Tina Seelig's Start-up: Open Floodgate

Tina Seelig is one of the most creative and action-oriented human beings that I have ever met. Her "day job" is being Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures program, which I believe -- yes, I am biased -- is the most successful entrepreneurship program in the world. I say that not just because faculty and students do such great research and teach such great classes, but also because they have done outreach all over the world. Tina and her colleagues -- especially Academic Director Tom Byers -- help faculty teach entrepreneurship in dozens of countries. It seems like Tina is always coming back from yet another country where she has ran a conference! And during the decade that Tina has been in this role, she is constantly starting new things... as one small example, STVP was first academic unit I know to get into podcasting its speeches and  seminars and as I have written before, has been #1 on iTunes for downloads in the higher education category for many months.

Tina also teaches a great creativity class... this isn't just my opinion, she gets incredibly high ratings from students, and two years ago, our students voted her the outstanding teacher in the Department of Management Science & Engineering at Stanford.  She also has practiced creativity for years producing her line of Games for Your Brain, cards that teach scientific concepts of all kinds to kids, from bugs to the human body.

In the middle of all this, the other week  I was walking by her office, and she waved at me "Bobby, Bobby come here" (Tina calls me Bobby, I try to stop her, but can't). She said, "guess what, I started a company!" And she did, check it out. It is a place called Open Floodgate where people publish poems, stories, essays, even books.  And it is amazing how much stuff is up there given that is just launched. Check it out. Take the tour. Sign-up and upload some stuff. Knowing Tina, Open Floodgate will be a huge success.

   

Comments

[Lilly]

I loved the eclectic selection on Floodgate. I read all 14 pages of Tina's father's Visit to his hometown in Germany. It is a very personal story that also links with my family history.

I decided to add some photos to the collection and will try to upload my cartoon once in has been turned into PDF format.

Thanks to you Bob for letting us know about this and to you Tina for opening it up.

[J Pody]

Agreed

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[Eric Tam]

Bob,
Openfloodgate is great! I agree.
And thanks for the tip from before. I'm loving your books. Keep up the good work!
Warm Regards,
-Eric

[Tina Seelig]

Bob, thank so much for the plug for OpenFloodgate. As an entrepreneurship educator it is particularly fascinating to "watch" the evolution of this venture. Each day I make decisions about the direction of this new business and think about what I can teach my students based upon my experience. I have started companies before, but in hindsight things look much different than when one is immersed in the day to day activies of running a new venture.

I was inspired to start OpenFloodgate as a result of my experience as an author. I have written a bunch of books. However, I also have a collection of material that hasn't found a home with a traditional publisher. These works are gathering dust on my desk. I realized that I am not the only one. There are millions of people creating interesting work that never sees the light of day. So, I decided to start OpenFloodgate to open the path to publication to everyone. The goal is to build a site that people will be proud to post their stories, poems, articles, scripts, powerpoint slides, case studies, etc. As in any venture, the path is not well marked and it will be fascinating to see how this grows. Thanks for helping me spread the word. Cheers!