Our startups are progressing quite nicely and the program itself is seeing massive growth, thanks to tons of support from the StartX network, which is continuously expanding, too. As our newest Signature Partner, we are excited to tell you that Intuit, the leading provider of solutions to simplify the business of life for consumers and small businesses, will be joining the StartX community. They’ll contribute to our mission of developing great founders by helping us with initiatives in leadership training, design resources, and many other areas of expertise. Founders in our community that are building Intuit-relevant technologies will also have access to decision-makers within Intuit for exploring business development opportunities. Intuit’s co-founders first connected on Stanford’s campus, so they were naturally drawn to what we’re trying to do.

“We are big believers in the power of small teams, just like the innovators who take part in StartX, and are proud to support this vibrant community,” said Brad Smith, Intuit’s president and CEO.

A few friendly folks from Intuit mingled alongside more than 250 investors and media at our event. Cameron Teitelman, founder of StartX, kicked off the night with a warm welcome and organizational updates, followed by introductions from new StartX Demo Day teams. The short introductions on stage, in place of 4-5 minute pitches to slides, was a format change we were testing out last night. Was it good or bad? More productive or not? We’ll find out over the next week or two. Please share your feedback. After the intros, the auditorium at AOL West was buzzing with founders talking to investors and friends catching up on their latest news. Below is a list of the companies that shared demos. Check them out! Many are still in their early stages, but it should be fun to watch them develop and change the world!

StartX Spring 2013 Demo Day

We’d also like to thank our fantastic Demo Day supporters:  Bing (Gold Sponsor) and Menlo Ventures, Cooley LLP, Fenwick & West LLP, Square 1 Bank (Silver Sponsors).

by StartX MedIC Team, lead writer Stesha Doku

StartX Med Innovation Challenge (#StartXMedIC) was a 50 hour weekend event from February 22-24, 2013 at Stanford University’s Li Ka Shing Center, offering hands-on education in healthcare entrepreneurship through talented, multi-disciplinary teams. The event was hosted by StartX Med, a medically focused division of the nonprofit startup accelerator, StartX. The mission of the organization is to accelerate the development of the highest-potential Stanford medical innovators through experiential education and collective intelligence. StartX Med advances breakthrough medical innovations & supports ambitious startups in health IT, wireless / med device, biotech, imaging & diagnosis, care delivery innovation. The event was hosted in partnership with StartX, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, and Corporate Partners Program, Stanford University Medical Center.

From nearly 300 applicants across Stanford schools (School of Medicine, Engineering, Business and Design School), Stanford Hospital and Clinics and the surrounding community, 150 talented hackers, designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, physicians, and students were selected to participate in the competitive program. Experience levels ranged from undergrads new to entrepreneurship to alumni who have built and sold multiple previous companies. Technologists in the room ranged from engineers experienced in mobile/software/web development, statisticians doing advanced research in machine learning, visual image/ natural language processing, to hardware and materials science experts. Direct collaboration with Stanford Hospital brought out 25 entrepreneurial clinicians, from department chairs to senior medical students.

On Friday evening, participants spent the initial hours networking and learning about the challenge’s theme:  “Employee Wellness and Health Management.” With prominent companies searching for innovative solutions to help their employees manage chronic diseases, improve nutrition and exercise, promote wellness and reduce stress the focus was to come up with an innovative idea to address these concerns. Participants heard from keynote speakers about the issues facing healthcare, big data and employee health. Ted Tussing, Director of Corporate Partners Program, Stanford University Medical Center which works to create innovative new models for healthcare delivery and service for the benefit of the community delivered the opening keynote address. Mike Labianca, former SVP of HR and NVIDIA discussed the market for employee wellness. Rebecca Coelius, Medical Officer for Innovation at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT/HHS Office of the CTO spoke about government initiatives including Blue Button for increasing patient access to their own data.

With a little inspiration from the speakers, 62 participants delivered one minute pitches of their ideas.   All participants were invited to vote on their favorite pitches. From the votes, 25 teams of various sizes were formed to prototype the best ideas. Friday evening finished with team leaders and members building their teams and preparing for two more days of hard work.

Saturday was an intense workday for the participants with the opportunity to code, design, prototype, and further flesh out their ideas. A number of expert coaches from medicine, business, and entrepreneurship hosted open office hours during the event, helping the teams work through issues around product, design, market, business model. The majority of coaches were alumni and current CEOs from StartX.

Sunday participants put the final touches on their presentations and prototypes after meeting with pitch coaches to get advice on how to best deliver their ideas to the judges in the last round. The pitch coaching sessions were provided by experienced StartX staff members who work closely with StartX’s portfolio companies in preparing them to sell their team, product, business model, and vision to investors.  23 teams presented their final presentations to a panel of 6 judges with expertise in health entrepreneurship. Judges included Dr. Sumbul Desai, Associate CMO for Strategy and Innovation; Dr. Simeon George, a partner at SR One; Dr. Bassam Kadry, Director of Tech Discovery at Stanford Medicine X; Missy Krasner, Morgenthaler Ventures’ Entrepreneur In Residence; Daniel Morisette, CFO of Stanford Hospital and Clinics; and former CTO of Epocrates, Bob Quinn. In addition to ranking by criteria, the judges offered real-time feedback. Lloyd Minor, Dean of Stanford Medical School delivered the closing keynote “The Three C’s of Innovation: Combination, Collaboration, and Chance.”

The Grand Prize winner, Rockfish Financial Insights, provided a risk calculator for long-term care arrangements of elderly and loved ones.  They will become finalists for StartX Med’s startup accelerator and receive special mentorship from StartX Med and Stanford Hospital & Clinics.  They will also be provided 1 ticket to TEDMED, April 16-19, 2013.

Most Innovative presentation was Acuity, which develops games to better improve cognitive healthcare for an aging population.

Best Industry Pivot was Eyego, which enables eye care everywhere through a smartphone device that can record clinic quality images of the eye for telemedicine.

Best Design was Kids In Kitchens, which provides simple healthy cooking for kids through an easy to use iPad app.

Most Audacious was The Beth Project, which creates low cost prostheses to enable fast fitting processes for less developed countries.

StartX Med will be partnering with MindSumo to open an online challenge to encourage teams to continue working on their prototypes even after the innovation challenge.

Contact: Divya Nag
divyanag@startx.stanford.edu

Recently, we welcomed several noteworthy guests from Microsoft to meet with our founder community for tactical discussions around entrepreneurship, including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and the U.S. finalists for the Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s student technology competition.

StartX was Steve Ballmer’s first stop on a Silicon Valley tour he made in mid-November. After an energetic talk and in-depth Q&A with the founders, Steve spent almost an hour meeting with the teams and individually giving them feedback on their product and strategies for go-to-market
and distribution.

“Getting Steve’s feedback on our product was terrific” said Hai Nguyen, co-founder of StartX-backed Appfluence. “It was great to see his passion for early-stage tech and to pick his brain about our strategic direction and the state of enterprise software.”

Steve’s aides were a little on edge as he keep a group of 100 VCs waiting at his next event so he could spend more time meeting the teams at StartX. Our founders didn’t seem to mind.

Appfluence user testing with Steve Ballmer. Left to right: Hai Nyugen, Pablo Diaz-Gutierrez, Steve Ballmer. Photo courtesy of John Melas-Kyriazi.

While it was a treat for the founders to chat with Steve, they also enjoyed the raw enthusiasm, intellect, and passion of the Microsoft Imagine Cup U.S. finalists who visited StartX in March.

Out of hundreds of teams who applied from universities from all over the country for the annual software development and social entrepreneurship competition, 15 teams were picked as finalists and flown to Silicon Valley for a week-long boot camp.

After a day of intense coding, the finalists came over to StartX to chat with our founders over dinner and exchange ideas (and, as often happens when talking with scrappy entrepreneurs, to get recruited).

Imagine Cup finalists and StartX founders catching up over dinner. Photo courtesy of Brooke Lloyd.

The conversations at dinner ranged from coding suggestions to discussions around vision and impact. “It was inspiring to learn about all the exciting projects the Imagine Cup teams were working on — from interactive physical therapy via the Xbox Kinect to electronic medical records for the developing world” said Andrew Lockhart, founder of StartX-backed Meet Mikey.

Clearly, the Imagine Cup teams felt the same way, and ended their visit by asking the StartX staff when we would bring StartX to their home universities.

Having great guests visit us is one of the many benefits of partnering with a company like Microsoft that is committed to innovation and supporting entrepreneurs. We’re excited to see who comes next.

StartX Raises $400,000 To Accelerate Entrepreneurial Education
Funding Includes $100,000 Grant from Blackstone Charitable Foundation

(Palo Alto, CA and New York, NY) StartX, a Stanford-affiliated nonprofit which runs one of Silicon Valley’s top startup accelerator programs, is announcing $400,000 in new funding. This includes a $100,000 grant unveiled today by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation.

The combination of grants and partnerships, secured over the past few months, will be used to support the development and expansion of StartX’s startup accelerator program, which launched in 2010 at Stanford University.

The annual Blackstone Organizational Grants Program backs innovative organizations to pilot, expand or replicate projects or programs that will catalyze the growth of successful businesses, industries, and communities. For this funding cycle, Blackstone joins other distinguished entities such as Cisco, AT&T, Founders Fund, Groupon, and Founder.org as new partners in support of StartX’s year-round, entrepreneurial education program.

“The future of the global economy depends upon a pipeline of creative, talented, and inspired entrepreneurs,” said Amy Stursberg, Executive Director of the Blackstone Charitable Foundation. “Through this program, we are able to direct the Foundation’s resources towards connecting the best non-profit partners with entrepreneurs to help them on a path toward innovation and discovery.”

StartX, which recently completed its 8th session, is exceptionally well-positioned to leverage this additional funding. The fast growing organization, primarily run by Stanford alumni and students, launched StartX Med in May 2012, a division of StartX focused on medical and biotechnology entrepreneurship. Six months later, StartX kicked off Motwani Labs, a pre-accelerator program focused on mentorship for Stanford entrepreneurs. StartX staff has tripled since last year to a team of 30, which manages hundreds of educational events, learning opportunities, and networking channels for its portfolio companies throughout the year.

“We’ve made significant progress in scaling StartX over the last year. As we continue to grow, we are looking forward to working with our new partners to realize our shared vision of empowering entrepreneurs,” said John Melas-Kyriazi, Partnerships Director for StartX.

StartX companies work on a broad range of challenges across consumer internet, enterprise, mobile, edtech, medtech, biotech, social enterprise, cleantech, gaming, and hardware industries. Cumulatively, StartX entrepreneurs have founded more than 90 technology startups and raised more than $100 million. StartX charges no fees or equity to participate in its accelerator program.

This most recent funding event brings the total raised by StartX to $1.5 million. StartX’s existing partners include the Kauffman Foundation, Microsoft, Greylock Ventures, and AOL, among others.

About StartX
StartX is a Stanford-affiliated nonprofit that runs one of Silicon Valley’s top startup accelerator programs. Our mission is to accelerate the development of the best entrepreneurs through experiential education and collective intelligence. Since launching in 2010, StartX has supported more than 90 companies and 250 entrepreneurs in biotechnology, medtech, cleantech, consumer internet, enterprise IT, hardware, and mobile. StartX provides community engagement, mentorship, on-the-job education, office space and other resources. We are supported by the Kauffman Foundation, Cisco, Blackstone Charitable Foundation, Microsoft, AOL, Greylock Partners, Founders Fund, and many others. For more information, visit startx.stanford.edu.

About the Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative

Funding for this program is made possible through The Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s $50 million, five-year Entrepreneurship Initiative announced in April 2010. Influenced by the urgent need for job growth in the United States, The Blackstone Charitable Foundation seeks to support innovative projects and catalytic ideas that can accelerate start-ups, job growth, and economic activity. The Foundation focuses its resources on producing large-scale results in geographies hardest hit by the global economic crisis.

About The Blackstone Charitable Foundation

The Blackstone Charitable Foundation was founded at the time of The Blackstone Group’s Initial Public Offering in 2007 with substantial commitments from the Firm’s employees. Influenced by the enterprising heritage of the firm and its founders, The Blackstone Charitable Foundation is directing its resources and applying the intellectual capital of the firm to foster entrepreneurship in areas hardest hit by the global economic crisis. Through its investment expertise across several asset classes and geographies, Blackstone has a unique perspective on the global economy and a heightened understanding of how entrepreneurial activity is often the crucial catalyst in the growth of successful businesses, industries and communities. (For more information, see http://www.blackstone.com/CharitableFoundation.htm)

StartX
Alexa Lee
650-417-5184
alexa@startx.stanford.edu

Blackstone
Oriane Schwartzman
212-390-2250
oriane.schwarzman@blackstone.com

Tech reporters and StartX startups in small group Q&A. Photo by PaulSakuma.com

While startups do some pretty cool things, they’re often not very savvy about sharing their stories with the media. Good writers are always looking for leads and story inspiration. To connect tech journalists and StartX founders, we launched our first ever, “Meet the Press” educational media event last week, sponsored by law firm Fenwick & West. The results? A better understanding of the technology media and how to pitch a story as well as many new entrepreneur-reporter connections formed.

“I love it when great, symbiotic communities come together to help each other! The press participation was awesome and I learned a lot,” said Mark Brenneman, founder of Pico, an app that makes event planning as “easy as sending a text.”

Media Advisors Contribute
The evening’s “headliners” included more than a dozen technology reporters who shared their media experience with our StartX community of entrepreneurs. As a non-profit, education-focused entity, such community-based help is critical and sincerely appreciated!

Media educators at StartX share tips on pitching. Photo by PaulSakuma.com

Part I – Panel Discussion
Part I of the event was easy. In some ways, it was like reverse Demo Day. Instead of sitting in the audience, attending media were front and center. Each gave a quick introduction. The entrepreneurs took notes and tried to differentiate the writers and their outlets. With a good understanding of what each reporter focuses on, it becomes easier to know who to contact when you have news to share. Listen for yourself by playing the audio below.

As memories of poor PR outreach started to resurface, the reporters became even more motivated to talk. They seemed to agree that email contact was the most common and usually most efficient way to communicate a company pitch. To be effective, Liza Boyd, a magazine writer for Fast Company and San Francisco, strongly recommended good preparation.

“Do your research. Know what they cover. Know what angles they’re interested in. Because when we get that generic email, please be assured that is the fastest way to get into the trash bin,” she said.

CNET columnist and #Dominatefund manager Ben Parr, added that having a personal introduction via email or an attention-grabbing subject line can help.

“Try to get an introduction from someone the writer might know or put something in the title that will get their attention, even if it is just ‘Stanford,’” he said.

Silicon Valley Business Journal’s Jon Xavier advised the entrepreneurs to diligently follow up.

“Some reporters get hundreds of emails a day, he noted. “Don’t just send an email and forget about it.” He suggested trying other channels, including social media.

(Left to right) Boonsri Dickinson, Anthony Ha, Jon Xavier, and Angela Hey. Photo by PaulSakuma.com

While TechCrunch writer Anthony Ha is very active on social media, he advised the group to pay attention to details. His LinkedIn profile says, “Do not contact me via LinkedIn,” but people still try to contact him about stories there. For pitch content via email, he told the audience to think of the inverted pyramid style that traditional newspapers use, where the key facts and points are presented, first.

“Every single paragraph has to have the most important information. Assume a reader can jump off and stop at any time. Every single piece is an essential piece,” he explained.

Boonsri Dickinson, a writer for Byte, shared a simple tip, “Write like a human!” She said jargon-filled emails just end up being hard to read.

To figure out what to highlight in a pitch, VentureBeat’s Christina Farr, recommended using the elements in your story that usually get people excited.

“Think about – what’s the story that when I talk about my startup, it makes them go, ‘OMG, that’s so cool!’ That’s what we want to hear about too,” she explained.

Mountain View Voice tech columnist Angela Hey said she’s only interested in Mountain View companies and clarity is key.

“I need a very clear description. I like software and mobile. I like to look at where the future trends are. I like to do my own investigation and meet with the company,” Hey told the entrepreneurs.

Rafe Needleman, a veteran journalist who recently launched Opportunity Notes for Evernote, told the audience not to excessively self-edit, which can sometimes stifle good content.

“Let the story flow. Every person has a story and in many cases, it is not always the story that you think it is,” he explained.

Producing a well-written story is how MIT Technology Review’s Rachel Metz pleases her editors. We asked, “What makes the boss happy?” For Metz, a magazine writer, publishing a thoroughly researched piece is highly valued. It usually begins with a good interview.

“A startup being really willing to share information about how they’re doing and some personal details as well. That is what will make up a really good story,” she said.

Sensing that the audience might be feeling intimidated about the challenge of getting press attention from the “wall of journalists in the room,” Wade Roush, West Coast editor for Xconomy, told entrepreneurs to think beyond conventional publications. He advised them to develop other channels for getting their message out, such as posting on a blog.

“Don’t obsess over this. We are gatekeepers for a very specific kind of communication and it is not the only communication on earth,” he said.

Michael Chiu, co-founder of Medigram, who also participated in the event, could not agree more. His own company, featured by Roush earlier this year, develops HIPAA-compliant messaging apps for medical communications and just launched its own “Mediblog.” As CEO of a seed-stage company, Chiu does all his own PR work. Most panelists felt that early stage company founders should be doing the same until their business demands a more complex communications strategy.

“For me it is almost about avoiding PR for as long as possible. I would love to hear from you, especially at an early stage. I’d love for you to reach out to me and see if we can start a conversation,” said Farr.

While that might be a preference for some writers, Shelly Gordon, a PR professional with G2 Communications who attended the event said, “I wasn’t surprised by the somewhat negative comments about PR professionals. Science & health journalists can be even tougher. We face the challenge of serving two masters: our clients and the press.  But I agreed with Wade/Xconomy that we’re all just trying to do a decent job in our respective fields.”

Wade Roush, Xconomy talking to StartX founders. Photo by PaulSakuma.com

Part II – Breakout Groups
For the second half of the evening, founders, writers, and PR folks formed small groups to make introductions and engage in more intimate Q&A. Initially, this was the awkward part. Many tech founders are not natural self-promoters and some tech writers are self-proclaimed, shy “geeks.” Regardless, they eventually got talking. The groups covered a wide range of topics. Some founders wanted to learn how to make sure your story is told correctly. Others asked for tips on executing a good press launch. One group talked about “best and worst ways to get attention on a budget.” Jeff Kostermans, co-founder of Insynctive, a cloud based HR HelpDesk solution, said the interaction was a unique, appreciated opportunity.

“StartX Rocks! This enabled Insynctive to get invaluable face time and have conversations with local media,” he said.

Event and Dinner Sponsor – Fenwick & West

The discussions continued as attendees nibbled on a Korean bulgogi and kimbap dinner. MindSumo intern Aaron Weiss also got the chance to mix and mingle for his first-ever StartX community event.

“It was great to learn from individual panel members during the informal dinner!” he said. MindSumo, a StartX company that was covered by Needleman at the Fall 2011 Demo Day, is a platform that connects students and employers by hosting companies’ real-world challenges.

The next challenge for these StartX founders and media experts will be to put ideas and introductions into action. Good luck and thank you to everyone who participated and helped organize!

Event Photographer: Paul Sakuma

Xconomy — Wade Roush, @wroush
Byte – Boonsri Dickinson, @boonspoon
TechCrunch – Anthony Ha, @anthonyha
San Jose Business Journal – Jon Xavier, @svbizjon
Mountain View Voice – Angela Hey, @techviser
Technology Review- Rachel Metz, @rachelmetz
Evernote Opportunity Notes – Rafe Needleman, @rafe
VentureBeat – Christina Farr, @chrissyfarr
Fast Company & San Francisco – Liza Boyd, @ebboyd
CNET – Ben Parr, @benparr
DishDaily – Chuck Stern, @thedishdaily
DishDaily - Sebastain Gould, @thedishdaily
AllThingsD – Camira Powell, @allthingsD
NBC11/Press Here – Scott McGrew – VIDEO CONTRIBUTION, @ScottMcGrew
Stanford Daily – Billy Gallagher – VIDEO CONTRIBUTION, @GallagherBilly

Join the Community of Stanford’s Top Founders

Apply Now

StartX accelerates the development of the highest-potential Stanford founders through experiential education.

Our program provides:

• Community: A close-knit peer community of the best Stanford entrepreneurs who learn from, motivate, and support one another
• Alumni Network: A diverse community of 220+ high quality StartX alumni founders in all industries and from all backgrounds who have raised on average $1.42 million per company
• Mentorship: Top tier mentorship from serial entrepreneurs & investors
• Training: Access to training from relevant experts in any industry to guide you in every aspect of starting a company
• Resources: $3-5k per founder, office space, housing, free legal, up to $20K free cloud computing, accounting, and more
• Access to Capital: Connections to top investment firms and angel groups, as well as a large number of individual angel investors

We take 0% equity and charge nothing.

In order to be eligible to apply, at least one founder of the company must have been enrolled as a Stanford student, post doc, or professor within the last three years of the application period.

StartX is stage agnostic; companies have entered the program at a variety of stages from preparing to raise a Series A to having recently developed an initial prototype.

If you do not fit the requirements listed above for the accelerator, there are other ways to join the community.  If you have any questions about whether or not your company is a fit for StartX please contact us.

We accept founders in all industries and from every background. This includes biotech, clean tech, clean energy, hardware, medical devices, non-profits, music, finance, IT, etc.  Historically our founders have been ~40% PhD students, ~30% Undergraduates, ~25% masters and ~5% professors across different departments and disciplines.  Additionally, over one quarter of our founders have been women.

Check out recent press mentions of StartX in  Forbes, Business Insider, TechCrunch and VentureBeat.
Read articles about our recent companies: Bell Bio, Maykah, Game Closure, Boosted Boards, Stem Cell Theranostics, and Qwhisper.

Here’s how to apply.

Check out our info session: Wednesday October 24, 7 PM @ Nitery 209!

   follow StartX on twitter  |   like us on our fb page: StartX

• Before hiring, make sure you do some basic due diligence and get all agreements in place before bringing someone on board.  Explicitly mention the salary the employee will get to avoid any disputes or claims if the employee leaves.
• If you are bringing on someone as a contractor, make sure that the person meets the requirements to be classified as such.  Some factors that determine whether a person is a contractor or employee include, whether the person has the right to direct and control work, what is the skill level, what is the level of supervision, how is the payment for services structured etc.
• If an employee is not performing, document it, bring it to the employee’s notice and ask them to fix it.  If this continues to be a problem, be sure to articulate reasons when firing.
• If you are firing an employee, do it in private but have a witness present and make sure you pay all wages and get back all company property on that day.

StartX is pleased to announce a Signature Partnership with Microsoft to support high-potential
entrepreneurs coming out of Stanford University. As StartX’s newest partner, Microsoft will
provide financial sponsorship, technical resources, and significant scaling and distribution
opportunities for StartX’s portfolio companies through Microsoft BizSpark.

With support from its partners now totaling over $1M this year, StartX can continue to fulfill its
mission of becoming the best place in the world for entrepreneurs to develop.

“StartX’s vision is to combine the wisdom of the private sector with the energy and imagination
of founders coming from an institution like Stanford. This vision comes to life now because of
the rich bench of mentors and advisors from the venture and entrepreneurial world that offer
their time and expertise to the program,” said Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president, strategic
and emerging business development, Microsoft. “We are honored that Microsoft BizSpark can
support this effort.”

Over the last several months, StartX companies have begun leveraging Microsoft’s resources as
part of their company development. For example, Microsoft is working closely with Appfluence,
a StartX company that builds priority-management software solutions for executives and
managers. Microsoft is providing extensive technical, business, and design resources for
Appfluence to migrate their award-winning product, Priority Matrix, to the Windows 8 platform.
MindSumo, a platform for companies to actively engage with students by posting real-world
challenges for them to solve, has also been working with Microsoft.

“For many founders in StartX, access to top mentors and technical expertise is a crucial element
for their long-term success,” said Cameron Teitelman, founder of StartX. “Working closely
with Microsoft is a great opportunity for StartX founders to leverage the products, resources and
connections they need to accelerate their business.”

Microsoft BizSpark is a global program that helps startups succeed. With over 50,000 startups
from 100 countries in the program, and a global network of 2,300 BizSpark partners, Microsoft
provides great business value at no cost to young technology companies around the world. The
program offers a wide range of Microsoft technology as well as technical and business expertise.

Microsoft joins StartX’s other financial sponsors including AOL, Greylock Partners, and the
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, whose grant to StartX was announced recently.

Microsoft’s Dan’l Lewin shares entrepreneurial war stories with StartX founders

• Definitions: UI is what the user sees when interacting with a product and UX is the design of the large “user experience” that encompasses UI, content, visual design, etc…
• What makes good UI/UX? Simplicity, getting in the mindset of the target user, paying attention to details, and most importantly testing.
• Testing: everything needs testing and you should be constantly collecting feedback. An outside perspective is very important as you intimately know the product and understand it, but others don’t. Lastly, it is always important to have something to show when testing, don’t give hypotheticals. If you’re asking which color is better, show both colors.
• Important Metrics: Depends on product, but some key ones are conversion, where users dropoff, and bounce rate.
• Testing on a busy schedule: Plan ahead to make sure your tests are efficient and realize it only takes a little bit of testing to get a lot of value.
• Never stop iterating!

If you have any questions about this talk or if you would like to get involved in the StartX community feel free to email us at info@startx.stanford.edu!