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.
Focused on the entrepreneurial world As the designated video channel for entrepreneurship, the e360TV Channel features content focused on important topics that are impacting the world of entrepreneurship as we know it.
Prior to Good Technology, Mr. Shader served as a Vice President and General Manager at Amazon.com, which he joined upon the company's acquisition of Accept.com, a company he co-founded and led as CEO. Accept.com was the first consumer-to-consumer, Internet-based, payment services provider. Mr. Shader's involvement in both Accept.com and Good Technology resulted from his two experiences as an entrepreneur-in-residence with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital. Previously, he served as Vice President of Partner and Developer Relations at Netscape Communications Corporation, where he also built Netscape's international marketing team. Before joining Netscape, he served as Vice President of OEM Sales and Business Development at Collabra Software, Inc., which Netscape acquired, and worked for GO Corporation, a pioneer in pen computing. Mr. Shader received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from University of California at Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Joe Liemandt has guided Trilogy's growth since the company's inception defining products and target markets, and building long-term relationships with customers. In 2000, he conceptualized Trilogy's current strategy of delivering 100% customer success through industry-specific offerings, which unlock transformational business value. Consistent with this strategy, Joe has pioneered innovative customer partnering arrangements, tied directly to delivering success: "If we don't help an automobile manufacturer improve their success rate when they're selling cars, they don't pay...if we and our customers are focused on delivering value for their business, then good things happen for both of us." (Newsweek, June, 2002) Joe's visionary leadership has differentiated Trilogy from its competitors. His industry-leading approach to customer success has been featured not just in Newsweek, but also Fortune Magazine, Harvard Business Review and on CNN. Joe has also innovated in the area of organization development and culture, recruiting and training a world- lass team through unorthodox approaches highlighted in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Businessweek. Prior to founding Trilogy, Joe attended Stanford University, where he majored in Economics. Courtesy of http://www.trilogy.com/leadershipteam.html and http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ecorp/articles/0,15114,372913,00.html.
Frank Ricks is a founding principal of Looney Ricks Kiss Architects. Since its inception in 1983, the firm has evolved into a multi- disciplinary design firm with offices in seven cities. He leads the firm's search for opportunities to create places of purpose, ranging from individual buildings to entire neighborhoods. As managing principal of the firm, Frank has helped shape and maintain the firm's culture of creativity, leadership and collaboration. In recent years Frank has begun to look for ways to involve LRK and its staff in roles of civic leadership and entrepreneurship. Frank is a graduate of the University of Memphis. Courtesy of LRK
As CEO of SpikeSource, Kim Polese is responsible for guiding the company's business vision: to make open source safe for the enterprise. Prior to SpikeSource, Kim co-founded Marimba in 1996, and as President and CEO she led the company through a successful public offering and to profitability. She then served as Chairman until Marimba's acquisition by BMC Software in April 2004. Before co-founding Marimba, Kim worked at Sun Microsystems and was the original product manager for Java, leading its launch in March 1995. Prior to Java, Kim worked in Sun's software division on object-oriented development environments. Previously, she worked at Intellicorp Inc., helping Fortune 500 firms implement expert systems. Kim earned a Bachelor's degree in Biophysics from U.C. Berkeley and studied Computer Science at the University of Washington, Seattle. Kim serves on the executive council of TechNet, a bipartisan coalition of executives focused on the growth of the technology industry and economy, on the board of the Global Security Institute, and the University of California President's Board on Science and Innovation. She is a Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Engineered Innovation. Courtesy of http://www.spikesource.com/management.html and http://www.osbc2004.com/live/13/events/13SFO05A/keynotes.
Lonnie Smith is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Intuitive Surgical. Mr. Smith joined Intuitive in June 1997 from Hillenbrand Industries, where he was Senior Executive Vice President. Mr. Smith joined Hillenbrand in 1978 and during his tenure he was also a member of the executive committee, the office of the president and the board of directors. Mr. Smith has also held positions with The Boston Consulting Group and IBM. Mr. Smith received his BSEE from Utah State University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Roger McNamee is a Managing Director and Co-Founder of Elevation Partners. Prior to Elevation, Roger was a co-founder of Silver Lake Partners, the leading private equity fund focused on technology and related growth industries. He was a member of Silver Lake's Investment Committee and was involved in all aspects of that partnership. Prior to Silver Lake, Roger was a co-founder of Integral Capital Partners. Integral is a leading technology investor in late-stage venture and public company investments. Founded in 1991 by Roger, John A. Powell, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Integral pioneered the crossover investment strategy, which seeks maximum capital appreciation by making investments in expansion-stage private companies and growth-stage public companies in the technology and life science industries. Prior to founding Integral, Roger managed the T. Rowe Price Science & Technology Fund and co-managed the T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund, which was at that time the largest emerging growth fund in the U.S. Roger serves as a trustee of Bryn Mawr College, an overseer of the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College, and a director of the Rex Foundation. Roger holds a B.A. from Yale College and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College.
Trip Hawkins is Chairman and CEO of Digital Chocolate, a creator of innovative mobile phone applications for life, work, and play. Trip is responsible for the strategic focus, overall direction, and performance of the company. Trip has been a new media pioneer for 30 years. Early in his career, Trip played a key role in defining the personal computer at Apple. He went on to found Electronic Arts and built the company into the industry leader. Trip also founded 3DO, a pioneer in digital video, network gaming, and social communities. The author of three patents, Trip introduced the use of celebrities and athletes in video games, and his design credits include award-winning best-sellers such as John Madden Football, Army Men, M.U.L.E., Doctor J and Larry Bird Go One on One, and High Heat Baseball . Trip received an MBA from Stanford University and developed his own major at Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Strategy and Applied Game Theory. He was also the first business executive to be inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.
Brook Byers has been a venture capital investor since 1972. He has been closely involved with more than forty new technology based ventures, over half of which have already become public companies. He formed the first Life Sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare, and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build over 90 Life Sciences companies which are developing hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs representing huge markets in the nearly two trillion dollar healthcare sector. Brook was the founding President and then Chairman of four biotechnology companies which were incubated in KPCB's offices and went on to become public companies with an aggregate market value over $8 Billion. He is currently on the Board of Directors of eight companies, most recently joining CardioDX, Genomic Health Incorporated, Five Prime Therapeutics, Nanofluidics and XDx, Inc.. He was formerly a Director of Idec Pharmaceuticals (Chairman), Athena Neurosciences (Chairman), Signal Pharmaceuticals, Arris Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacopeia, Ligand Pharmaceuticals (Chairman), Hybritech (Chairman), Genprobe, Nanogen, and others. These companies have pioneered the medical uses of molecular biology, monoclonal antibodies, molecular diagnostics and genomics. Brook was President and a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists and is a contributing author to the book "Guide to Venture Capital". He is currently a Board member of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Foundation, the California Healthcare Institute, the New Schools Foundation, Stanford's Bio-X Advisory Council, the Stanford Eye Council and TechNet. He is Co-Chair of the current five year, $1.4 billion, UCSF Capital Campaign. He was formerly a Director of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, t
Geoffrey Moore is a best-selling author and venture partner at MDV. Recognized for his expertise in market development and business and investment strategies, he serves as an advisor to many of MDV's portfolio companies, drawing upon best practices derived from his extensive work with technology startups. Geoffrey has made the understanding and effective exploitation of disruptive technologies the core of his life's work. His books, Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game, and Living on the Fault Line are best sellers and required reading at leading business schools. Highly regarded as a dynamic public speaker, Geoffrey is the founder of The Chasm Group and currently is managing director of TCG Advisors. Earlier in his career, he was a principal and partner at Regis McKenna, Inc., a leading high tech marketing strategy and communications company, and for the decade prior, a sales and marketing executive in the software industry. He holds a bachelor's degree in literature from Stanford University and a doctorate in literature from the University of Washington.
Ken Denman, chairman, president and chief executive officer of iPass, is focused on making iPass enterprise connectivity secure, simple and convenient to use from any location of the world, on any platform installed and any device deployed. Since joining iPass in October 2001, Ken has guided the company in leveraging the explosion in new broadband and wireless access technologies to make them real and globally available to any enterprise or service provider. Under Ken's leadership, iPass has remade itself, from a leading aggregator of dial-up remote access networks, into a company that provides a broad array of enterprise connectivity technologies that meet the needs of large corporate customers with thousands of traveling and telecommuting employees, all which require secure access to their corporate networks, mission-critical applications, e-mail and the Internet. Ken's career spans more than 20 years in the telecommunications and IT industries, with both domestic and global market experience. Before joining iPass, Ken was the founder, president and CEO of AuraServ Communications, a managed service provider of broadband voice and data applications. He has a strong background in the wireless industry, having held executive positions in the wireless and broadband divisions of MediaOne and US WEST. Ken was senior vice president of the National Markets Group at MediaOne's Domestic Broadband Unit before founding AuraServ; and prior to that, he was chief operating officer - wireless, at MediaOne International in London. Ken also serves on the board of directors of Openwave (NASDAQ: OPWV), a publicly traded leading provider of open software products and services for the communications industry. Ken holds a master's degree in business administration from the University of Washington and a bachelor's degree in accounting from Central Washington University.
Want to get connected? Sign up to receive regular news, polls and updates from The Kauffman Foundation.