Scott E. Hartley

At the 30 Summit in September 2010, I delivered a lecture entitled “Rage Within the Rocket Ship.” My concept built upon something Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said to me over the summer, namely to “find your rocket ship.” The metaphor of the rocket ship can be applied to ideas, companies, or people, but one should agree with their velocity. And then climb aboard.

Building upon this concept, to “rage within the rocket ship” is to carve novel paths, not to accept status quo, and radically innovate – but sometimes best within organizations and ideas that are already moving 90 miles per hour. Inertia can be an asset, and coupled with outside-the-box, it can change the world. I spent Summer and Fall 2010 at Facebook, “raging within that rocket ship” to leverage its scale for global impact, social gaming for social good.

This Spring it’s Columbia finale. Graduate school has provided an education, and unparalleled (if expensive) opportunity to grow. From presentations in Paris to fellowships in Japan, business plan advising in Colombia to private equity deals in Morocco, Tahrir square in Cairo to the shore of Sulawesi, and finally to venture capital with Agora Venture Fund in Managua.

One windfall of rocket ships is getting to go “Mach 2 with your hair on fire.”