We recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Mayfield Fellows Program at Stanford University with nearly 200 Mayfield Fellows, both alumni and current students.
Thirty years ago, Tom Byers started an entrepreneurship program with support from Mayfield, creating the Mayfield Fellows Program. The program reflects our core belief: great people, given the right environment and mentorship, will go on to do extraordinary things. Thirty years later, the Mayfield Fellows community has proven that again and again.
Mayfield has founding roots in Stanford, including our name, which pays homage to the historical town that existed as the university was being formed. Stanford feels like home for many of us, including me. I came to Stanford in 1992 to pursue graduate studies, but dropped out of my PhD program at 25 to start a company. I took a leap with no map. What I would have gotten from a program like this. The Mayfield Fellows Program gives students a community and curriculum to work inside startups, learn from investors, and do all of it alongside peers who push you to think bigger and show up as your best self.
Tom had a vision that struck many as unconventional at the time: take the traditional engineering co-op model, collaborate with Silicon Valley start-up companies as environments for learning, and teach entrepreneurial leadership within a research university.
Bob Sutton, along with Tom, taught the first cohort of Mayfield Fellows. He was followed by Tina Seelig, who joined Tom to run the program. Tina was succeeded by Ann Miura-Ko, who has teamed up with Tom to take the program forward.
At the event, Fellows shared stories of how being a Mayfield Fellow changed the trajectory of their lives, of peers who saw something in them they hadn’t yet seen in themselves, of a cohort of best friends that opened doors, personal and professional, that are still open decades later. The bonds formed here run far deeper than typical classmates.
To Tom, Bob, Tina, Ann, and the entire Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP) team: What you have built is extraordinary. To every Fellow who has come back to mentor, invest, hire, or simply show up for the next generation, you are the reason this community is what it is. I was humbled to receive an honor from Stanford Technology Ventures Program, recognizing Mayfield’s support of the Fellows Program over the last thirty years.
Here’s to the next thirty! Onwards and upwards.
