As a Silicon Valley veteran, I just try to be useful everyday.
I have been fortunate to be in Silicon Valley most of my career and the Stanford design program has had a significant influence on it. From working at a direct services non-profit, to building products at global scale as an early employee at Google, and to today investing in the next generation of companies that aim to shape the world as venture capitalist, the design program gave me a unique set of tools to that enabled me to thrive in the unknown and uncharted. I have a particular passion for those products and technologies that address deep human needs and then evolve to become a part of our everyday life. I focus on solving problems at the intersection of technology, business, and the human experience.
I have been fortunate to teach Design 121 for nearly a decade, which was my introduction to design thinking many years ago. While great products can't solve all problems, I do believe they can solve many. I love helping students to take their work beyond the classroom and into the "messy real world" so they can have real impact.
Outside of Stanford, I have served as a Distinguished Fellow at IDEO - CoLab and a Fellow at the University of Toronto - CDL. I have more than a dozen patents and also have a cartoon featured in a collection by The New Yorker.