Videos for Entrepreneurs

Short videos on startup and entrepreneurship are becoming a very useful way of learning and being inspired.

Most of the links below are to videos on people or ideas that are referred to elsewhere in Startup Savvy, but you can also dip into them when you want, quite independently. Have fun!

Each video is very different and they come from many different sources. The contents list on the right shows video titles. You will be able to find many more.

Search the Internet

For a wider selection search the Internet by subject or a person's name and just add the word 'video' and you will be amazed how many are out there, and not just on You Tube.

Some of the more interesting videos come from Google's on internal learning events, where they invite all kinds of 'guru' to the Googleplex to lecture and lead discussions. The videos tend to be about half an hour, so you may not want to watch them in the middle of the day.

A very good selection of videos is available from Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner, a free online archive of entrepreneurship resources for teaching and learning. Another place to go is TED—a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design and is devoted to giving millions of knowledge-seekers around the globe direct access to the world's greatest thinkers and teachers

Communication

Drawing on Napkins: Drawing on Napkins has become a voguish medium of communication. Actually the principle is often applied to paper, whiteboards, computers..., but the trouble is we often have a problem making the drawings work. Here is Dave Gray, founder of XPlane giving you a three and a half minute lesson.

Computers & Internet

Mike Sansone talks about the three 'C's of business bloggings. This is an excellent introduction to the subject. Conversations is his website.

Entrepreneurship

Guy Kawasaki is both a man who cuts straight to the point and gives the hesitant entrepreneur courage. This video is based on his book, The Art of the Start. You should see this one, even if you do not look at any of the others collected here.

A two year-old defines entrepreneurship. Wearing a Babson College tee shirt, she is obviously starting young at one of the leading entrepreneurship teaching universities.

Bo Burlingham is a writer who has spent many years at Inc. magazine, including being its editor. He is now editor at large and this enables him to concentrate on business writing. His book, Small Giants is very important for entrepreneurs to read. Here is a shortcut. Watch him talk about the book.

William Sahlman, a Harvard Business Scool professor says in a striking one minute video why new ventures must adapt. He endorses what I say in many places, not least on the Business Planning page.

Finance

The Elevator Pitch is described by Sean Wise an ex Ernst & Young Canadian now running his own show providing mentoring services for high growth companies seeking funding in Canada.

Inspiration

Paul Potts was a cell phone salesman who went on to win the show 'Britain's Got Talent', by singing opera. What has that to do with entrepreneurship? Nothing on the face of it, but what Paul Potts demonstrates is that pursuing your passion can take you a very long way. This video is in the first round of the competition. It has had some 18 million viewings.

Chip Conley talking about Where Great Companies Get Their Mojo and his own experience in using Maslow's hierarchy of needs with employees, customers and investors.

Anshul Samar makes a pretty convincing business pitch at 13 years old. Elementeo looks like a winner to me.

Katrina Markoff is the creator of Vosges Haut-Chocolat—peace, love and chocolate—company and has an individual business philosophy that comes from her deep passions.

Leadership

The book Tribal Leadership argues that groups of 20-150 people, or "Tribes", have more influence than teams, companies or CEOs in determining how much and what quality work gets done. Co-author Dave Logan identifies five tribal stages: Life sucks, My life sucks, I'm great and you're not, We're great and Life is great - and shows how they can be recognized by the language members use when they communicate.

Lectures

Mike Carroll is the author of The Mindful leader. This is a lecture that he gave at the Googleplex. It lasts just under an hour, but I nonetheless feel that you will find it an excellent to way to access his work and takes less time that reading the whole book!

Stewart Friedman is a Wharton Business School Professor and director of the Work/Life Integration Project. He has worked with thousands of people to strengthen their leadership skills and enrich their lives. Here he is interviewed by Knowledge at Wharton.

Microfinance

Microfinance: Hand in Hand is an NGO dedicated to the development of disadvantaged groups, especially rural and tribal families in the state of Tamil Nadu, India through grassroots action, research, and education. Initially working with child labor elimination, education and women's empowerment projects, Hand in Hand has grown over the years to develop an integrated strategy to address the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment. It aims at building self-reliance amongst disadvantaged groups by alleviating poverty through microfinance and sustained income-generating programs. This 12 minute video is startling by its graphic portrayal of how microfinance and associated programs can have a dramatic effect upon the Bottom of the Pyramid. By December 2008, 195,097 micro-enterprises had been helped, and loan repayments have been running at 99.74%.

Sustainability

Yves Chouinard on Walmart: you might not think this a natural pairing, but given that there are only ten countries (yes countries, not companies) bigger than Walmart, its actions are very significant. This is only a short clip, but one which I suggest you view.

The Girl Effect: give a girl a cow! Here is a short and graphic way of understanding how we can make an impact on poverty. Take a look.