Every powerful brand community faces a group of contrarian nonbelievers who oppose what you’re all about. Pagans.

Bracketing your “contrabrand” is an opportunity to reaffirm your own values and reason for being.

If we are for something, we are likely against something else. Remember Apple versus PCs. Electric cars versus gas powered vehicles. Brooklyn versus Manhattan. Arsenal vs. Manchester United. Artificial intelligence vs. human intelligence. Taylor vs. Kanye. Sacred vs. profane. Any other examples?

Understanding what you cannot be helps to focus on core values and what you do believe. We’re this, not that.

In product teams, the great conceit is that we assume that everyone wants to buy our product or services. We’ve made it better, faster, cheaper, easier, whatever. This is terrific, who wouldn’t want this?

The cruel scorching fact is that some people will never become a part of your Venn diagram. Not everyone is going to buy you, much less buy into you. Some people simply don’t care and never will.

Sometimes in marketing, we assume that people don’t buy in because they haven’t heard of us yet, so we tickle the awareness knobs. Most often, this benefits the media buy.

Instead of trying to excite newcomers, new facts demonstrate that it can be more efficient to circle back and ask existing consumers to buy a second or third time. Exciting existing users all over again can resonate deeply and keep up demand. It can also tickle word of mouth and user generated content. Win. Win. Win.

Rage farmers these days intentionally take a contrarian point of view on social media as a form of click bait. These people tug fiery reactions from the unsuspecting. How can it be all right, if you’re still all wrong?

Take a breath. This grisly tactic actually can help keep social engagement up — and gives “performance” marketers something to do.

The role of the nonbeliever or pagan is to play against the hero figure. To provide the antigravity. Nothing reaffirms a fan’s belief that they are right, like someone from the opposite team telling them how wrong they are.

This forces everyone to take a stand. Years ago, we put steadfast believers on opposite sides of the table and let the contras fight it out. The user insights dredged from those discussions were amazing.

Plant a flag. Post a yard sign. Wear a button.

Write a post.

How do you promote a movie that first premiered in 1939? And has been seen on screens large and small in 1939, 1970, 1992, 2009 and 2011?

The romantic spine for Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights has been seen and re-seen enough to wither the intentions of any Hollywood producer and director.

The solution is to script the breakout film’s promotion around the notion that this film version is radically different from its predecessors. That is, disturbing, disruptive and even unlikable for its current fans and book-sensitive traditionalists.

Criticisms from reviewers in The New Yorker, Forbes, Yahoo! and others gave “Wuthering Heights” a real brandlashing in several key areas (grouped via AI):

• Casting Controversy (Whitewashing): The most intense criticism targets the casting of Jacob Elordi, an Australian of European descent, as Heathcliff, which many fans and critics labeled as “whitewashing” and “erased representation” for a character described as having dark skin or being racially ambiguous in the novel.

• Character Age Misalignment: Margot Robbie’s casting as Catherine Earnshaw was criticized because, at age 35, Robbie is significantly older than the teenage character depicted in the book.

• “Superficial” and “Soft” Adaptation: Critics have called the film “smooth-brained,” “idiotic,” and “extravagantly superficial”. Many argue the film fails to capture the raw violence and social commentary of the original, instead focusing on a “fetishistic” and commercialized view of the romance.

• Marketing and Tonal Issues: The marketing was criticized for being excessively focused on eroticism, which some feared would dilute the story’s complex, dark themes. Some reviewers described the final product as a “hollow work” that turns the gritty story into a “music video” set to “Charli XCX” songs.

• Anachronisms and Pacing: The film received negative feedback for its “awkward” costume choices and “dream-like, disjointed” pacing.

Even The New York Times touched on this thematic point, describing the actor’s make-up as “blotchy and imperfect.” @annabelnugent

By pointing out how much existing “Wuthering Heights” fans will hate this latest versioning, they poked a potential cadre of new viewers who never read the book, will likely never read the book, and are looking for Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi — and others members of the star-studded cast, to experience something fresh.

How’s “WH” doing at the box office? Produced for $80 million, the film turned haters into lovers and crossed $150 million in ticket sales after its second week. Love it.

Note: Nonbelievers (or haters) is one of the seven pieces of Primal Code® uncovered in the book Primal Branding (Simon & Schuster, 2006).

She knows how to stand in front of an audience, even if it’s an audience of one. Her marketing and branding skills are intense, practiced and often genius (the “I wish I’d thought of that” variety). She likes to hang out. And since she speaks three to five languages, she can hang out wherever she likes. What’s better than that?

Martina Skangalova is founder and CEO of BEINGZ a brand studio based in Singapore and Lisbon that specializes in AI, fashion, blockchain, and innovative tech. Often in partnership with primalbranding.co — whose framework has shaped some of the world’s leading brands, Skangalova helps early-stage companies build clear, human, credible brands that drive adoption, community, and funding.

She is bold enough to tell a company that they have neither the budget nor the bandwidth to plunge into web3 (she helped them execute a very smart end-user revenue share digital twin collection instead). And she is persistent not just about learning the concept of change, but puts it into practice.

When she was a collaborator at TEDx in Dusseldorf, Martina said, “What I really want, is to create my own company.” Her colleague responded, “So go do that. Start by finding a client and people will support you.”

Skangalova found not just one client but an entire string. Since then she has collaborated on Aurora Solar, MOVO, MAMO, eBay and also mentors founders at Outlier Ventures. “Too many brilliant founders build extraordinary products yet treat their brand as a logo,” remarks Martina. “Unable to express the deeper meaning behind what they’re creating.”

As technology accelerates via AI, blockchain, and new interfaces to come, the role of brands becomes more human, not less.

“She brings a rare blend of branding and strategic insight,” says Martina Fuchs, co-founder of Frequency School. “And genuine passion for supporting early-stage entrepreneurs.”

“People don’t follow features — they follow meaning, identity, and emotion,” says Martina Skangalova. “That’s both a responsibility and an opportunity. My work at BEINGZ is about helping innovative companies become entities with beliefs, language, rituals, and presence so they can move markets, guide communities, and serve the world with intention rather than noise.”

Realizing that responsibility is what leads the work at BEINGZ to Brand strategy and positioning, of course, but also Brand narrative systems and design. Her globally recognized processes serve to build audiences and advocacy — critical to launching new ideas and supporting growth.

“Martina Skangalova’s creative thinking and storytelling skills have been an invaluable asset to the Frequency School’s early growth and international expansion,” asserts Martina Fuchs at Frequency School. “Collaborating with her has sharpened our creed and vision and helped us not just to set a new Guinness World Record with the “195” song by the Grammy nominated producer MAEJOR (which features the most nationalities in a single recording), but also launch World Frequency Day on 11/11 as a new international day that will be marked every year on November 11.”

Martina Skangalova works with pre-seed founders, seed-stage startups, growth-stage teams and founder-led brands to sharpen story, presence, and traction:

• Pre-seed founders → to clarify narrative and positioning before fundraising.

• Seed-stage startups → to build a defensible brand strategy, story library, and distribution playbook.

• Growth-stage teams (Series A and beyond) → to embed the full Primal Branding system and guide designers + social operators hands-on.

• Creative businesses and founder-led brands → to sharpen story, presence, and traction in new markets.

Selected results:

• Mamo.bot (by Moonwell): Rebuilt brand as a financial AI companion (strategy, design & distribution) → +13k followers, Coinbase listing, ~$38M market cap

• OpenTrade.io: Brand narrative, website redesign, social media system → $1.5M raised (a16z), +50% Twitter/X growth in 1 month

• Surifrey.com: Helped a 100-year-old traditional family leather business enter web3 → launched a community NFT for co-designing their next bag and a co-earn profit model via BaFin-regulated distribution

Martina Skangalova is a woman who has two birthdays. Ask her to explain it.

Get in touch: mart@beingz.com

In 1996 there were approximately 15,000 tattoo parlors operating in the United States. Today, there are over 42,200 tattoo artists registered in the United States in 2025 — and another one point four million tattoo artists around the world.

To be without a tattoo is an act of rebellion. In some sectors, it is against the social norm.

Sidebar. The person who cuts my hair travels from the middle West to Europe so that she and her fiancée can be tattoed by celebrity tattoo artists. Americans spend an estimated $1.6 billion on tattoos each year.

Is there a Louvre for tattoo artists?

It was not always this way. As an art form, tattooing goes back to antiquity. It surfaced in the United States when Eastern whalers returned from encountering South Pacific tribes. Members of the U.S. Navy and Marines came back from Honolulu bearing hearts and other symbols. A rite of passage, tattoos were the symbol of the wayward outlaw; tattooed red broken hearts also marked a break from staid society.

In the 1980s, Texas blues musician Johnny Winter released his album “Illustrated Man”. An albino, Johnny’s translucent white skin provided esthetic contrast and perfect surface area for inking. At the time, it was considered extreme. Perfect for the hard-rockin’ blues artist. The next tattooed popular musician on the scene, in this writer’s memory, was punk rock singer Henry Rollins of Black Flag in the 1980s. Of course there were others, make your own notes.

Meanwhile, tattoo artist Ed Hardy operating from his Tattoo City retail operation in San Francisco had a hands-on feel for the growing tattoo market. His 1988 book “Dragon Tattoo Design” became a chapbook for fledgling tattoo artists.

Understanding the demand, Ed Hardy placed his designs on apparel. Now people who desired the graphics but didn’t want to suffer the painful piercing of needle and ink, didn’t have to. Ed Hardy-branded shirts sold in shopping malls and became the coeval for skin culture. Common gents bought Ed Hardy apparel by the shopping bagful.

Hardy can rightfully claim that he brought tattooing from carnival stands and back alleyways to supermalls and mainstream America.

Fade to black.

On November 9, Bray & Co. Auctions will offer the most significant private holding of early American tattoo flash ever brought to market, featuring over one hundred works from tattoo legends.

People who have never heard of “Denver” Ed Smith, “Buckie” Buchanan, “Sailor Jerry” Collins, “Dainty Dotty” Jensen, August “Cap” Coleman, “Rosie” Camanga or “Brooklyn Joe” Lieber will be fascinated to understand that these legends stand behind the modern day art form.

As with any art object, provenance — backstory or origin story — is key.

Tattooing was a perilous trade. Artists had to work sharp and fast. Customers were sometimes (often) inebriated and pointed to sample artworks pinned onto the wall. This “flash” served instantaneous decision-making and warned off shallow regrets.

“There’s two kinds of tattooists,” claimed St. Louis artist Bert Grimm. “Those who can face the guy a second time. And those that don’t dare.”

Even 100 years ago, the tattoo arts were a sector where women could participate. Because artists were uniquely talented and entrepreneurial, gender did not matter. Women like “Dainty Dotty” Jensen and Mary Meyers could be as much in demand as their male counterparts.

Then figure Tito “Rosie” Camanga who lived under a stairway in Chinatown — down the street from Sailor Jerry’s place in Honolulu, Hawaii. “He pestered Jerry about how he got his brilliant red colors,” recalls Tom Christopher, who spent 30 years collecting the works now on auction. “Jerry finally broke down and told him to put sugar in the ink. Rosie did. The next morning all Rosie’s work was destroyed. Jerry knew too well that water bugs, cockroaches, and the other insects roaming Hawaii love sugar. They chomped Rosie’s drawings to bits.” Trade secrets don’t come easy

The indelibility of tattooing ink is contrasted by the mortality of those wearing the art form. Fortunately, the best talent has survived in the form of flash drawings and ephemera appearing in the Bray & Co. auction. The catalog can be viewed here. It is easy to see that the finest tattooists,have now claimed a place in the same zip code as Outsider Art and Folk Art.

As the prospectus for the auction claims, “Tattoo flash was the portfolio of designs hung in tattoo shops frequented by sailors, soldiers, and those brave enough to make it permanent — and is now being recognized as a keystone of American folk art.”

Auctions are fun. Have some.

“The Only Skin Game In Town” Auction begins November 8, 2025 at 12 noon Eastern Standard Time. To see the online catalogue and register to bid please go here.

Unsurprisingly, the answer is yes.

But how? You might assume that a construct that systematically (and consistently) converts people from idle shoppers to active advocates automatically reduces churn.

This is true, but can we push it farther?

(“Churn,” by the way, is the rate at which you consistently lose customers.)

Fandom serves as a customer attractant — users feel compelled to tell everyone else how excited they are — and your customers do your marketing for you. This helps gain new customers.

This bears repeating. Primal Branding reduces churn by helping you methodically launch content and keeps people engaged in your product or service.

This is accomplished by pushing your seven pieces of Primal Code® onto the omnichannel media platforms. Place content wherever your people are — fans, friends, FOFs, target consumers, prospects, customers, co-workers, BFFs, players, bleacher bums, and others. Basic.

This opt-in content not only resonates with your core target, it systematically keeps users engaged during each part of their customer journey. Not basic.

Here’s the sequence.

The Creation Story is often the first piece of information, since “Where are you from?” is one of the first things curious humans ask. Interested people hear about you, then they check you out — verify, seek credentials, assess credibility. Your creation story helps to build confidence.

Your origin mythos tugs at emotional connections as customers search for their solution or try to fulfill a need. “Nice bag. Where did you find that?”

Next move. Creed as content builds evangelists. Your creed one-liner, whether it is tag line “Come to life!” for Yerba Madre, “The soft revolution” for Sheep, Inc., or a timeworn “Just do it.” This declaration — often a tag line, but sometimes a head line or one-liner, reminds people of your reason for being and why you exist.

The sticky credo provides meaning and purpose, and reinforces their connection to you. As your reason for being reclaims the value you have in their life, you become irreplaceable.

The core here is that, while performance marketing chases new customers (for example), Primal Branding attracts people who already share your purpose, beliefs and values. This gathers a community of engaged fans and advocates who, rather than needing to be sold over and over again, they return come back again and again, accumulating customer lifetime value.

Many people, too, are surprised that “Brand” has actionable moving parts. Which makes brands today totally relevant, authentic, and as necessary as lungs.

Next piece. Icons are the recognizable sensory identifiers that engage any of the five senses — sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. These instantaneous concentrations of meaning identify you: the taste of McDonald’s french fries, the smell of holiday spruce, the interlocking logomarks of Louis Vuitton. The Nike swoosh. McDonald’s golden arches. Apple’s startup bong.

(Building out underused icons — like sound and smell — can also be fun, especially while creating fresh experiences.)

When people see you, hear you, smell you, taste you, touch you, they breathe a sigh of relief. They know that you are what they want and instinctively steer your way; consistency builds familiarity. Together, you’re the perfect fit.

Familiarity also helps reduce brand “switching.”

Rituals are your brand in motion. Highlight these positive interactions and remind people of existing rituals — or refresh with new rituals. Shopping day 11/11 was a Chinese holiday for single persons — which grew into China’s biggest shopping day of the year (many times larger than USA’s Black Friday).

This November 11, will celebrate a new ritual — United Nation’s sponsored “World Frequency Day”, which will focus on the importance of sound healing, promoted by Frequency School via major sound artist Maejor.

Every movement starts with a moment. Repeated usage builds recurring occasions and rituals that become baked into ordinary life. Working or living without you seems unnatural. Awkward.

People would rather fight than switch.

Words are how the young bury the old. New words develop to describe new (or longstanding) actions, movements, situations. For older persons, new words originate among the generations under them and suddenly grandma no longer understands what the kids are talking about. This is how you get old.

Every community comes with its own word sets: the gaming fields alone are divided by tennis, golf, soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, swimming, pickle ball and others — each with its own vernacular. Words that describe plays, moves, teams, players, actions, and statistics. Terms that team members — and their fans — know and understand.

How well you know the words — from RBIs to KPIs — defines if you’re on the team or off the team. Pro or amateur. Winner or loser.

Shared words mean shared culture. Reinforcing your lexicon in training sessions and during weekly, monthly, annual meetings ingrains the culture and strengthen the bonds both within your organization and IRL. More rizz.

Shared lexicon (sacred words) reinforces community integrity.

Everything works better when we work together.

Six seven.

Next. Whether your foe is dirty kitchens, high-cost car insurance, or the Masters of Evil, producing content that points at your opponent or Nonbeliever is mostly a good move.

Acknowledge what you’re not. Point out your oppositional characters. Let there be trolls and haters. What are you not?

This exchange reinforces tribal loyalty. It helps loyalists defend us against rivals and naysayers. As the public relations adage goes, People are going to talk about us, and we might not like what they say.

The way to steer (and own) the conversation is to share the facts with insiders. Reinforced with facts, fans will defend you against outlanders and naysayers. Just ask Apple.

Loyalty also prevents churn, because switching seems like betrayal. Hey, where you going? You leaving?! In today’s world of cults, tribes, cosplayers, and loyalists, leaving the group can often mean losing friends. No thanks.

Human beings’ biggest fear is being tossed from their tribe.

Final stroke. Who is your leader?

The first goal of any leader is to let people in the community know that they are safe.

The second objective is to share the community vision — and support the perception that that vision is attainable.

Relationships and trust are built through strong, effective leadership. Communicating organizational values through pipelines of social, digital or traditional media is crucial.

Leadership, whether it is placed on social, digital or traditional media, is one more subject for content.

Communicate with community members through thought leadership, critical milestones, opportunistic updates, monthly or quarterly meetings, town halls, industry events — these are all viable moments that help make trust and human relationships more tactile, more personal.

Leaving, switching, or churn become less likely, as relationships with leadership become more personal.

Reducing churn is a matter of posting content focused on the seven pieces of Primal Code across whichever social, digital and traditional media are relevant to your audiences. This keeps your brand exciting, relevant and meaningful for everyone engaged in the life cycle of the Brand.

The importance is to create an open sense of belonging, driven by an active belief system. People who feel they belong not only stand in line longer, they encourage others to come stand with them. This advocacy drives new people to your brand community.

Your brand remains resonant, does not become bland or stale. And is not replaceable. All of these effectively reduce churn.

You remain irresistible.

If people can’t live without you, how could they ever leave you behind?

/////

The whole world knows what has been going on in Silicon Valley these last 24 months. Sam Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford professors, was convicted of wire fraud. Last year, Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavighne resigned due to alleged manipulated research. Allegations concerning academic dishonesty have surrounded former Stanford behavioral scientists Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino (they have been accused of using falsified data in a paper about how people bend the truth). Then, there’s always Theranos.

Yes, and. Even in a slump season, Stanford innovation and entrepreneurship remains world class. The university can point to over 5,000 of our most beloved companies that all have some connection to Palo Alto, California. That legacy includes: Google, Nike, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, LinkedIn, Uber, IDEO, Intel, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Yahoo!, Gap, Tesla, even the Special Olympics.

Use Stanford’s Secrets for Building Better Leadership, Better Companies and Becoming a Billion-Dollar Brand

Stanford University’s alumni have created more than 200 billion-dollar companies in the past three decades. If its alumni founded their own country, it would become one of the tenth largest global economies. It’s not much of a surprise that Stanford, the extremely prestigious, entrepreneur-centric university in the heart of Silicon Valley is known as the “Billionaire Factory.”

What does come as a surprise, however, is how Stanford breeds so many world-renowned founders. The connection between Stanford’s entrepreneurial success is based on far more than its reputation and alumni base.

Through extensive research, interviewing faculty, founders and exploring success stories — I’ve discovered a distinct methodology that Stanford University has developed over the last 100 years that extends beyond the classroom. It shapes the global landscape of technological advancement.

What is the secret sauce behind Stanford’s entrepreneurial prowess? Here are some takeaways.

The Stanford Ecosystem — Exposing Yourself to Innovation

Stanford University is an institution of higher learning, but it doesn’t follow an institutionalized approach. Rather, it’s a thriving ecosystem that encourages innovation.

“Entrepreneurship is in the air, it’s in the water, it’s everywhere here,” says Stanford professor Chuck Eesley, associate professor of Management Science and Engineering, part of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. “At Stanford, the way you show that you’re really smart and hip, is to say you’re building a company.”

The Stanford Engineering Entrepreneurship Center has over 60 learning paths in their Engineering School. These incredibly diverse trailways are open to anyone — students from any Stanford school, major, or experience level are encouraged to partake. And they do.

The Stanford process is simple, but unique. The student might first be exposed to a lecture on campus, like the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders’ Seminar Series, where anyone can peek in to listen to Bill Gates, Phil Knight, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech titans tell their stories.

These face-to-face conversations and the welcoming entrepreneurial culture are inspiring — and a stark difference from the exclusive entrepreneurial incubators and courses offered in other zip codes.

“It’s a very bottom-up approach, with many entrepreneurship initiatives in various forms around campus,” Eesley remarks.

Which leads many students to spark an idea that they begin working on.

So, they take another class on entrepreneurship. “The next thing you know, they’ve entered into either the E-Challenge, the business planning competition or into one of the accelerator programs,” says Chuck Eesley.

The concept of being a constant learner and staying curious outside one’s traditional path, is a proven trail to success even beyond the Stanford campus. President Obama, Bill Gates, Oprah, and Warren Buffet have famously spoken about how reading (and learning) outside their lane got them to where they are today.

But Stanford takes this basic approach a step further.

Consumer Need + Innovative Technology Solution + Committed Investor/Mentors = The Formula for Entrepreneurial Success

Ask any failed entrepreneur (and you won’t have trouble finding one, over half of all startup businesses fail within five years) and you’ll find that innovation and passion alone don’t pay the bills, no matter how great the product idea.

After students identify the customer or social need, then ideate technology or product solutions, Stanford guides founder-entrepreneurs to locate investor/mentors who often have already been successful in the category — or they network in others who have been successful.

Linking seed investment to mentors who know how to build in-category is part of Stanford’s secret sauce. Access to capital isn’t just a concept, it’s right down the hall. Many seed investors have offices right on the Stanford campus.

“That doesn’t exist anywhere but in Silicon Valley,” claims seed investor Steve Schlenker of DN Capital.

Take Greta Meyer and Amanda Calabrese, for example. The two women met as teammates on Stanford’s Lacrosse team. In 2018, they both signed up for Chuck Eesley’s class and were asked to uncover a customer need. The women locked onto the humiliating horror that plagues young women athletes everywhere — tampons that leak.

Eesley’s classroom became a good way to explore problem dynamics. The class is structured in two main tracks. The first section is case studies and founder speakers, which provided Meyer and Calabrese a theoretical base.

“The other track was building a hypothetical startup,” remembers Greta Meyer. “Going through the process — we have this hypothesis, we’re interviewing customers, testing pricing this week, next week we’re testing the business model, the minimum viable product and all of that.”

This combination of theoretical and hypothetical, spurs success at Stanford. Students hear real-world success stories from the mouths of legendary founders, then dive into hands-on practical implementation.

“From there, we knew we were in the tampon space,” continues Meyer. “Our hypothesis was, ‘What if we could make the tampon more fluid mechanically efficient?’ Not making a new product category but an incremental improvement on the tampon itself, focusing on athletes.”

Next, the two female co-founders took another Stanford class, this time d.school ’s LaunchPad. They met successful entrepreneur Perry Klehaban, formerly from outdoor companies Patagonia and Timbuktu. Klehaban gave them practical advice about sourcing, design, distribution, and consumer marketing. The two women kept moving forward.

Note: On the day I spoke with Greta Meyer for this article, the FDA announced approval for their new Sequel Spiral™ design, possibly the first advance in tampon design in 50 years.

Successful startups begin with a deep understanding of customer needs. Stanford’s ‘Customer Validation’ process ensures that your business idea aligns with real-world demands. Use this emphasis to find viable solutions that solve problems for your target audience and, like Sequel, has a unique competitive advantage.

Collaboration Beats Competition

While building a business is tough, it doesn’t have to be a boxing match. Collaboration, even within the same industry, is encouraged at Stanford and flourishes outside of academia.

In fact, collaboration is part of Stanford’s root code. During World War II, San Francisco’s radio engineering industry was fundamental to wartime success. After the war, Stanford-based engineers developed Stanford University’s Research Park to create a hybrid environment that brought students and faculty researchers together with industry innovators.

“Engineers at that time were dedicated to advancing technology as enterprise,” explains Chuck Eesley. “So, engineers would brainstorm with other engineers to help out.” Instead of posing conflicts of interest, these collaborations inspired a culture of interest between researchers, engineering students and entrepreneurs. And it created exponential success.

In 1955, William Shockley (co-inventor of the transistor) founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View. Scientists from Shockley begat Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. Fairchild begat Intel Corporation. Intel begat the microprocessor — propelling a culture of successful innovation and investment that is self-lubricating.

“People make money from a venture and then they have money for other ventures,” explains one insider. “This creates a funding mechanism for making people successful — it becomes an ecosystem.”

This is not the case elsewhere. Take New York City.

“On the East coast, investors come from more of a banking or legal infrastructure,” explains Everett Cook of investment firm Pouschine Cook Capital Management in Manhattan. “They want empirical evidence. They want to know about past successes, rather than the future.”

Cook understands the difference from personal experience. When Cook launched his New York City-based investment firm, he received most of his funding from West Coast investors.

This spirit of community-building and knowledge-sharing forms the bedrock of Stanford’s successful ecosystem. Engineers helping other engineers has become engrained in the culture. The Stanford network is vital.

“People who have worked at Google or Facebook are willing to work with students in figuring out how their companies might become viable and work things out,” says Eesley. “That spirit has continued in entrepreneurship and mentorship as well.”

Entrepreneurs globally can learn from this approach, recognizing the potential to help others while creating thriving businesses.

Just some of the exciting companies to watch rooted in Stanford’s collaborative approach include: Aurora Solar, founded by former Stanford students Chris Hopper and Sam Adeyemo, which was valued at $4 billion in 2023. Sequence Spiral™ received FDA approval and was featured in The Wall Street Journal in August, 2023. Staffing company Persona, founded in 2018 by Stanford alums Nathan Lomeli and Jason Hreha today has over 200 employees. And Sanas.ai, funded by Steve Schlenker at DN Capital, has raised over $50 million.

The Bottom Line

Stanford University has an intentional, repeatable method that goes beyond traditional classroom lectures. It’s dynamic ‘hands-on’ model exposes students to new ways of thinking, such as design thinking and ‘need finding.’ If Stanford has an unfair advantage, it is that student founders can usually find seed funding right on campus. But money isn’t everything. Locating experienced mentors who have successful experience in tech, distribution, sourcing and other real-world factors is fundamental to Stanford’s focused approach. (In other words, if you need to get into Target find an investor with experience getting into Target. If your application needs to integrate seamlessly with Workato, find a tech investor who has successfully established that integration.) The emphasis isn’t merely on acquiring knowledge or how to scale, but on cultivating exceptional leaders who can navigate the complex geographies of successful design, innovation, technology, networked funding, mentorship, and leadership.

The “Stanford Method” is not just a blueprint for academic achievement; it’s a future-forward roadmap for entrepreneurial success for other innovation groups and other geographies like Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and other African centers of innovation centers follow. Embrace Stanford’s principles and you may find yourself on the path to creating your own “Billionaire Factory.”

Lori Henson’s creative path spans multiple disciplines. As a student, she studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City, and studied life drawing at the Art Students League NYC. Working from her studios in San Miguel de Allende, MX and Minneapolis, USA, Henson’s work has been shared at galleries like the pioneering Belgis Freidel in SoHo, New York City (she is listed between Jim Dine and David Hockney), at women-owned Gallery Obscura in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as well as Art Resources/Minneapolis.

As an artist working with clay or creating encaustic art, Henson’s work strives to move the viewer emotionally and spiritually. This definitively comes to life in her new show “Lo Femenino Eterno: La Arcilla Recuerda” (“The Eternal Feminine: The Clay Remembers”), a sculptural exploration of the connection between the feminine and her ancestral spirits. The show opens June 20 at Museo Iconográfico del Quijote in Guanajuato, Mexico.

“Each figure embodies a facet of the eternal feminine,” says Henson, “Shaped by hand, steeped in the collective unconscious, these figures do not speak in words, but in curves, hollows, and the weight of clay.”

Henson blurs the lines between past, present, and future through powerful archetypes. “My focus, whether in clay or encaustic, centers around archetypes of the feminine,” says Henson. “The forms reveal themselves intuitively — The Mother, Healer, Sage, Maiden, Huntress, Mystic, and Queen. Each piece is a moment of reflection, a self-portrait, a reveal of my own tribal roots.”

Lori Henson’s forms shape what Joseph Campbell called the “sacred syllables.” Each piece is a release in anima, a monument to the feminine.

Silent witnesses to these archetypal figures are the quiet presence of owls. Ancestral sentinels, seers of the unseen, messengers between worlds. They perch, they watch, they remember.

Owl and woman — feather and form — stand together as twin totems of protection and presence.

Celebrated together in “Lo Femenino Eterno: La Arcilla Recuerda” (“The Eternal Feminine: The Clay Remembers”), these sculptures whisper the eternal forces that shape us.

“Lo Femenino Eterno: La Arcilla Recuerda” (“The Eternal Feminine: The Clay Remembers”) runs June 20 to August 15 at Museo Iconográfico del Quijote, one of Guanajuato’s most significant cultural institutions.

Located at Cantarranas 2, Zona Centro, 36000 Guanajuato, Gto., Mexico For information call: +52 473 732 6721

https://museoiconografico.guanajuato.gob.mx/