- My name is Ethan Imboden and I'm an engineer
turned designer turned entrepreneur and investor.
In late 2013 I joined frog,
a global design and strategy firm.
Frog is known for our cross-disciplinary work
with clients ranging from GE to the UN
and BNY Mellon to Honeywell, as well as the start-ups
at the edge of what's coming next.
I oversee our work at the intersection
of design and entrepreneurship,
collaborating with my colleagues on venture design
as well as our investment arm, frogVentures.
Whether you're talking about Airbnb or Uber,
Warby Parker or WeWork, today's best known,
most loved start-ups have design
at the center of their culture and business.
Venture design is a lean approach to human-centered design
that is optimized for the creation, launch,
and ramp-up of new businesses.
In this course I'll show the tremendous advantages
design brings to entrepreneurial efforts,
both within start-ups and major multi-nationals.
You'll learn the key principles of venture design
and see them in action with real world examples from frog's
work with both early stage companies and Fortune 50 leaders.
You'll also be provided with simple frameworks
for understanding where to focus innovation efforts
and how to structure these efforts
for the highest likelihood of success.
Frog has worked with entrepreneurs
throughout its 47 year history.
The principles and methods that drive our venture
design approach are continually informed by our deep
involvement in frogVenture's portfolio companies,
and in turn, our work with these start-ups
is informed by our work at scale with the Global 2000.
I'm excited to have this chance to share
how we're working within the entrepreneurial ecosystem
from Silicon Valley to Beijing, so let's get going.