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Entrepreneurship Speakers

 

What does it take to build a company from the ground up, to start from scratch and end up with millions? Our entrepreneurship speakers share the stories and lessons you need to hear before embarking on the biggest business adventure of your life.

 

21
Entrepreneurship
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Loran Nordgren

Professor at the Kellogg School of Management | Author of The Human Element

Most marketers, innovators, and executives assume that the best way to convince people to embrace change is to heighten the appeal or value of their idea—often leading them to add extra features, benefits, and marketing sizzle. This belief is what award-winning behavioral scientist Loran Nordgren, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management, calls a “fuel-based mindset.” Fuel is what incites our desire to change, explains Nordgren. Yet focusing exclusively on fuel neglects the other half of the marketing equation—the psychological “frictions” that oppose change. In his new book The Human Element, as well as in his engaging talks, Nordgren reveals how to overcome these barriers and bring our best ideas to life.
Jason Feifer

Editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur | Author of Build for Tomorrow, Not for Yesterday (Forthcoming)

The world has never been in a greater period of change. It’s an exciting time, offering opportunities for innovation, shifts in culture, and a general reevaluation of the way we live. Unfortunately, many people will miss out on the benefits of change because they feel threatened. As the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur and author of the upcoming Build for Tomorrow, Not for Yesterday, Jason Feifer has a unique window into the most innovative minds of today. In keynotes that will electrify and inspire any audience, he teaches us how to counter our primal fear of change by getting us excited about its possibilities.
Ellen Bennett

Founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett | Author of Dream First, Details Later

At 25 years old Ellen Bennett was a cook at a 2-Michelin-Star restaurant in Los Angeles; yet she was still tying on the same $5 apron found in every diner and pub along Hollywood Boulevard. So she took her modest $300 savings and turned it into the largest gourmet apron manufacturer in the world. Now the founder and CEO at Hedley & Bennett—a brand beloved by the likes of Martha Stewart and Momofuku’s David Chang—this culinary entrepreneur explains how you, too, can jumpstart your own idea with charisma and heart. 
 
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Founder of theBoardlist | Former President of StubHub | Author of Choose Possibility

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is one of the most well-respected female tech executives in Silicon Valley. She’s served as president of StubHub, helped scale companies like Google and Amazon, and founded theBoardlist: a premium talent marketplace for diverse leaders. But despite her success, her path hasn’t always been linear. In her new book Choose Possibility, Singh Cassidy reveals the poor choices, misfires, and unexpected headwinds she’s encountered along her path—providing a thoughtful new perspective on risk-taking: what it is, what it isn’t, and how to master it to achieve lasting success.
John List

Economics Professor at the University of Chicago | Chief Economist at Lyft (formerly at Uber) | Author of The Voltage Effect (forthcoming)

Why do some great ideas make it big while others fail to take off? John List—a leading economist at The University of Chicago and Chief Economist at Lyft—demystifies one of today’s trickiest questions in his upcoming book The Voltage Effect. Whether you’re growing a small business, rolling out a diversity and inclusion program, or delivering billions of doses of a vaccine—to achieve success, you need to be able to replicate your ideas at scale, explains List. In his high-impact talks, he reveals the qualities of a scalable idea, and how to best engineer them to drive change in our workplaces, schools, and communities. 
Alexandra Samuel

Tech writer and data journalist | Author of Remote Inc.

COVID-19 has meant a dramatic shift in the way we work—from the time-honored tradition of the office, into the “new normal” of working from home, and the shift to a hybrid workplace. As a technology strategist, data journalist, and author, Alexandra Samuel has spent much of her twenty-five-year career as a remote worker. Her new book Remote Inc., as well as her accompanying talks, show us how to thrive outside the office using the entrepreneurial mindset and habits of remote professionals.
Laura Huang

Harvard Business School Professor | Author of Edge

In the elusive pursuit of success, you need an edge, says Harvard professor Laura Huang, one of the top business school professors in America. Huang’s talks show how you can make your hard work “work harder for you” by comprehending the factors that have little to do with your talent and effort—and everything to do with making the most of them.  
 
David Sax

Author of The Soul of an Entrepreneur and The Revenge of Analog

There’s something that unites all entrepreneurs: it’s their personal purpose, a motivation beyond money—and successful entrepreneurs know harnessing this is just half the story. How do you stay driven, and keep the spirit of what you’re doing alive? And how can you empower yourself and your colleagues to think like entrepreneurs? Author, cultural critic, and entrepreneur David Sax shares his years of expertise, stories of successful entrepreneurs he’s encountered, as well as personal examples of how beneficial injecting the entrepreneurial mindset is to reinvigorating your team and discovering new strengths.  
Shivani Siroya

Founder and CEO of Tala

As the Founder and CEO of microfinance company Tala, Shivani Siroya delivers credit to customers with little to no formal borrowing history—helping them start and expand small businesses. The company has disbursed more than one billion dollars to customers in East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, leading Forbes to name it one of the Top 50 FinTech companies in the world. Believing that financial visibility is crucial to living to our full potential, Siroya shows us why radical trust will be the currency of the future—and how we can leverage it to create a financial system that works for everyone.
David Cote

Leadership Keynote Speaker | Former Chairman & CEO of Honeywell | Author of Winning Now, Winning Later

When it comes to manufacturing, David Cote stands in a league of his own. The most successful leader of a Fortune 100 industrial conglomerate of his era, Cote joined Honeywell after a 25-year-career at GE. Under his leadership, Honeywell’s market capitalization climbed about an astonishing 100 billion dollars. Rather than fixating on either long-term strategies or quarterly results, Cote empowered his organization to pursue both simultaneously. In talks, he shows how leaders can sustain their long-term entrepreneurial vision, even when pressures to deliver in the present are at their most intense.
Marcus Bullock

Founder and CEO of Flikshop | Justice Reform Advocate | TED Speaker

Sentenced at fifteen years old to eight years—for stealing a car—Bullock faced many challenges once released. But he found a creative solution that sparked social change: founding his own software company, Flikshop, Inc. It’s mission is to connect incarcerated people with their families, build community, and empower inmates in constructive ways to ease their return to society—and help reduce recidivism.  
Luke Burgis

Entrepreneur | Author of Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life

How can we create things that benefit us as people? That is the question that author, entrepreneur, and investor Luke Burgis asks. His people-first perspective stems from a lifetime of unique experiences: working on Wall Street, founding companies in Silicon Valley, even studying theology. Today, Burgis applies mimetic theory—the idea that desire is a social mechanism—to business. In talks, he shows us the hidden forces behind why we want things, how to break free from destructive desires, and how to cultivate the intentional desires that build a better world.
Shabnam Mogharabi

CEO and Executive Producer of SoulPancake | New York Times Bestselling Author

In a world of political propaganda, online extremists, and social media clickbait, SoulPancake stands apart. A platform recognized for its positive, uplifting media it aims to celebrate humanity and explore life’s big questions. As its CEO and Executive Producer, alongside The Office’s Rainn Wilson, Shabnam Mogharabi is responsible for inspiring and growing an online community of over 10 million fans. Her riveting talks explore everything from fostering creativity and finding your authentic voice, to why purpose is the most powerful asset a business can have.
Bassam Tariq

TED Fellow and Award-winning Director of Mogul Mowgli and The Ghosts of Sugar Land

Where do you seek representation, and how do you make yourself heard, seen, and understood? These questions inspire Bassam Tariq as a filmmaker, an entrepreneur, and speaker. Tariq investigates the way Muslim Americans live in our polarized world today, transcending religion and politics to tell a deeply human story that affects us all.
Nina Tandon

CEO and Co-Founder of EpiBone | TED Senior Fellow

Nina Tandon works on growing artificial hearts and bones that can be put into the body, and studies the new frontier of biotech: homes, textiles, and videogames made of cells. Named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers, she speaks on the future of healthcare and technology, and biology's new industrial revolution.  
Yancey Strickler

Co-founder & Former CEO of Kickstarter | Author of This Could Be Our Future (Oct. 29)

Our current society is trapped by three assumptions, says writer and Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler: that the point of life is to maximize self-interest and wealth; that we’re individuals trapped in an adversarial world; and that this is natural. Strickler urges us to discard these three  assumptions that limit our ability to imagine and innovate a new future.
 
Manjit Minhas

Founder of the 10th Largest Brewery in the World | Co-Star of CBC’s Dragons’ Den

A formidable speaker, Manjit Minhas is an entrepreneur and judge on Dragons’ Den who shares business lessons with equal parts force and finesse. Minhas runs a $187 million brewery that she and her brother built from scratch. Her unprecedented success demolished stereotypes, surprised her competitors, and cleared a path for entrepreneurs of every age and gender.   
Michael Katchen

Founder and CEO of Wealthsimple

If Toronto is the Silicon Valley of the North, then Michael Katchen is one of its leading figures. “We’re primed for a historic revolution in innovation,” he says. “We just don’t know it yet.” Katchen is the founder and CEO of Wealthsimple, whose easy-to-use service has redefined investing for a young generation, and whose massive success has disrupted the financial services industry. 
 
Jessica Jackley

Co-Founder of Kiva, the microlending site, and Author of Clay Water Brick

You can do good and do well at the same time. Just ask Jessica Jackley, founder of KIVA, the world’s most successful microlending site. On stage, Jackley delivers an upbeat and enduring message: you can synthesize your disparate skills, as she did, to create a meaningful life and career.  
Joe Mimran

Founder, Joe Fresh | Co-Founder and Chairman of Gibralter & Company

Joe Mimran is a true innovator—of retail, design, business, manufacturing—he disrupted the fashion industry before people even had a word for it. In his keynotes he details the methods he used to grow Joe Fresh, Club Monaco, and Alfred Sung—some of the industry’s best-known brands, into global successes.   
Kavita Shukla

Founder & CEO of The FRESHGLOW Co.

Kavita Shukla is the groundbreaking social entrepreneur behind FreshPaper, a biodegradable paper that creates a brilliant solution to the global issue of food waste. Shukla’s ingenuity makes her an inspiration for young entrepreneurs, women in business, and social innovators alike.