Contributor Report: Wikia's Gil Penchina tells Stanford "it's all about pushing Jell-O"

(Editor's Note: This post from Contributor David Howard continues our coverage of Entrepreneurship Week at Stanford University. To see all our stories on E-Week, click the Vator Stories button on the left-hand toolbar and type "Stanford E-Week" into the Search field on the top right of the next page that loads.

While this story shares the thoughts of Wikia CEO Gil Penchina, the video that accompanies it features Dave Haynie, a Stanford graduate student who helped organize the event.)

Leading a Silicon Valley startup is all about pushing Jell-O, according to Gil Penchina, CEO of Wikia.

During a keynote speach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business' 2008 Conference on Entrepreneurship, Penchina said that startup firms -- buffeted by opportunities, challenges and the unexpected -- rarely stay well-structured for long, and rather than moving forward methodically, they move sideways, like the popular dessert.

Penchina advises startups to hire employees willing to push Jell-O, meaning those that have the passion and persistence to push it across the goal line.

To acknowledge the shaky nature of a startup business, Penchina suggested that entrepreneurs include in their business plan all the things that they do badly, in addition to the things they do well.

"If you list out all the things you do badly, the VCs have nothing left to criticize," says Penchina, who illustrated his talk with pictures of red Jell-O in honor of his audience.

At Wikia, the site that's a hub for online communities that use Wikis to share information, Penchina  uses "exploding offers" to force prospective employees into a fast decision.

The day-long Conference on Entrepreneurship presented roughly 30 speakers and panelists drawn from all walks of Silicon Valley life - consultants, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, advisors, and Stanford professors who covered ten different sessions including ways to monetize Web 2.0 technologies and also "Search Funds" (investment funds that facilitate entrepreneurs identifying and buying existing companies and managing to exit).