Relationship to Blank
Tom Byers is a Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford and founding faculty director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), which provided the institutional home for Blank's Lean LaunchPad course. Byers co-teaches Hacking for Defense (H4D) with Blank, Joe Felter, and Pete Newell. Through STVP, Byers provided the institutional infrastructure that enabled Blank's curriculum to be developed and scaled at Stanford.
Background
BS in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from UC Berkeley (1975), MBA from UC Berkeley Haas (1980), PhD in Business Administration from UC Berkeley Haas (1982). He was executive vice president and general manager of Symantec Corporation during its formation and an early employee at Go Corporation. He joined Stanford in 1995 and holds the first Entrepreneurship Professorship endowed chair in the School of Engineering and is a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education.
Key Work
Co-author (with Richard Dorf and Andrew Nelson) of "Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise" (McGraw-Hill, 5th edition 2019). Teaches Technology Entrepreneurship (E145), Leadership of Technology Ventures, and the Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Seminar Series. With Tina Seelig, won the 2024 GCEC Legacy Award for advancing entrepreneurship education.
Significance
Byers represents the institutional side of Blank's impact at Stanford — the faculty infrastructure that enabled the Lean LaunchPad and Hacking for Defense to become established courses within the School of Engineering rather than one-off experiments.
Sources: Stanford Engineering, Stanford Profiles, Wikipedia, steveblank.com