Are you ready to change your thinking about innovation and entrepreneurship?  Inspired to learn new methodologies that foster innovation--especially in established companies?

Join us for an enlightening and inspiring fireside chat with Reid Hoffman and Eric Ries, entrepreneur and author of The Lean Startup:  How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Eric created The Lean Startup methodology and his book is getting rave reviews:

“Every so often a business book comes along that changes how we think about innovation and entrepreneurship... The Lean Startup has the chops to join this exalted company.”

-- Financial Times

"A must read for every serious entrepreneur-and every manager interested in innovation."

--Marc Andreessen, Co-Founder of Andreessen Horowitz, Opsware Inc. and Netscape

To learn more about Eric and his work, follow him on LinkedIn and check out his popular blog, Startup Lessons Learned.

And don’t forget to bring your questions -- there will be an opportunity for Q&A with Eric as well!

More About Eric

Eric graduated in 2001 from Yale University with a B.S. in Computer Science. While an undergraduate, he co-founded Catalyst Recruiting. Ries continued his entrepreneurial career as a Senior Software Engineer at There.com, leading efforts in agile software development and user-generated content. He later co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU, his third startup.

In 2007, BusinessWeek named Ries one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech. In 2008 he served as a venture advisor at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers before moving on to advise startups independently. Today he serves on the board of directors for Code for America and on the advisory board of a number of technology startups and venture capital firms. In 2009, Ries was honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. In 2010, he was named entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School and is currently an IDEO Fellow.

The Lean Startup methodology has been written about in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Inc., Wired, Fast Company, and countless blogs.

He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Tara.

This LinkedIn Speakers Series guest aligned perfectly with our “wellness” inDay theme that month. After all, what says wellness more than improving your happiness, adopting positive habits, and breaking bad ones?
 
We’re fortunate to host one of our top LinkedIn Influencers Gretchen Rubin, author of the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, Happier at Home and The Happiness Project. Gretchen currently has over 310,000 followers on LinkedIn, and we’re delighted that she’s joining us live in Mountain View to give us a preview of her forthcoming book, Before and After.
 
In the book, Gretchen shares a framework that she’s developed about the making and breaking of habits. This framework will help you understand yourself much better, how to motivate yourself -- and other people as well. 
 
To get a better sense of what to expect from Gretchen’s talk, check out her blog (www.happiness-project.com), where you can also sign up to receive a daily “Moment of Happiness” quote by email, her monthly newsletter, or her monthly Book Club recommendations.
 
More About Gretchen
A graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, Gretchen started her career in law, and was clerking for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she realized she wanted to be a writer. She has written several books, including three novels safely locked in a desk drawer.
 
Her blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, Happier at Home and The Happiness Project, are accounts of her experiences test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific studies, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. On her popular blog, she reports on her daily adventures in pursuit of happiness.
 
Response to Gretchen’s practical approach to achieving happiness has been overwhelming. The Happiness Project is more than a book, it’s a movement—a way of life. Psychiatrists suggest it to their patients, professors assign it to their students, book groups read it, families pass it around, and groups have sprung up across the world where people do Happiness Projects together.
 
She lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.
 

Fred Kofman claims that most people don’t really know what their jobs are, and it’s hurting business. Join us for an insightful, provocative, and inspiring session where Fred will help us to discover our real jobs, how we can each succeed while doing best for the team, and what it takes for a winning company to stay competitive.
 
By the end of the session, you should have new insights that will change the way you do your work, how you contribute to your team, and how you negotiate the challenges of our organizational structure. You will also understand why misalignment is the number one killer of organizations, and what you can do to keep LinkedIn at the top of our game as we grow in size and complexity.