Lean LaunchPad at Stanford -- 2025

The PowerPoints embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com

We just finished the 15th<>annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The class had gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions.

During the 2025 spring quarter the eight teams spoke to 935 potential customers, beneficiaries and regulators. Most students spent 15-20 hours a week on the class, about double that of a normal class.

Below are the Lessons Learned presentations from the spring 2025 Lean LaunchPad.

Team Cowmeter – early detection of cow infections through biological monitoring of milk.

To see the Team Cowmeter presentation click here

Team NowPilot – AI copilot for enhancing focus and executive function.

To see the Team NowPilot presentation click here

Team Godela – AI physics engine – with a first disruptive market in packaging.

To see the Team Godela presentation click here

Team ProspectAI – An AI sales development agent for lean sales teams.

To see the Team ProspectAI presentation click here

Team VLAB – accelerating clinical trials with AI orchestration of data.

To see the team VLAB presentation click here

Team Blix – IRB clinical trial compliance / A control layer for AI governance for financial services.

To see the team Blix presentation click here

Team Plotline – A smart marketing calendar for author’s book launch.

To see the team Plotline presentation click here

Team Eluna/Driftnet – Data Center data aggregation and energy optimization software.

To see the team Eluna/Driftnet presentation click here

It Takes A Village

While I authored this blog post, this class is a team project. The secret sauce of the success of the Lean LaunchPad at Stanford is the extraordinary group of dedicated volunteers supporting our students in so many critical ways.

The teaching team consisted of myself and:

• Steve Weinstein, partner at America’s Frontier Fund, 30-year veteran of Silicon Valley technology companies and Hollywood media companies. Steve was CEO of MovieLabs, the joint R&D lab of all the major motion picture studios.

• Lee Redden – CTO and co-founder of Blue River Technology (acquired by John Deere) who was a student in the first Lean LaunchPad class 14 years ago!

• Jennifer Carolan, Co-Founder, Partner at Reach Capital the leading education VC and author of the Hacking for Education class.

Our teaching assistants this year were Arthur C. Campello, Anil Yildiz, Abu B. Rogers and Tireni Ajilore.

Mentors helped the teams understand if their solutions could be a commercially successful business. Thanks to Jillian Manus, Dave Epstein, Robert Feldman, Bobby Mukherjee, Kevin Ray, Deirdre Clute, Robert Locke, Doug Biehn, and John Danner. Martin Saywell from the Distinguished Careers Institute joined the Blix team. The mentor team was led by Todd Basche.

Summary

While the Lean LaunchPad/I-Corps curriculum was a revolutionary break with the past, it’s not the end. In the last decade enumerable variants have emerged. The class we teach at Stanford has continued to evolve. Better versions from others will appear. AI is already having a major impact on customer discovery and validation and we had each team list the AI tools they used. And one day another revolutionary break will take us to the next level.