to page content
to site navigation
The Foundation's primary site.
Global news, events, and resources.
The national learning program for entrepreneurs.
A new approach to developing the next generation of high-growth firms.
Access to university research and innovation.
The Kauffman Foundation's charter school serving Kansas City.
Encouraging the aspirations of young people.
The platform for business plan competitions.
College preparation and access for urban youth in Kansas City.
A guide to Kauffman Foundation and partner resources, for aspiring entrepreneurs.
News and announcements from the Foundation.
From our vice president of Entrepreneurship.
From our vice president of Advancing Innovation.
News from Global Entrepreneurship Week
News about this education program for entrepreneurs.
Tweets for the eMed Community at Entrepreneurship.org
News from the Kauffman Labs program.
From our business plan competition service.
Contribute to the community seeking to improve entrepreneurship and innovation measurement.
A look at entrepreneurship from the Kauffman Foundation's Thom Ruhe.
Tracks research and policies that are accelerating economic growth and changing the world.
Brings to light various policies and initiatives to advance innovation and drive economic growth.
A selection of our videos
Take our video and audio with you.
Explore many of our publications.
Join the discussion on our LinkedIn site.
Join us on Google's social service.
The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
A technology entrepreneur loses his shirt on his first company, regroups and starts a second, and lives to advise others about how to get it right.
Founder, Chairman & CEO, JBoss Born in Paris in 1968, Marc got his Ph.D in physics from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. He started in Sales at Sun Microsystems France and then moved to the US where he worked on early java enablement of SAP at SAPLabs. Marc started the JBoss project in 1999. An ex-Lieutenant in the paratroopers, Marc holds a degree in Mathematics from the Ecole Polytechnique, a master in Theoretical Physics from the Ecole Normale ULM and was a visiting scientist at MIT during his thesis. Marc's research interest focuses on aspect oriented middleware.
Stephen P.A. Fodor is a native of Seattle, Washington. He received his B.S. in Biology and M.S. in Biochemistry from Washington State University and his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Princeton University. From 1986 to 1989, he was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at The University of California, Berkeley, working on time-resolved spectroscopy of bacterial and plant pigments. In 1989 he was recruited to the Affymax Research Institute in Palo Alto where he spearheaded the effort to develop high-density arrays of biological compounds. Dr. Fodor and colleagues were the first to develop and describe microarray technologies and combinatorial chemistry synthesis. In 1993, Dr. Fodor co-founded Affymetrix where the chip technology has been used to synthesize many varieties of high density oligonucleotide arrays containing hundreds of thousands of DNA probes. These DNA chips have broad commercial applications and are now used in many areas of basic and clinical research including the detection of drug resistance mutations in infectious organisms, direct DNA sequence comparison of large segments of the human genome, the monitoring of multiple human genes for cancer associated mutations, the quantitative and parallel measurement of mRNA expression for thousands of human genes, and the physical and genetic mapping of the human genome. In 2001, Dr. Fodor founded Perlegen, Inc., a new venture that applied the chip technology on uncovering the basic patterns of human diversity. The adoption of the technology by both commercial and research institutions for these and other applications continues to grow rapidly.
Thomas J. Fogarty is a specialist whose creative talents have impacted many diverse professional and entrepreneurial arenas. In addition to his teaching responsibilities as Professor of Surgery at Stanford University, Dr. Fogarty performs numerous cardiac and peripheral vascular surgeries, manages several medical device companies founded upon his product designs, is founder and active Senior Partner in the venture capital firm of Three Arch Partners, and also finds time to pursue his interest in oenology at the family owned and operated Thomas Fogarty Winery and Vineyards. During the past 40 years he has acquired over 70 surgical patents, including the "industry standard" Fogarty balloon embolectomy catheter. Patented in 1969, this first balloon catheter for the vascular system was a sophisticated version of the original crude instrument that young Tom Fogarty, then an OR scrub technician, designed in the late 1950's using a surgical glove finger tied to a ureteral catheter. Other commercially successful medical products designed by the Fogarty engineering group include a minimally invasive device for breast cancer diagnosis and therapy, and also a self-expanding stent-graft used to treat critical aortic aneurysms via a minimally invasive technique. Dr. Fogarty is a past recipient of the Inventor of the Year award given by the San Francisco Patent and Trademark Association, a four-time recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Presentation award presented by the American College of Surgeons, and was the first recipient to receive the award for "Achievement in Medicine" bestowed by the Santa Clara County Medical Association. Selected recent awards include the 2000 Lemelson-MIT $500,000 Prize for Invention and Innovation as well as the Association for Advancement of Medical Instrumentation Foundation's Annual Laufman-Greatbatch Prize for inventing breakthrough medical devices. Later in 200
Juan Andrés Fontaine, Chile's Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, discusses his government's recent practices and programs that strive to develop Chile's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Topics touched upon include government incentive programs to attract international investment, growth and development to Chile's university research and development, and a desire to build the nation into the innovation hub of South America.
As CEO of OptiMedica, Mark Forchette guides the company's continuing efforts to successfully deliver innovative medical technologies to market. In this lecture, he shares entrepreneurial lessons learned throughout his career, and discusses the importance of setting objectives and executing tactical plans. Forchette also touches upon the value of thorough preparation and overcoming early failures.
ooma is the result of Andrew's desire to combine his technical expertise with his passion for innovative and fun consumer products. Andrew Co-founded his first technology company, an ISP in Las Vegas, at age 15. He then joined Cisco as a full-time employee, and at 17 he became the youngest person ever to earn Cisco's top technical honor - a CCIE certification. He also earned a second one that same year, making him one of just eight people at the time to do so. At age 19, he moved to Cisco's Global Center of Expertise to focus on critical networking issues for large service providers in the Pacific Rim and Latin America. After several years at Cisco, Andrew joined start-up core router company Procket Networks as an engineer. He remained there until 2004, when he decided to return to his entrepreneurial roots as the founder of ooma. Andrew was recently named by the editors of Businessweek as one of the top entrepreneurs under the age of 30 most likely to shape the world's digital future.
Warren Packard, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Andrew Frame, CEO of Ooma, present 10 lessons for building a successful start-up. They highlight the importance of dislocating large markets, active recruiting, organizational design, board construction, alignment of vision, managing mis-hires, building for scalability, product development, intellectual capital, and mentorship in establishing a lasting enterprise that adds value in the marketplace.
Dr. Donald Francis is currently doing research to develop a vaccine for HIV at Genentech, Inc. In February of 1992 he retired after 20 years in the U.S. Public Health Service. At the time of his retirement he was the Centers for Disease AIDS Advisor to the State of California and Special Consultant to Mayor Art Agnos in San Francisco. In the latter capacity he served as the Chair of the Mayor's HIV Task Force. Dr. Francis is a Californian having done his undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He received his M.D. from Northwestern University and his Doctor of Science from Harvard. Before beginning his work on AIDS, Dr. Francis was involved in epidemic control around the world. He was instrumental in eradicating smallpox from Sudan, India and Bangladesh. He was also on the front line of the cholera epidemic in Nigeria in the early 1970's and the Ebola epidemic in Sudan in 1976. Dr. Francis also did some of the early developmental work on the hepatitis B vaccine, both in the United States and in the People's Republic of China. He began his work on AIDS in 1981. He was one of the first scientists to suggest that AIDS was caused by an infectious agent. As director of CDC's AIDS Laboratory Activities, he worked closely with the Institut Pasteur to prove that HIV was the cause of AIDS. He was also one of the earliest scientists to realize the impact HIV would have on the United States and has been an indefatigable advocate for a logical public response.
Want to get connected? Sign up to receive regular news, polls and updates from The Kauffman Foundation.
