The Course of a Career: How the Mayfield Fellows Program Shaped Tech Leader Kit Rodgers

Kit Rodgers is a technology executive and a testament to the long-term impact of Stanford’s entrepreneurship education. As a member of the inaugural 1996 cohort of what is now the Mayfield Fellows Program, his experience helped set the entire course for his professional life. Today, Kit is the senior vice president of technology partnerships and corporate development at Rambus, with a career path deeply rooted in the Silicon Valley ecosystem, including a pivotal role at Cryptography Research Inc., which was acquired by Rambus in 2011. He continues to give back to the Stanford community as a member of the STVP advisory council and holds both a BS in product design and an MS in industrial engineering from the university.

STVP’s Executive Director Ash Wallington caught up with Kit to reflect on the 30-year journey of the program his early participation helped pioneer. In their conversation, Kit discusses the program’s scrappy, “startupy” beginnings, the evolution of student entrepreneurship over three decades, and the enduring importance of building businesses with integrity and patience.

Ash: You were in the inaugural cohort of a program at Stanford that soon became the Mayfield Fellows Program. Can you tell me what it was called back then and what attracted you to a program that had no history?

Kit: This was around the fall of 1995. Tom Byers was a new professor on campus, coming into what was then the Engineering Management department. He was starting a new program. We were undergrad engineering students nearing our senior year and we started getting blasted with emails about a new program called the Technology Ventures Co-op, or “TVC”. 

At the time, I didn’t pay much attention to it. But my girlfriend – who is now my wife! – said, “This sounds like something you should do.”

I had been bumbling around, trying to decide whether to follow my family’s tradition and pursue medicine – I had even completed the pre-med requirements during my summers. She wisely pointed out that I was more of a business person and that this program seemed like a perfect way to combine my engineering background with the business side of technology. So, I decided to go to an information session, and that’s how I first learned about it.

Ash: What was your experience like in that first year? Did it feel like you were in a startup?

Kit: It was absolutely a startup! The content for the curriculum was being developed as it was being taught. Despite this, it was obvious from the outset we were in for a great experience. With only 10 students, the amount of faculty support was incredible with great professors like Bob Sutton, Steve Barley, and Tom Kosnik all involved – a lot of horsepower for such a small group. The other nine students were almost all double-E [electrical engineering] or CS [computer science] majors and largely knew each other. I was this outlier product design major and only knew one of them from a freshman class a few years prior.

To establish the program as elite, the first cohort was made up of top students in their majors…, and then there was me! I think I was seen as a bit of a “wild card” because I had persevered through some odds-defying stuff (like being a walk-on player for Stanford’s football team without having played football in high school), which they viewed as a sign of a risk-taking mindset. It was a scramble to find us internships that first summer, but the caliber of the people involved enabled the program to be wildly successful.

Despite being a bit of an outsider initially, the 10 of us became incredibly close over the nine-month program. Looking back, I now recognize how “startupy” it was. There wasn’t much formal research on entrepreneurship to build upon at that time, and we were taught using Harvard Business School-style case studies. Tom and the other professors brought in unbelievable lecturers – titans of industry and venture capital – for just the 10 of us.

Ash: Where did you do your internship?

Kit: I interned with a middleware company in Campbell called Real World Solutions, which no longer exists. It was honestly my first real professional job. I got to sit in on board meetings and was exposed to the entire life of a startup – getting its first customers, raising financing, and navigating challenges. It was super interesting, and I was exposed to far more than I probably deserved at that point in my career.

Ash: What happened after the program, and how did it impact your career path?

Kit: I ended up taking two years to complete my master’s degree because I was working as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for the athletic department to pay my way through. During that time, the program – what is now the Mayfield Fellows Program – was hugely impactful in helping me realize I loved the startup universe.

I took another class in the business school on entrepreneurship and venture capital. Through that class, I met a venture capitalist who connected me to a startup he’d invested in called Scient, an internet consulting company. This was in 1998, when the internet was just taking off, and companies needed help building websites and e-commerce platforms. That became my first job out of school.

Ash: And then one of your Fellows from the program contacted you about an opportunity?

Kit: Yes. Benjamin Jun, who was in my 1996 cohort, and I had stayed in regular contact. He was a top electrical engineering student – super smart and hardworking. We were often on opposing teams during class debates, and I think it frustrated him that I might occasionally win a debate even though he (and I!) knew he had the bigger brain. We decided it would be fun to work together one day.

After I had a few years of experience at a couple of startups, Ben called. He said, “We’ve had a big discovery at our company. We need you to come work with us.” I felt I had learned enough to contribute, so I joined him at Cryptography Research. He and the founder Paul Kocher, who was another Stanford grad, brought me in as their first business person largely based on trust, not because I knew anything about cryptography. We built a great business over several years and eventually sold it to Rambus in 2011. I’ve been at Rambus ever since and am now an executive there.

Ash: Have you kept an eye on the Mayfield program since you graduated?

Kit: Oh, for sure. We ended up hiring some Mayfield Fellows along the way, and many of us are friends now beyond our careers. I still work closely with one of them, Cynthia Yu, who was in the class after me. And Tom was my graduate degree advisor, so he and I have kept in touch over the years. As I gained more experience, he brought me back to stay involved with the program, which led to my role on the advisory council.

Ash: The Mayfield Fellows Program is now celebrating its 30th anniversary. What do you think about that milestone?

Kit: I think it means I’m more middle-aged than I realized! But on a serious note, I’m not surprised it has thrived. It was the single most meaningful and impactful educational experience I had at Stanford, and without it, my professional life would have gone in a completely different direction.

The program isn’t a startup anymore; it’s a highly sought-after program that has been replicated with other fellows programs, and it deserves that reputation. The only part that surprises me is that it’s already been 30 years.

Ash: You’ve served on the advisory council since around 2016. Why did you want to give back to the entrepreneurship center?

Kit: I feel like without that program, I would have done totally different things in my life. So, to the extent I can help support it and give back, I feel it’s the right thing to do. My relationship with Tom also helped bring me back into the fold with the engineering school in general. I was happy to get involved when they asked, and since I live in the area, it’s easy to participate.

Ash: Have you observed any changes in how students approach entrepreneurship over the last couple of decades?

Kit: Yes, the types of companies have changed dramatically. In the late 90s, it was all about the internet and e-commerce. Then came a phase where it was all about mobile apps and social media, which at the time I personally found less interesting than businesses transforming more traditional industries. Now, with AI, hardware and semiconductors are a big deal again.

What’s also changed is the academic diversity of the students. It used to be almost all electrical engineers and computer scientists. Now, the program brings in people from many different backgrounds. There’s also a much greater focus on themes like environmental impact, societal impact, and ethics. These are great additions that we weren’t really talking about in the mid-90s.

Ash: You mentioned ethics. Could you expand on why that’s a passion area for you in business?

Kit: I do have a passion for ethics. Every time I see a business built on dubious ethical practices it pains me, and high-profile scams and implosions like Theranos or FTX are heartbreaking. I hate it when entrepreneurship is done the wrong way or for the wrong reasons. Beyond that, there are profound ethical questions around technology and its applications, especially with the emergence of AI.

It’s crucial for students to be conscious of these issues as they’re learning and building companies. If you embed that thinking early on, the hope is they won’t take shortcuts when faced with tough decisions. Ben, Paul, and I certainly tried to build our business ethically, and I’m very proud of how we did that and how we treated the people we worked with.

Ash: What advice would you give to people who want to mentor students in their entrepreneurial endeavors?

Kit: My advice is to be a stable place where you can listen to the ups and downs these young people are experiencing. One thing I’ve found is that things are never as good as you think they are, or as bad as you think they are.

I often see people wanting to “tack” or make radical changes in their careers very quickly. I would advise them to first let their sail fill up with wind before deciding to tack again. You’re going to go through hard times, but if you stick with it and focus on doing the work the right way, those efforts often pay off. Helping people smooth out the highs and lows and stay focused – this was certainly helpful to me back in the day.