Brendan Foody co-founded Mercor, a recruiting startup that helps Silicon Valley's top AI labs train their models to do professional-level reasoning by matching skilled workers with enterprise projects. Foody and his co-founders, Surya Midha and Adarsh Hiremath, became the world's three youngest self-made billionaires in October 2025. In this conversation with Adjunct Lecturer Emily Ma, Foody shares how he and his co-founders identified agentic data as the next leap in AI training and benchmarking and built Mercor around it; predicts how the AI revolution will reshape work and the economy; and gives advice to aspiring entrepreneurs looking for a way into the AI market.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at the Stanford School of Engineering, and published on eCorner by STVP. STVP empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.

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Recorded live at the capstone celebration of the Stanford School of Engineering Centennial, this ETL episode features Sergey Brin, the American computer scientist and entrepreneur who co-founded Google with Larry Page and revolutionized global information access. Brin remains an active co-founder and board member of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and he has been involved in Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence efforts. In this conversation with Stanford President Jonathan Levin and School of Engineering Dean Jennifer Widom, Brin tells stories from his Stanford years, shares insights from throughout Google’s history, and gives advice for students and aspiring entrepreneurs – including his perspective on the AI landscape.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders and other Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at the Stanford School of Engineering. STVP empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.

CONNECT WITH US

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner

X: https://x.com/ECorner

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/

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LEARN MORE

STVP: https://stvp.stanford.edu/

eCorner by STVP: https://stvp.stanford.edu/ecorner

Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://stvp.stanford.edu/giving-to-stvp/.

Eric Volmar is teaching lead at the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford. His work focuses on connecting defense, academia, and entrepreneurship to accelerate innovation for national security, supporting new ventures at the intersection of technology and policy. In this presentation – followed by a conversation with Tina Seelig, executive director of Knight-Hennessy Scholars and director emerita of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program – Volmar advises entrepreneurs about how to navigate a new landscape shaped by a shift to deep tech, blended capital, and governments reengaging with technology innovation.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders and other Stanford eCorner content is produced by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), the entrepreneurship center at the Stanford School of Engineering. STVP empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to become global citizens who create and scale responsible innovations.

CONNECT WITH US

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ecorner

X: https://x.com/ECorner

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stanfordtechnologyventuresprogram/

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stanfordstvp.bsky.social

LEARN MORE

STVP: https://stvp.stanford.edu/

eCorner by STVP: https://stvp.stanford.edu/ecorner

Support our mission of providing students and educators around the world with free access to Stanford University’s network of entrepreneurial thought leaders: https://stvp.stanford.edu/giving-to-stvp/.