It's not merely happenstance that venture capital emerged where it did, for Stanford and the GSB have played pivotal roles in the growth of venture capital. Now as the Business School turns its attention to the study and teaching of entrepreneurship, it is taking advantage of its ties to the venture capital community. Twenty years ago, budding entrepreneurs could choose from one or two courses at the GSB to gain insight into the business. Today, they have more than a dozen courses, and tomorrow, with the advent of a new initiative in entrepreneurship, they can expect a wealth of academic and practical expertise from which to draw. Since January, GSB deans have met with prominent venture capitalists to discuss the role of VC in the proposed new program.
Venture capitalists hear hundreds of ideas a week.
But the GSB is not talking about merely making a better widget. In the 1970s, venture capital firms began fleeing San Francisco for Sand Hill Road, within sight of the University and smack-dab in the middle of what was becoming known as Silicon Valley. Sand Hill Road would become the Valley's nexus as entrepreneurs and would-be millionaires pitched venture capital firms with their ideas for The Next Big Thing. And GSB graduates eagerly threw themselves into the fray. People such as Reid Dennis, MBA '52, who left his job as a mutual fund manager with Fireman's Fund Insurance and in 1973 helped found Institutional Venture Partners.