Mayfield Fellows at 30: Teaching Entrepreneurial Leadership as a Lived Practice
Thirty years ago, Professors Tom Byers and Bob Sutton launched an experiment inside Stanford’s School of Engineering. They set out to explore a simple but ambitious idea: what if entrepreneurial leadership could be taught as rigorously as engineering itself – not only in theory, but through immersive, real-world practice?
“We hadn’t even formalized the Stanford Technology Ventures Program yet – this was one of our first major experiments,” recalls Byers, who is also a Faculty Director of STVP. “The goal was never to be an incubator – it was always about teaching entrepreneurial leadership.”
An experiment that became a blueprint
The Technology Ventures Co-op, as it was then known, was a novel program built on models Byers had admired in other contexts. “I essentially ‘knowledge brokered’ ideas from other successful Stanford programs,” he said, referring to a concept from Sutton’s research.
Inspired by the traditional engineering work-study model, the new program combined academic study with immersive work experience. Byers also sought to treat Silicon Valley as a place for experiential learning – an opportunity for students to engage directly with the people, ideas, and challenges shaping innovation in real time. “The idea was, let’s have an overseas campus right here in Silicon Valley,” he said. Other key elements were the small class size – just 12 students – and team teaching, which had gained traction in the 1990s and became a hallmark of the Stanford d.school.
“I’ve always had a co-teacher,” Byers said. “After Bob, Tina Seelig joined me and was my partner for many years. Now it’s Ann Miura-Ko. I learn from them and it brings an added spirit of innovation to the classroom. There was never a year I did it alone.”
Early champion Mike Leventhal brought Mayfield on board to ensure the longevity of the program, giving it its name and anchoring it within the broader Silicon Valley ecosystem. Through Mayfield’s enduring partnership – and with continued leadership from Managing Partner Navin Chaddha – the program evolved into the Mayfield Fellows Program (MFP), a global model for entrepreneurial leadership education.
‘Innovated like crazy’ over 30 years
At the Mayfield Fellows Program’s 30th anniversary celebration in April, Byers reflected on the program’s early years and how it evolved. “The core framework work-study, experiential learning, and small class size has remained. But we’ve also innovated like crazy over the years, adding crucial elements like ethics and responsible innovation,” he said.
The celebration, held at the Stanford Faculty Club, brought together about 200 alumni spanning three decades of Mayfield Fellows cohorts alongside leaders from across Stanford, including President Jonathan Levin and School of Engineering Dean Jennifer Widom. In his remarks, Levin described the Mayfield Fellows Program as “a jewel” within the university ecosystem.
Since MFP, STVP’s fellows programs have expanded, collectively including hundreds of alumni across disciplines, industries, and geographies. Each program evolved from the MFP model, treating entrepreneurship education as something active, relational, and deeply human.
A curriculum plus a community
From the earliest cohorts to the current class, Mayfield Fellows are part of an intergenerational network of founders, operators, investors, and public leaders. In total, there are more than 360 Mayfield Fellow alumni, spanning founders, investors, and leaders shaping how innovation happens across industries.
Alumni return as speakers, as guest lecturers, as program hosts, and as mentors. Students learn as much from one another as they do from formal instruction. And this is by design. Entrepreneurial leadership is not developed in isolation; it emerges through conversation, exposure to diverse perspectives, and the willingness to reflect on both successes and failures in a trusted environment.
The story of the Mayfield Fellows Program is about continuing to ask what kind of leaders the world needs now, and how educational institutions can rise to meet that need with both rigor and humility. The program’s next chapter will necessarily look different from the last 30 years as the relationship between universities, industry, and society keeps evolving. New challenges – from climate to AI governance – place new demands on leadership. The Mayfield Fellows Program will foster leaders who are ready not just to navigate these challenges, but to shape what comes next.
