Jon was a mentor at Stanford for over 15 years. Jon worked with a range of students helping them shape their ideas, write business plans and prepare for presentations.
Here is what some of the past students and professors have said about him:
“Jon Gillespie-Brown is an entrepreneur who knows what it take to be a successful entrepreneur. He has shared his used-wisdom as a mentor in my course, Technology Venture Formation, at Stanford University. Jon has been an inspiration to the student teams who have benefitted from his guidance. I’m pleased to see that Jon has captured his insights in a book which can influence aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere.”
Audrey MacLean, Consulting Associate Professor, Stanford University
“Jon has been a major contributor to Stanford Ignite for many years. He has spent many hours as a panelist judging ventures developed in the program and in providing feedback and insights. He brings a wealth of experience as an entrepreneur, an investor and a visionary. He shares his analytic and thoughtful views and is an outstanding resource for the program and the people lucky enough to interact with Jon. It is also very clear to me that he is one of the sharpest thinkers and more importantly execution driven leaders I know.“
Yossi Feinberg, The Adams Distinguished Professor of Management and Professor of Economics, Stanford.
“Jon has been invaluable in his role coaching business teams in my course Tech Venture Formation at Stanford School of Engineering. Over the past several years he has coached numerous teams in building businesses from the ground up while avoiding many of the usual failure modes in startup companies. His depth of experience makes him immediately credible in this role and is one of the characteristics that distinguishes the quality of the Stanford offering.”
Mike Lyons, Adjunct Professor, Stanford University, Founding Professor, Tech Venture Formation, Stanford.
“John, I wanted to leave a small note of thanks for all the hard work and passion you put into team Budushei, Please feel free to use all or part of this on your website.
I wanted to write this note to thank you for coaching Team Budushei as part of the Technology Venture Formation. As our mentor, you infused the team with genuine enthusiasm and kept up the energy levels, particularly during some high pressure points. You were always direct in your feedback and constructive in your criticism. Never letting us lose perspective and the miss bigger picture. I now apply the AIDA framework routinely in my personal and professional life. I am also spending significant time and energy doing research before launching my next venture!”
Girish Pashilkar, Sloan, Stanford Business School
“Hi Jon, Thanks for being a great mentor to us this quarter.
What I found particularly useful were the sessions where we fleshed out our ideas and got some good feedback as to what the VCs were looking for (something visceral, an advil not a vitamin), and also presentation coaching — your advice helped get us amped and confident for our presentation.
You really helped get us on the right track right before Gate 2 when we had to just focus our idea — doing the one automotive vertical instead of the broad platform. And of course being there for moral support before and after the final presentation.
Overall I’d give your performance a 9 out of 10. I bet working with our team of eclectic backgrounds was no easy task! =)
Thanks for spending the time with us given your busy schedule of work plus writing your book and other things. Happy holidays and see you in the New Year.”
Jamie Wu
“Jon has been a great mentor. He is very prompt in giving feedback. He communicated very effectively to us on how one should present ideas. He made us realize that there is an art of how to convince people while presenting.”
Namita Das, Student, Stanford University
“Jon is an excellent mentor for entrepreneur. He mentored my team for technology venture formation class. We obtained his help in evaluating our business opportunity, optimizing operation stack and improving VC presentation skills. Since he has rich business experience in VC scale start-ups and wide spectrum of field knowledge, his advice is always to the point and very constructive. In addition, his advising style is friendly while persuasive. I would highly recommend him to be a mentor for early stage start-up companies.”
Yingjie (Roger) Zheng, Student, Stanford University
“Jon has been a great guide and mentor for us in our Technology Venture Formation course here at Stanford University. We look forward to further guidance from him and also working with him in the future.”
Digital Ventures 