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Stanford in New York
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SINY 56: Business Innovation and Technology for Social Change (Ways: EDP & SI)

Course Overview

This course will explore how new types of business models and technologies can be used to address big global problems like poverty, inequality, and climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the vast disparities that exist in the United States – including access to healthcare, education, technology, jobs and even food security, to name a few. Better financed schools with more space and fewer students per class were able to go back to in-person learning faster than poorer schools, small businesses that integrated technology were better able to survive during the pandemic, and white-collar employees were able to safely work from home while service workers risked their lives at in-person jobs. Using NYC as our living laboratory, we will analyze the biggest socio-economic challenges we continue to face today and explore sustainable solutions to the underlying causes.

Course Objectives

  1. Analyze social and economic challenges in NYC and current policy and business initiatives to address them.
  2. Evaluate existing paradigms and explore alternative solutions, including business models and technologies to solve these social and economic challenges.
  3. Support students in developing their own innovative solutions to a social problem of their choice.

Notes on the Course

Stanford is known for innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. This course will challenge students to use this innovation mindset to solve the most pressing challenges that we face in our local communities and in our world. We will analyze some of the biggest problems in NYC as a case study -- using a data-driven approach, examining systems affecting the issue, evaluating assumptions and the interests of key stakeholders, and adopting a critical eye towards the status quo -- to identify financially sustainable solutions. Students do not need a background in technology or plan to work at a startup. The only prerequisites are to be BOLD and think critically. This course will take a multidisciplinary approach and will apply studentsʼ coursework and work experiences across a variety of sectors to reimagine our society and our role in building it. The professor will apply her experiences in business, government and entrepreneurship to highlight actual problems in NYC and her work across these sectors to develop solutions. This is a course applying theory to practice and grounded in real-world solutions. Come prepared to discuss what you are seeing around you during your time in NYC and challenge yourself to think about what we can collectively do to solve these issues.

Units: 4 | Grading Basis: Letter or Credit/No Credit | Ways: EDP and SI | Component: Seminar | Departmental Credit: Urban Studies

Meet the Instructor(s)

Karen Bhatia

Karen Bhatia

Karen Bhatia is a lawyer, policymaker and entrepreneur helping businesses and economies grow. She is currently a Lecturer at Stanford University teaching about the role of business model innovation and technology for economic development and is a Visiting Practitioner at Cornell Tech, advising graduate students as they start and scale startup businesses. She previously led tech strategy at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, overseeing a $200+ Million portfolio of approximately 30 tech and entrepreneurship projects. This includes developing NYC's blockchain strategy, launching the first publicly-funded Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality Lab in the US, leading New York City's strategy to develop a Center for Responsible Artificial Intelligence and expanding affordable broadband access to poor neighborhoods in NYC. During her tenure leading tech, NYC was the #2 city for tech entrepreneurship in the world. 

As an attorney, Karen worked in the Capital Markets practice group of a Wall Street law firm, helping companies raise financing through debt offerings and IPOs. She was also the principal of her own law firm advising startups on corporate issues, financing and overall business strategy. As an entrepreneur, Karen founded ActionCam, an educational platform aggregating reliable sources on policy issues, even before trust in media was an issue. Karen also founded Stanford Startups NY, a business network of 1000+ Stanford entrepreneurs and investors in the region. She is an advisor to several tech organizations and Vice Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Mott Hall, a public middle school in the South Bronx, NYC. Karen has a Bachelor's degree from Stanford University, a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School.