In many ways, the two businesses defy systematic study. The scholarship to date has been murky and mediocre. It just hasn't gone anywhere. The dearth of basic information. Plus, he notes, one third of all venture deals fail, and few want to discuss investments that tanked.
Venture capital can be a mysterious art.
But the new program will reach far beyond training young venture capitalists. What's needed, he says, is more critical thinking about outrageous thinking. But everyone we speak to immediately acknowledges that taking that spark and turning it into a successful venture requires an enormous amount of management expertise. Talk of entrepreneurship is all the rage now in the nation's business schools. And he thinks Stanford will have it.