Entrepreneurship Teaching Methods - Ben Hallen

In Chapter 13 of 21 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, business school professor Ben Hallen answers "How Do You Approach the Learning Dichotomy When Considering Whether to Teach Entrepreneurs in a Classroom Environment Versus a Hands On Experiential Environment?" Hallen balances teaching using theoretical frameworks with putting skills to practice. Whether students are learning to be entrepreneurs or advancing existing skillsets, Hallen finds engaging outsiders - mentors, entrepreneurs, potential customers - an effective and complementary learning approach. Hallen is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at University of Maryland. Hallen earned his PhD from Stanford University and its Stanford Technology Venture Program (STVP). He has been a startup CTO and graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Computer Science.

Making Sense of Social Graph and Network Relationships - Ben Hallen

In Chapter 16 of 21 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, business school professor Ben Hallen answers "How Have You Applied Your Computer Science Education to Better Understand Relationships?" Hallen notes the popularity of "the social network" and "the social graph" as social media and networks have developed. He also notes how graphs have been studied by social scientists for decades. There is research covering the structural representation of networks and graphs, and Hallen cautions we not oversimplify our relationships and consider richness of the bonds. Hallen is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at University of Maryland. Hallen earned his PhD from Stanford University and its Stanford Technology Venture Program (STVP). He has been a startup CTO and graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Computer Science.

How Relationship Dynamics Impact Entrepreneur Fundraising - Ben Hallen

In Chapter 20 of 21 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, business school professor Ben Hallen answers "What Compels You to Focus So Much Time and Energy in Understanding the Process and Problems Involved with Fundraising?" Hallen channels his entrepreneurial experience into his academic research, focusing on high commitment relationship building and how entrepreneurs alter and change dynamics Hallen is an Assistant Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at University of Maryland. Hallen earned his PhD from Stanford University and its Stanford Technology Venture Program (STVP). He has been a startup CTO and graduated from the University of Virginia with a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Computer Science.

Stacie Bloom on How a College Class Inspires PhD Neuroscience Career

In Chapter 2 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "How Did One College Class Unexpectedly Springboard Your Science Career?" While studying psychology at the University of Delaware, she takes a graduate level course in a neuropsychology. She finds the small class forum and the neuroscience study of the brain align her studies to her interests. Grossman Bloom then thrives in the classroom, earning As and continuing to Georgetown for a PhD.

Stacie Grossman Bloom is the Executive Director at the NYU Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center. Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). She earned her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University in New York City. She earned her BA in Chemistry and Psychology from the University of Delaware.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How did one college class unexpectedly springboard your science career?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: So, I went to college at University of Delaware. I was an okay student. It was nothing great. I was taking a lot of chemistry and psychology and I was in these giant, giant lecture halls with hundreds of other people. And, decided one day when I was looking through the course book for what to sign up for there was this really interesting looking class in Neuropsychology and I thought I’ll sign up for it. And when I went to the class it turned out to be a graduate level class and it was totally different from what I was used to. It was just in a small classroom. There were maybe twelve or fifteen students, and a professor. And I had never been in an environment like that before, that was so interactive. And it changed my life to be in a small class like that. I did amazingly well. I got A’s from then on. I started taking more of those graduate level classes, not because the content was so much more challenging but simply because the forum was a better fit for me. And, really helped foster my education. It was also that I had discovered at that time that neuroscience was what I was really interested in. So I think it was those two factors combined -- the forum and the content.

Erik Michielsen: What did you find most appealing about neuroscience?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: I was always just really interested in the brain and how the brain works and how your thoughts are controlled and why you need sleep and how you get addicted to drugs and why the brain fails. It was just a natural fit, I think, for my inquisitiveness. And, at the time neuroscience was really becoming a blossoming field. At the time that I was applying to graduate school most schools didn’t even have a neuroscience yet. Which now it’s 2011 that’s impossible to fathom. When I was going to Georgetown I ended up getting into the cell biology department because that was the closest thing they had to neuroscience. Now of course they have a full neuroscience program.

Stacie Bloom on The Long Term Value of a PhD Investment

In Chapter 6 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Do You Believe is the Greatest Long Term Value of a PhD Investment?" She notes that the training required to get a PhD creates a transferable skill set that allows one to solve problems in creative independent ways. She shares how her PhD in cell biology and post doc in molecular neurobiology proved extremely transferable in her career. Specifically, she used the core skills learned during her PhD to become an editor at Nature Medicine and also applies the skills in her role at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), which she held at the time of this interview.

Stacie Grossman Bloom is the Executive Director at the NYU Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center. Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). She earned her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University in New York City. She earned her BA in Chemistry and Psychology from the University of Delaware.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What do you believe is the greatest long-term value of a PhD investment?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: I think the greatest long-term value of a PhD investment is that the training required to get a PhD, what it really, I think teaches you more than a specific niche that you are working on research-wise is it teaches you how to solve programs in creative ways, independently. I think it’s a very transferable skill.

I mean my PhD is in cell biology. I did a post doc in molecular neurobiology. That’s what my PhD is in and that’s what I was trained in. That doesn’t mean that I couldn’t become an editor at Nature Medicine and understand a much broader range of scientific topics. I would say now, even in my current job, I oversee not only life sciences and biomedicine but also now physical sciences and engineering, which was like a foreign language to me, but I think when you have a PhD you acquire skills that allow you to help figure out other areas. 

Stacie Bloom on Using Trial Jobs to Explore Science Career Options

In Chapter 7 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Did You Find Most Challenging About Teaching College Biology at Bard College?" Teaching biology at Bard College while doing her post doc work at Rockefeller University, she finds it easy to connect with college students. She uses the opportunity to explore career options and find out if teaching is a good fit. Teaching one college class helps Grossman Bloom rule out that as a career option and she continues using the exploration and trial approach in other pursuits, including a role at Nature Medicine. Grossman Bloom is the Executive Director at the NYU Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center. Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). She earned her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University in New York City. She earned her BA in Chemistry and Psychology from the University of Delaware.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What did you find most challenging about teaching a biology class at Bard College?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: College students.

Erik Michielsen: How did you connect with them?

Stacie: As a post doc it wasn’t that hard to connect with a college student. I still felt like that was kinda my life. I was making no money. I was in jeans and sneakers all the time. I felt like a kid still and I felt like a student still. I think they probably looked at me very differently.

At the time I was trying to explore career options for myself. I thought, “maybe I’d like to be a college professor.” And that was a way for me to rule it out.

But it was a great opportunity to see if that was a good fit for me.

Erik Michielsen: What did you learn about yourself through the experience?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: I learned that for me, it was important for me to do trial runs of things before I went full-fledged into them. When I started at Nature and left the lab, I was doing it just two days a week as an intern. That’s what really was a good way for me to see, to test the waters. And, same thing with teaching. So, take on one class at a college, try it out, see if I like it. I didn’t like it, so I didn’t do it.

Stacie Bloom on Getting a Post Doc Lab Job Working for a Nobel Laureate Scientist

In Chapter 8 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "How Did Working for a Nobel Laureate at the Rockefeller University Shape Your Science Career?" After earning her PhD, she looks to return to New York City for her post doc. She applies to Rockefeller University and gets an opportunity to work for Paul Greengard, who goes on to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine five months later. The Rockefeller lab experience shows her the best of science and what is like to be in a world renown successful laboratory where funding is not an issue. Ultimately, she finds the lab environment was not for her and decides to choose something different.

Stacie Grossman Bloom is the Executive Director at the NYU Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center. Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). She earned her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University in New York City. She earned her BA in Chemistry and Psychology from the University of Delaware.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How did working for a Nobel laureate at The Rockefeller University shape your science career?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: So, that was a pretty serendipitous event in my life. I knew I wanted to come back to New York City and I was applying to post doctoral positions in New York City and a friend of mine at the time who was in New York City said to me, “if you are going to go and do your post doc there, you should go to the best possible place you can go and that’s The Rockefeller University.” And, for people who are not familiar with it, The Rockefeller University is one of the most unique universities you will ever come across. It doesn’t have an undergraduate program; it has a graduate program and an MD-PhD program. It’s small, it has no departments, it has no silos, it’s unbelievably well funded, it’s an amazing intellectual place.

And I applied and got an interview in this guy, Paul Greengard’s, lab. I was interested in the stuff that he was doing. I went on my interview and gave my presentation, went out to dinner with him and got the offer, and five months later he won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. And, I never could’ve known that that was going to happen when I accepted my position in the lab. And I always joked with him that it’s good that I got in before he won the Nobel Prize because after he got it, the applications to the lab were skyrocketing and I always thought I would never get in and he always said, “yes, you would still get in, you would still get in.” But that experience showed me the best of science - what’s it like to be in one of the most world-renowned successful laboratories,  what’s it like to be a scientist in a lab where funding isn’t the biggest issue, like it is in most labs.

And for me, even in that environment, I knew I didn’t want to stay in the lab. The fact that I chose a different path, even though I was in this amazing environment was really emblematic of the fact that that environment wasn’t for me and I needed to get out of there and choose something different.

Stacie Bloom on Leaving Academia for a Science Industry Job

In Chapter 9 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, Stacie Grossman Bloom answers "What Did You Find Most Challenging Transitioning Out of Science Bench Research Into the Field?" Working in a protective university science environment as a post doc, Grossman Bloom finds the greatest challenge leaving the security of the academic culture for outside work. By building a strong working relationship with her boss, Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard, she is able to test an outside opportunity by interning twice a week at Nature Medicine.

Stacie Grossman Bloom is the Executive Director at the NYU Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone Medical Center. Previously, she was VP and Scientific Director at the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS). She earned her PhD in Neurobiology and Cell Biology at Georgetown University and did a post-doctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University in New York City. She earned her BA in Chemistry and Psychology from the University of Delaware.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen: What did you find most challenging transitioning out of science bench research into the field?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: I think the most challenging thing was getting my mind readjusted to the fact that I was leaving that track. You know, that’s the only track I really knew and then I was entering into sort of uncharted territory. I think also the university is a very protective environment. Nobody is--It’s not like at a law firm where you have x number of years to make partner, and if you don’t make partner, you sort of have a tough decision to make. You can waiver around in a university lab as a post doc for infinity and nobody is ever going to kick you out. So, making the decision to leave a track and leave the security of the university atmosphere, I think was the most challenging.

Erik Michielsen: How did you get over it?

Stacie Grossman Bloom: I just did it; it was like ripping off a band-aid. I did it more slowly than others. I was really fortunate, I was in a laboratory, as a post doc, of a Nobel laureate who was very flexible in what he allowed me to do and let me leave the lab part-time to pursue an internship at Nature Publishing Group. Nature is a great scientific journal and it’s based in New York City. And he let me sort of dip my toe in the water and feel it out. And, I got the internship at Nature and then when it came an offer for a full-time position, it was a little bit easier than pulling off a band-aid.

How to Use Industrial Design to Develop Software - Jon Kolko

In Chapter 8 of 17 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, designer and educator Jon Kolko shares how he has applied industrial design to develop software products. He finds many top interaction designers have backgrounds in either architecture or product design. Kolko notes the problem solving process - ethnographic research, synthesis, ideation, form giving, and evaluation - developing enterprise software and industrial products is nearly identical. The difference occurs not in the process but the the artifact complexity. Kolko is the executive director of design strategy at venture accelerator, Thinktiv (www.thinktiv.com). He is the founder and director of the Austin School for Design (www.ac4d.com). Previously, he worked at frog design and was a professor of Interactive and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). He has authored multiple books on design. Kolko earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

How Interdisciplinary Studies Develop Career Path - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 4 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how blending social science and arts studies at University of Virginia (UVA) shaped his career. Stallings first focuses on economics and, having the luxury of not having area requirements, then focuses on psychology. He channels his passion trying to understand people and their behavior. Over the years, Stallings works in business trying to understand personal decision making and then in creative roles understanding how market mechanisms work.

Hammans Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Transcription: 

Erik Michielsen:  How did blending your studies of social sciences and the arts at the University of Virginia impact your career development?

Hammans Stallings:  I was pretty spoiled in that I was allowed to be in a program that at UVA where we didn’t have any area requirements and so I’d spent the first two years really knocking out the economics and that allowed me to really explore and move into a much more an interdisciplinary academic approach, more so than I think most people are able to do, we didn’t have any area requirements so I came in, was able to take graduate classes pretty quickly and work in labs, in psychology and – and for whatever reason, the – this contrast of economics and psychology really was this – this kind of an annoying bug.  They had so many assumptions about people and behavior and how things work that are in contrast that drove me nuts for years and so I kind of in a lot of ways, there’s this –that has actually kind of come through with me throughout all of my – all of my jobs since.  I spent time in – in business, thinking about how poorly understood people are. 

I spent time - a little bit now - in the creative world where there isn’t a really sharp understanding of how market mechanisms work and why businesses are sort of strange in a way that people are too.  Organizations are made of people and they have their own kind of strange psychology and so I think that early experience in academics really prepared me for studying in my later career across functional areas and so I’ve been much more of a generalist than I have been a specialist.  You know I’ve – maybe it taught me the value of it and as well it gave me something to always kind of be struggling with in terms of like reconciling things and it’s that letting your subconscious kind of reconcile things and being able to live and sleep with that – you know that –that stress that I think you’re able to come out with interesting solutions that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise if you just so deeply believed any one thing. 

So, I think that’s kind of, I love more than anything bringing kind of an interdisciplinary approach and seeing how all these different areas, different people, and different perspectives in their own contexts see this elephant differently and I think that’s kind of a neat future is you know reconciling all these things and see kind of at the intersection, what do you learn.

How Quant Models Help Understand Human Behavior - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 5 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings shares how quantitative decisions tools can help understand human behavior. He notes how both economics and psychology have gone through arcs thinking about people independently in their respective models. Stallings notes that analytic models that capture base assumptions allow you to capture differences to compare and contrast behavior against the model. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How to Create Jobs Using Technology Transfer - Hammans Stallings

In Chapter 9 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings connects his interest in economic development to earn a Masters Degree in Technology Transfer. As a problem solver, Stallings sees a gap between academic research innovating and business markets implementing. He learns about mutual motivations and structuring contracts to facilitate technology transfer. Stallings is currently a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in business strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

How to Find Purpose in a Design Career - Lauren Serota

In Chapter 6 of 18 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, interaction designer and researcher Lauren Serota discusses where she finds purpose in her career. Specifically, through her social sciences background and design research, Serota finds purpose learning to make things for people.  As a practicing designer, she notes product design - interaction, fashion, graphic, etc. - is about value added utility.
To identify this utility, she draws upon social science experience in anthropology, sociology in qualitative marketing research across cultures. This informs the resulting product design efforts. Serota is an interaction designer at frog design - http://frogdesign.com - and a professor at the Austin Center for Design - http://ac4d.com . She earned her bachelors degree in industrial design from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).

How Software Engineer Embraces Non-Traditional Education - Chris Hinkle

In Chapter 4 of 12 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, product designer and software engineer Chris Hinkle shares the ups and downs associated with building a high tech career without high school or college degrees. Hinkle notes the recruiting and interviewing challenges presented when a large company learns about his non-traditional education background. He also notes the upside and how his alternative learning approach has allowed him to tailor an experience learning education around his interests. Hinkle currently designs products and develops software for The Barbarian Group digital marketing services company. Previously, he worked at HUGE and R/GA digital advertising agencies. He has also founded a product incubation laboratory, The Hinkle Way.

Why Teachers are Classroom Superheroes - Mike Germano

In Chapter 15 of 16 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, social media expert and Carrot Creative president Mike Germano reflects on a "Classroom Superhero" project his company developed for the National Education Association teachers union. The project resonates deeply with Germano's passion and respect for teachers and gives him a platform to contribute to education through new media. Germano is co-founder and president of DUMBO, Brooklyn based new media agency Carrot Creative. Before Carrot Creative, Germano ran for and was elected to public office in Connecticut. He is a graduate of Quinnipiac University.

Fabian Pfortmüller on How High School Teaches Future Entrepreneur Business

In Chapter 8 of 19 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, community builder and entrepreneur Fabian Pfortmüller shares how high school student government experience in Switzerland taught him fundamentals he uses today as an entrepreneur. He learns critical thinking, project planning and the perils of volunteer accountability. These experiences all contribute to Fabian's actions as an entrepreneur. Pfortmüller is co-founder of Sandbox Network (www.sandbox-network.com). He also co-founded an innovation think tank, Incubaker (www.incubaker.com), and is part of the group's first spin-off, Holstee (www.holstee.com), an apparel brand for people who would like to wear their passion. Pfortmüller graduated from Columbia University and its School of General Studies.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How has your student government experience benefited you as an entrepreneur?

Fabian Pfortmüller: So I started in high school doing student government stuff and first of all, we didn’t achieve anything. We didn’t achieve anything what so ever at all. We talked a lot, we organized big things and there was no output out of it. Doesn’t matter. I think what we learned was… first of all I think we really developed a good feeling of how much we can rely on people, very, very important aspect that I’ve seen throughout my project is that, you know once we started out we were like, ‘Oh, could you help us do this? Oh, you said yes, that means he’s going to do it’. Of course he’s not going to do it and realizing that… I don’t want to say that that’s generally true that this person’s not going to do it but my experience has shown me it’s where I’ve had to be critical.

Rather putting good project management place to ensure that person really does it and put pressure on that person, recurring pressure on that person to actually do it, I think that was one of the learnings. Second, I would say had a lot to do with planning in the sense that I just met people who could plan and there were other peoples who could not plan and I was one of the second ones who could not plan [laughs] and being able to see other people who would do their stuff not in the last minute but had a project plan and would lay out their things and would reach out to you two months before, that was really good to see, that was very interesting to see what they could achieve and I believe one of the biggest things that I realized while I was doing student government was that voluntary work is very hard to work with, in my opinion. I think if you don’t pay someone and you don’t have a very clear contract or somewhat of a transaction with someone it’s very hard to really plan with that person and to get to the output that you had in mind.

How Curiosity and Momentum Enable Career Vision - Michael Margolis

In Chapter 12 of 13 in his 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, storyteller and entrepreneur Michael shares how momentum and building exit, or escape, velocity pair with lifelong learning and curiosity to help him define and measure his success as a storytelling evangelist. Margolis Margolis is the founder and president of Get Storied (http://www.getstoried.com), an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative. As a consultant, educator and writer he uses storytelling to create more effective branding, innovation and culture change. Margolis earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

How Teaching Social and Emotional Health Improves Education - Louise Davis Langheier

In Chapter 5 of 9 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with host Erik Michielsen, non-profit founder and executive Louise Davis Langheier shares her view that education is about empowering individuals to succeed in life and society. She notes this empowerment comes from a confluence of academic skills and social and emotional health development. Langheier finds satisfaction seeing momentum continue on this blended learning perspective, but notes there is much work to be done to make it standard practice. Langheier is founder and CEO of Peer Health Exchange (http://www.peerhealthexchange.com ), a non-profit that trains college students to teach health education in public high schools. She graduated Yale University with a B.A. in History and serves on the board of directors of Dwight Hall at Yale, the center for public service and social justice.