Video

Hear entrepreneurs and leaders talk about the role of resilience and well-being in their careers. 

SIER Distinguished Lectureship

The annual SIER Distinguished Lectureship brings a prominent entrepreneur to Stanford to speak candidly about resilience while navigating the entrepreneurial journey.

SIER Distinguished Lectureship 2025

Reid Hoffman

The inaugural Distinguished Lectureship featured Silicon Valley luminary Reid Hoffman. In this candid fireside chat with Stanford's Tina Seelig, Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn, shares valuable insights on resilience, failure, and balancing self-care with the hard work of building a successful startup.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders

For over two decades, the Stanford Technology Ventures Program has produced the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders speaker series. Here are select clips of speakers on topics related to entrepreneurs' resilience and well-being.

Note: For clips or talks marked with an asterisk (*), see the Content Warning below.

Clips

Maria Berrera (Clayful)

Mental-Health Practices for Founders

As the founder and CEO of mental-health startup Clayful, Maria Barrera shares her approach to maintaining a healthy balance while running a company. The startup experience includes highs and lows, she says, so founders need to develop helpful habits and practices.

Katrina Lake (Stitch Fix)

Learn Resilience

Even minor experiences that teach you to embrace failure and weather mild embarrassment — like a ballet class or a hip-hop dance class — can become powerful tools in building courage. Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake observes that confidence is learned, not innate, and can be fostered by doing scary things.

James Reinhart (threadUP)

Mission = Resilience

What has kept thredUP co-founder and CEO James Reinhart motivated during the 12 years he’s been scaling the company? The best tool to keep founders engaged, he finds, is a powerful mission. If you truly believe you’re making the world a better place, it’s much easier to meet challenges and persevere.

Full Talks

Maria Barrera (Clayful)

Mental Health Tech, Mentally Healthy Startups*

Maria Barrera, a Stanford-educated engineer, is the founder and CEO of Clayful, a platform dedicated to providing essential mental health support for the TikTok generation. Today, Barrera’s company creates accessible resources for K-12 students and has already made a profound impact on thousands of students nationwide. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Barrera shares her journey to founding a mental health startup and how she incorporates strategies for mental well-being in her life and on her team.

*See Content Warning Below

Andy Dunn (Bonobos)

Mental Health for Entrepreneurs*

Andy Dunn is an entrepreneur, author, and investor. Dunn co-founded the menswear e-commerce brand Bonobos in 2007 and served as the company’s CEO for its first 10 years, pioneering the digitally native brand movement. In 2022, Dunn published a memoir lifting the veil on the mental health demons he’d been privately battling as he built Bonobos. “Burn Rate: Launching a Startup and Losing My Mind” chronicles his journey at the intersection of entrepreneurship and bipolar disorder. In this conversation with Stanford adjunct lecturer Ravi Belani, Dunn shares his experiences with bipolar disorder and encourages everyone to acknowledge mental health challenges, including in the world of entrepreneurs.

*See Content Warning Below

Gabriel Parisi-Amon (Nebia)

A Burnout Manifesto

Gabriel Parisi-Amon, co-founder, CTO and COO of environmentally conscious shower startup, Nebia, bravely challenges the myth of “the perfect startup founder.” Parisi-Amon takes us on a journey through the seven stages of burnout he experienced in the early years of his startup, sharing how he’s emerged a more conscious and balanced leader. He offers tips and exercises for identifying the symptoms of burnout, urging us to prevent the fire before we’re consumed.

Content Warning

*This clip or talk includes references to trauma, suicide, and/or self-harm. 

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