, where he has led 9 investments in a range of promising ventures around the globe. Mir is also an active angel investor, with a portfolio based around both medical and pharmaceutical ventures. Mir currently holds board seats with Bodymedia, Cardiovasc, Intrapace, Egeen International, Spinal Modulation, ZARS and Zonare. Mir holds an MS in Bio-Engineering and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers, where he spent three years as a Research Specialist.
Medical device startups need to know when it’s worthwhile to make use of the pre-IDE process. The FDA review team can provide valuable insight to the medical business, but there are drawbacks, too. Read more to find out the pros and cons of the pre-IDE process.
The FDA has been sluggish in the approval of innovative medical devices. Read more on how delayed approval could endanger venture funding for medical device startups.
Earlier this month, Johnson & Johnson pulled out of the heart stent market amid struggling sales of its products. Read more on how this move reveals the need for continuous innovation in the healthcare business landscape.
Creators of new innovative medical devices need to know how to protect their ideas. Read more for tips on the best ways to do this.
For more than 20 years, filmmaker, music producer, and creative visionary QD3 has been producing hits and influencing culture. QD3 was born in London and raised in Stockholm, Sweden where he got his start in Hip Hop by touring as a break-dancer. With many gold, platinum and multi-platinum albums and singles to his name, QD3's success spreads to Rap, R&B and Pop. In addition to his many hits with artists such as Tupac, Ice Cube, and L.L. Cool J, he has composed award-winning musical scores for film and TV projects such as Menace II Society, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Training Day. In 1999, QD3 started a documentary production company, QD3 Entertainment, focused on chronicling the many dimensions of urban culture, garnering both commercial success and critical acclaim for titles such as the multi-platinum selling Tupac Shakur biopic, Thug Angel; the BEEF series; and most recently, the Lil' Wayne (Sundance) biopic, The Carter. In June 2006, QD3 went on to form QD3 Digital to take advantage of the technology explosion of broadband video, user generated content, video on demand, and mobile platforms. In 2009, QD3 Digital will be launching two web-based entertainment properties, qd3.com and ehustle.com. Early 2010 will follow with the launch of its first XBox and PS3 video game, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, in partnership with Genius Products, Numark, and Akai.
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