2020 Insight: Innovating at a Distance

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)

Stanford eCorner

Journey, Startups, Education, Stanford, Culture, Strategy, Stanford University, Entrepreneurship, Business, Life Lessons, Thought Leadership, Creativity, Etl, Challenges, Leadership, Innovation, Founders

4.4 • 739 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2020

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special micro-episode of ETL, Stanford professor of the practice Tina Seelig reflects on her key entrepreneurial takeaway from 2020. Seelig observes that, especially in times of great change and uncertainty, entrepreneurs can be empowered by the necessity to innovate. When it comes to COVID-19, the challenges of the pandemic also presented an opportunity to refine remote work. Seelig shares a clip from Digits co-founder Jeff Seibert’s 2020 ETL talk “Making Remote Work Better,” in which he explains how his company has leveraged remote work to drive both efficiency and creative collaboration.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, ETL fans. I'm Tina Seelig, professor of the practice at Stanford University.
0:05.9	I'm here to introduce a special series of ETL episodes. Over the next several weeks, Stanford faculty members who hosted our 2020
0:14.1	ETO series will be here to offer their key takeaways from a truly unique year.
0:20.1	2020 has defied all of our expectations.
0:23.3	From the challenges posed by the pandemic to the dramatic shifts in the workplace and the ways
0:28.1	we collaborate, our personal and professional lives have been disrupted.
0:32.9	With this backdrop, the entrepreneurs and innovators who visited ETL this year also brought
0:38.2	us weekly lessons on how to find agency in times of crisis and uncertainty.
0:43.8	Today I'm here sharing my takeaways from the 2020 ETL talks.
0:48.5	If entrepreneurs take away one lesson from this year, it's that even in times of trouble,
0:54.1	entrepreneurs find opportunities.
0:55.8	Every problem is an opportunity, and the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity.
1:00.7	Knowing this empowers each of us to look at the world as opportunity-rich and full of possibility.
1:06.8	In fact, some of the most successful companies have been founded during economic downturns or times of great disruption.
1:13.6	Examples include Revlon in 1932, Microsoft in 1975, and more recently Instagram, Uber, Airbnb, and Slack all founded during the 2008-2009 recession. These examples inspire us to see the diamonds
1:31.4	hidden in the ashes. Jeff Seiberd, co-founder Digits, shared a timely example when he joined
1:38.1	us for ETL in July. In this clip, Jeff talks about all the things he and his team did to build their company completely remotely.
1:47.0	This was done in the advance of the pandemic and has provided valuable guidance on how to make working remotely at least as effective as working together in person.
1:57.0	Let's listen to Jeff's clip.
2:00.0	When Wayne and I were starting digits, we realized that this was a long-term mission.
2:04.2	This was not going to be a quick flip of a company.
2:06.9	Building a whole finance stack is very challenging.
	...

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