Day 6: Life Lessons from San Francisco to Santa Cruz
Editor’s note: The Innovation Odyssey Blog is produced by students in the Innovation Odyssey course, taught by Assistant Professor of Practice Stephen Brand. The course featured a trip to Silicon Valley in January 2025 where the students met with executives and leaders in the tech industry. Each blog will be about a specific day of the trip and the students’ experience. This post was written by the team of Cole Davenport ’25, Ceri Finz ’25, and Kellen Kruglewicz ’25.
Our journey on Friday January 17, 2025, was the most rewarding 170 miles we could have imagined. The windy curves from San Francisco to Santa Cruz were a perfect metaphor for the theme of our trip: the difficult journey of entrepreneurship is littered with uncertain next steps, but the personal grit and growth will emulate the feeling of cresting the last peak leading to success, or in this case, a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean. Two stops on Friday particularly stood out: 1) our visit to GAP’s headquarters & 2) the personal invitation to Guy Kawasaki’s home.
Mark Breitbard – President & CEO Global Gap Brand
We were graciously hosted by Mark Breitbard, CEO of GAP Global Brand, at GAP’s Co-Lab in their headquarters downtown. Brietbard has been at the forefront of GAP’s recent transformation. With AI top of mind, he emphasized the importance of balancing new AI technology with the company’s traditional strengths: “We cannot let algorithms decide everything—we need to be on the ground.” He underscored the power of combining human insight with AI to make smarter, more customer-focused decisions.
A core theme of his leadership is reinvention while remaining authentic to the brand’s identity. “If it’s GAP, make it new. If it’s new, make it GAP.” This philosophy has guided the company’s recent success, balancing innovation with the essence of what customers have always loved about GAP. He also spoke of the necessity of breaking down market share by product and doubling down on categories where you can truly be competitive—a strategic mindset that applies to businesses and individuals alike.
Breitbard shared tailored advice for us as Babson students, encouraging us to differentiate ourselves by being proactive problem solvers. “Bring me a solution,” he said, emphasizing the importance of contributing meaningfully to any team. He also underscored the value of being a positive presence in the workplace: “Who is bringing energy, and who is taking it?” Finally, he reminded us of the importance of humility and self-awareness, urging us to stay grounded and avoid overconfidence. His thoughtful reflections were both inspiring and practical, leaving us with actionable lessons about leadership, innovation, and personal growth that we can carry forward in our own journeys.
Guy Kawasaki and Martha Niño
After almost a week in the land of the future, we were headed toward arguably the most impactful moments of our journey, the grand finale in the hills of Santa Cruz. As we arrived at Guy Kawasaki’s house, we were welcomed with a delicious barbecue and a genuine smile. There he was—Guy, waiting for us to share the secret formulas of his success. Guy joined Apple in the mid-1980s as their 1st Software Evangelist, hosts his own “Remarkable People” podcast, and is now the Chief Evangelist at Canva.
The first insight he exclaimed was “DUMB LUCK!” There was the most successful man I have ever met, humbly crediting his success to luck. This mindset has created an amazing intrinsic responsibility to help people who didn’t have that luck. An outlook that our entire cohort will take with them throughout their business journeys and something that more and more successful business leaders should strive to adopt.
Another one of Guy’s major principles was the importance of human focused sales. As a 2x evangelist, his secret to effective selling was to create a product that you want to use. This outlook would lead to a genuine care and drive for the product. Guy then defined being remarkable as changing the world for the better, therefore creating a product that will improve people’s lives. As the next generation of entrepreneurs, he told us to focus on products that will “genuinely make people’s lives better, not just slightly improve the efficiency of an accountant at a Fortune 500 company.” After so much exposure to money-focused success, Guy taught us people-focused success and showcased how money would follow.
Guy then gave us insight into one of the most valuable tools for identifying the potential of a product: the unique and valuable matrix. All remarkable businesses land in the upper right quadrant. Without uniqueness a venture will fail to differentiate itself from the market, without value there will be no practical use for the business, but the combination of both is something very rare that leads to success.
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