9/21/2010 8:00:59 AM By Paul Kedrosky

In this episode, Paul talks with Steve Blank about the founding of Silicon Valley, and the reasons behind the region's continued success; they also touched on Blank's thoughts on lean startups, and how to teach entrepreneurship.

Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur and has been a founder or participant in eight Silicon Valley startups since 1978, including two semiconductor companies, Zilog and MIPS Computers; a workstation company, Convergent Technologies; a consulting stint for a graphics hardware/software spinout Pixar; a supercomputer firm, Ardent; a computer peripheral supplier, SuperMac; a military intelligence systems supplier, ESL; and a video game company, Rocket Science Games. He co-founded his last company, E.piphany, in his living room in 1996.

After he retired in 1999, he wrote Four Steps to the Epiphany, a book about building early stage companies. He has taught entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program. The "Customer Development" model that he developed in his book is one of the core themes for these classes. In 2009 he was awarded the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in the department of Management Science and Engineering. The same year, the San Jose Mercury News listed hin as one of the 10 Influencers in Silicon Valley. In 2010, he was awarded the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award at U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business.


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5/20/2010 2:17:22 PM By Paul Kedrosky
Frank PartnoyIn this episode, Paul talks with Frank Partnoy, the George E. Barrett Professor of Law and Finance and director of the Center on Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego. Among other topics, they discussed how investors' unrealistic desires for fortune have played into the hands of financial managers ready and willing to take advantage of them.

In addition to writing regular opinion pieces for The New York Times and the Financial Times, Partnoy has written several books, including Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets, a leading corporate law casebook, and The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals, about the 1920s markets and Ivar Kreuger, who many consider the father of modern financial schemes. He has been interviewed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central), the Diane Rehm Show (NPR), Fresh Air (NPR) The NewsHour (PBS), and 60 Minutes (CBS).
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32:32
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This site supports the Kauffman Foundation's Infectious Talk podcast series, with Paul Kedrosky. In addition to being able to download or listen to each episode, you'll find more information about each guest, as well as links mentioned in each show and transcripts of the conversations.
Paul Kedrosky is a senior fellow of the Kauffman Foundation, an investor, speaker, writer, media guy, and entrepreneur. In his spare time he is a dangerous Twitterer, analyst for CNBC television, and the editor of Infectious Greed, one of the most popular financial blogs available over the Interweb.