Kyle Forster (Big Switch Networks) - Non-Linear Path to Leadership

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders (ETL)

Stanford eCorner

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

4.5 • 740 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2015

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kyle Forster, co-founder of Big Switch Networks, discusses pivotal moments from his career in Silicon Valley when expertise in early stage technologies propelled him into leadership roles. Forster also shares insights from several of his favorite books and the powerful lessons all aspiring entrepreneurs should heed.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, brought you weekly by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
0:10.3	You can find podcasts and videos of these lectures online at eChorner.standford.edu.
0:18.4	It's my sincere pleasure to welcome to Stanford. Welcome back, actually, Kyle Forrester to Stanford.
0:24.3	Stanford, he holds an undergraduate engineering degree from Princeton.
0:27.6	He also has a master's degree from computer science here at Stanford, as well as a master's in business administration from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.
0:36.0	He is also an alumnus of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program
0:41.8	course, E273, which is Technology Venture Formation.
0:46.2	So he got a lot of his start we'd like to think here
0:48.7	in the engineering school.
0:50.7	Kyle has worked as a developer and as an engineering manager.
0:53.7	He also holds seven patents, including patents, in wireless security and switching.
0:59.0	He spent most of his career working at Cisco.
1:01.0	He was, for example, the technical assistant to Mike Volpe for a while,
1:05.0	and then it was in a series of product management roles at Cisco.
1:09.0	He founded Big Switch Networks in 2010, and the opportunity there
1:14.6	was really around to take advantage of pioneering work in the new area of software-defined
1:19.5	networking that was invented here at Stanford. So he teamed up with a Stanford assistant professor,
1:24.7	and together they're trying to think and make a difference in the world by looking at that technology
1:28.4	and exploiting it.
1:29.9	So without my commenting further, let me introduce Kyle Forster.
1:34.8	Thanks, John.
1:36.0	Good luck. So first, before we start, Kathy, a big thank you, and thank you to Matt for creating this opportunity.
	...

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