Sophie Durey sits down with Sacha Ledan, Director at the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Stanford GSB, to discuss his journey as a French American and his passion for supporting founders. Sacha shares his unique perspective on building programs at Stanford and highlights the school’s distinctive role in shaping Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial spirit. Tune in to discover how Stanford’s approach continues to influence the world of startups!

Ed Kearney is originally from Canberra Australia where at age 12 he first saw a video of a hydrofoil boat, which sparked his interest and sat in his mind for the next 20 years. Having graduated from Civil Engineering at UNSW in Sydney, he then started a PhD program in Coastal Engineering and Oceanography, and at the same time also started an e-commerce startup selling university graduation gowns.

As it would turn out, the startup was a better fit. Spinning out of the graduation gown company was a startup called Snappr, an on demand marketplace for professional photographers, which was backed by Y Combinator in 2017, so Ed and his co-founder Matt moved to California. But always in the back of his mind was his desire to build boats and ships that effortlessly flew over the water, so in 2018 Ed and another Australian started Boundary Layer Technologies, which was accepted into the winter 2019 Y Combinator program, with a vision to bring hydrofoil technology to all sectors of the marine industry.