Bridget “Biddy” Mason, born a slave in Mississippi in 1818, achieved financial success that enabled her to support her extended family for generations, despite the fact that she was illiterate. In a landmark case, she sued her master for their freedom, saved her earnings, invested in real estate, and became a well-known philanthropist in Los Angeles, California. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34785]

Ning Wang is a seasoned executive with P&L responsibilities of several SaaS and technology businesses. She also holds a PhD in physics from UC Berkeley. Ning is currently CEO of Offensive Security. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34784]

After 15 years running Partner Management at Yahoo, Josh Cobb became the President of the America's for Media.net, the worlds #2 largest advertising technology company, after Google. He is also a member of the Santa Barbara Angel Alliance, an angel investor group focused on startup and early-stage companies. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34783]

Shannon Jessup is a sales and marketing executive with a 20-year track record of top performance with mobile, internet and technology companies. She started her career in sales at IBM. Shannon makes her home in Santa Barbara, CA with her husband and three children. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34782]

Dr. Steven Schroeder is Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at UCSF, where he also heads UCSF’s Smoking Cessation Leadership Center. In this interview, he discusses academic medicine, the epidemic of substance abuse, his work at the RWJ Foundation (including the “failed study” that helped build the field of palliative care), and his life in healthcare policy and politics. Between 1990 and 2002, Dr. Schroeder was President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. During...

Al Ferrer is the President/CEO of Linea Consulting, a multi-national Major League Baseball interpreter provider. Linea also researches, analyzes, interprets and presents advanced sabermetrics. Clients have included the Los Angeles Dodgers, Angels, New York Yankees and the top sports agents in the country. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34374]

Peter Biggs experienced the transition from slavery to freedom a decade before the outbreak of the Civil War. Jarred Webb portrays the historical figure who lived in Los Angeles and was one of only twelve people in Los Angeles marked 'Black' on the 1850 US Census. Webb is then joined Dan Lynch (UCLA History) to discuss the high (and low) points of his life. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34370]

Dafina Toncheva invests in emerging technologies in the enterprise space with focus on Enterprise SaaS applications and security. She recounts her personal history; born and raised in Bulgaria with its political instability and financial hardships and her road to success. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34369]

Health Hub is designed to help UCSF inventors get the support and professional development they need to grow and build successful companies. UCSF aims to translate its scientific ideas and advances in healthcare into deliverable breakthroughs that will promote the health of the community and the advancement of science generally. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Show ID: 34163]

Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, which eventually led to her current book, Thinking In Bets. Here, Annie explores bad experiences as opportunities to learn from. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34445]

We know that the future of work is upon us—AI, robotics, global markets and online innovations are driving massive changes. So, what about workforce development? Join The San Diego Workforce Partnership to explore the boundary-busting, outer reaches of workforce development where job quality, equity, outcomes and opportunity drive our support for San Diego County’s job seekers. Local leaders and out-of-town renegades identify new frontiers for action. Series: "Career Channel" [Public Affairs]...

We know that the future of work is upon us—AI, robotics, global markets and online innovations are driving massive changes. So, what about workforce development? Join The San Diego Workforce Partnership to explore the boundary-busting, outer reaches of workforce development where job quality, equity, outcomes and opportunity drive our support for San Diego County’s job seekers. Local leaders and out-of-town renegades identify new frontiers for action. Series: "The Career Channel" [Show ID:...

Experience the remarkable insight of Larry Gulko, brand architect and strategist, Co-Host of CBS Boston's Name Brands, founder and moderator of the Harvard Business School Annual CEO Brand Leadership Roundtable. In his entertaining and engaging style, Gulko inspires audiences to take a fresh look and focus their brand. He shares his bold and disruptive strategies to build best-selling brands, create an authentic voice to unlock a market, and break through the marketing noise by being known...

Building a successful start up requires more than just capital. Investment in ideas, building collaborative relationships, and forming a diverse network can often be the pivotal factors in your success. Jarrod Russell, Executive Director of Startup San Diego, shares how to go from curious to committed to crushing it in your entrepreneurial journey. Series: "The Career Channel" [Show ID: 34155]

Bing Chen is a digital media pioneer and entrepreneur. As a founding architect behind YouTube's multi-billion dollar global digital creator and influencer ecosystem, he was responsible for numerous groundbreaking initiatives that engaged more than 500 million content creators worldwide. Here Chen shares his three rules of job networking. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 34036]

Since its beginning in 1999, the UCSB New Venture Competition provides a unique opportunity for UCSB students to learn how to start a business. This eight-month educational experience, with activities and curriculum spanning the entire academic year, culminates with the New Venture Finals, where the finalist teams present an investor pitch to a panel of judges for prize money. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 33938]

Randy Modos is the president and a founder of PayJunction, where he provides vision and leadership for the company as it pioneers green payment technology and delivers operational efficiencies for businesses. The founders of PayJunction took an inspired idea and grew it into a company that process over $4 billion annually. But it’s one thing to create a world-class product, it’s another to leverage your core beliefs into a revolutionary approach. PayJunction is a leader in ethical payment...

Eytan Elbaz is an American entrepreneur and investor best known for co-founding Applied Semantics. In 2003, Applied Semantics was acquired by Google for $102 million in a deal that included pre-IPO Google company stock. As part of the acquisition, Elbaz served as Head of Domain Channel at Google from 2003 to 2007. Eytan is an Angel investor and founder of many Los Angeles companies, most notably Scopely, a mobile gaming startup. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Board of Render...

With over twenty-five years of sales and operations experience within the technology sector, Lars Nilsson is a global leader in enterprise software and selling solutions. He is currently the VP of Global Inside Sales for Cloudera, the company that has revolutionized enterprise data management by offering the first unified platform for data management and analytics. He explores his professional wins and his personal losses. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID:...

Hans Swildens is the CEO and Founder of Industry Ventures and manages the overall business. As an early pioneer of the modern secondary market for venture capital, he created new ways to get liquidity for venture capital investments prior to an IPO or M&A event. Additionally, he was early to support the development of a new class of venture capital partnerships focused on seed and early stage investing during the last decade. He directs the firm’s investment processes, operations and...

Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF and is generally considered one of the most skillful diagnosticians in the United States. He teaches medical students and residents in the ER, inpatient wards and outpatient clinic at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. He studies how doctors think, how they diagnose, how they make treatment decisions and how they develop expertise. He has published over ninety articles in leading medical journals including the New England Journal of...

Elizabeth Cholawsky is a seasoned executive leader in the technology industry with a strong focus on growing successful SaaS-based (software as service) businesses. Most recently, she was CEO of Support.com, where she transformed the business from being solely reliant on outsourced services revenue to selling a SaaS product that intelligently ran large contact centers. Series: "Innovator Stories: Creating Something from Nothing" [Show ID: 33674]

Despite being retired for nearly a decade, until very recently, Annie was the world's winningest female poker player. In 2004, she bested a field of 234 players to win her first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. The same year, she triumphed in the $2 million winner-take-all, invitation-only WSOP Tournament of Champions. Prior to becoming a professional poker player, Annie was awarded the National Science Foundation Fellowship. Through this fellowship, she studied Cognitive Psychology at...

Kim Coalson is Senior Vice President for Appfolio's MyCase, case management software that serves the legal industry. Kim ensures that the MyCase team delivers an outstanding customer experience and provides software that supports the success of solo practitioners and small law firms. Kim joined the AppFolio team in 2011 as Vice President, Value Added Services for AppFolio Property Manager, where she launched and grew customer services. Prior to AppFolio, Kim served as Vice President of...

Brian is a computer programmer, entrepreneur, consultant, Angel investor, author and free software advocate. He was the original author of the GNU Bash shell and the primary maintainer of bash until early 1993. Brian also built the first interactive online banking software in the US for Wells Fargo in 1995 and he created an open source election system in 2008. Fox co-wrote a New York Times piece in 2017 with former CIA head R. James Woolsey advocating open source election systems as a means...