In this episode, Paul talks with Bill Stensrud, investor and entrepreneur. They talked about Stensrud's involvement from the roots of the Internet, in a number of capacities. They discussed how, from an investment perspective, greentech and biotech industries are currently missing the technology breakthrough such as the transistor or the Internet, which would cause explosive growth. Finally, they explored the changing face of investing, in which new models may be emerging.

Stensrud graduated from MIT in 1971 majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He held a variety of technical, marketing and executive positions in the communications industry. He was a founder of StrataCom (acquired by Cisco), the CEO of Primary Access (acquired by 3Com) and an early investor and Director of Juniper Networks. He was a partner with a major venture capital firm in San Diego and ranked by Forbes Magazine as one of the top 25 “Movers and Shakers” in the venture capital industry. Stensrud is now a private investor and mentor to entrepreneurs.

Stensrud has been a philanthropist and an active supporter of the arts for many years. He has served on the boards of Scripps Health, the Neurosciences Institute, the San Diego Telecom Council, the University of California at San Diego Foundation, the National Venture Capital Association. He is a past President of the San Diego Opera and is a passionate lover of classical music in all of its many forms.

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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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