The holiday period is a great time for reflection and then behavior modification – often referred to as resolutions. While a bit artificial to the logical engineer, this opportunity can be helpful. This year, my favorite insight came from a former student and employee, Elliot Cohen, co-founder of PillPack. While thinking about the major aspirational … Continue reading “Startup Resolution 2017: Embrace Believers, Bounce Skeptics & Keep Moving”
Author: Bill Aulet
Bill Aulet, senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, has 25 years of experience in technology business operations and financing. He started his career at IBM and then ran two private companies, Cambridge Decision Dynamics and SensAble Technologies. Most recently he helped engineer a dramatic turnaround at Viisage Technology as its Chief Financial Officer. He has created hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder value by building focused, fundamentally sound businesses. He has raised $100 million in institutional financing via private placements and public offerings. Mr. Aulet now works with students and start-up companies to build strategies and operating plans that will create sustainable value. He has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he was a Sloan Fellow.
What’s the Most Important Issue That Didn’t Get Addressed in 2014?
Immigration. Very sad and shows how deeply dysfunctional our system is. This is really hurting innovation—and other countries, like Canada, U.K., Chile and Spain, have moved way ahead of us. Very frustrating. [Editor’s note: To tap the wisdom of our distinguished group of Xconomists, we asked a few of them to answer this question heading … Continue reading “What’s the Most Important Issue That Didn’t Get Addressed in 2014?”
What Entrepreneurs Should Learn from John Lackey
Success in business is out of reach to those who aren’t already blessed with plentiful advantage, so goes the conventional wisdom. A similar stereotype in sports is that you either have talent or you don’t. But the story of a once-maligned pitcher’s World Series victory upends both of these stereotypes, and has great lessons for … Continue reading “What Entrepreneurs Should Learn from John Lackey”
6 Reasons Why the MIT Blackjack Team Became Entrepreneurs
Wow. Imagine being invited to moderate a free-form discussion with the people who lived out the book “Bringing Down the House” and the movie “21.” It doesn’t get any better than this. At Xconomy’s XSITE conference last week, I had the honor of moderating a reunion panel of the MIT Blackjack Team with two of … Continue reading “6 Reasons Why the MIT Blackjack Team Became Entrepreneurs”
I Love Entrepreneurs, But Not as My Science Teacher
“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” It may be just a bumper sticker aphorism, but lately it’s got me thinking. Peter Thiel, early Facebook investor and Paypal cofounder, announced recently that he’s offering $100,000 to 24 young people to drop out of school and pursue an entrepreneurial idea in Silicon Valley. Thiel says … Continue reading “I Love Entrepreneurs, But Not as My Science Teacher”
“My Parents Won’t Let Me Marry You Because You’re an Entrepreneur:” Cultural Challenges to Growing Entrepreneurship
During my recent trip to Korea, an American expat told me about his friend, a successful young Korean entrepreneur who employed a half-dozen people in an education business. He fell deeply in love with a Korean woman and wanted to get married, but her parents refused to approve of the marriage until he got a … Continue reading ““My Parents Won’t Let Me Marry You Because You’re an Entrepreneur:” Cultural Challenges to Growing Entrepreneurship”
AC/DC Controversy of the 1880s Applies to Natural Gas Today: Reflections After 2011 MIT Energy Conference
In the 1880s, Thomas Edison was locked in a battle with the legendary inventor Nikola Tesla and the entrepreneur George Westinghouse. Edison argued that alternating current was “impractical” and highly dangerous. He supported the demonstration of electrocution of numerous animals to show the press and the public the danger of alternating current. He even went … Continue reading “AC/DC Controversy of the 1880s Applies to Natural Gas Today: Reflections After 2011 MIT Energy Conference”
Does an Innovation Ecosystem Need an “MIT” or Will Evita Perons Do?: A Romanian Tale
In my role at the head of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, I have the great opportunity, at times, to travel the world and learn about entrepreneurship on a global scale, and to gain knowledge and perspective to help us be more effective in our mission at home. This past week was such an experience. There … Continue reading “Does an Innovation Ecosystem Need an “MIT” or Will Evita Perons Do?: A Romanian Tale”
Ten Thoughts from MIT Sloan’s Silicon Valley Tech Trek
Each year, we at the MIT Entrepreneurship Center at the Sloan School of Management travel to Silicon Valley for a three-day immersion program with our MBA students who have a very entrepreneurial spirit and interest. While we make visits during other parts of the year, this is different in that it is a 24×7 analysis … Continue reading “Ten Thoughts from MIT Sloan’s Silicon Valley Tech Trek”
Xconomy Man of Year for 2010—Plus a Gigantic Energy Prediction for 2011
My Xconomy “Man of the Year” for 2010 would not be Mark Zuckerberg (that should have been a year or two ago if you are on the leading edge like Xconomy), but rather Andrew Mason, founder of Groupon. The speed and magnitude that this business innovation achieved through this company was stunning and still boggles … Continue reading “Xconomy Man of Year for 2010—Plus a Gigantic Energy Prediction for 2011”
Celebrate Entrepreneurs Like the Red Wings Winning the Stanley Cup
I am very pleased to see Xconomy moving into the Michigan area to help with the reinventing of the economy there. A lot of people are clearly feeling real pain from the economy, and the injection of “innovation adrenaline” can not only be incrementally beneficial economically, it can make a profound change in the spirit … Continue reading “Celebrate Entrepreneurs Like the Red Wings Winning the Stanley Cup”
Route 128 vs. Silicon Valley: Stop the Noize!
[Updated and corrected, May 9, 2011–see below] We just came back from spending a week with 95 MIT students in Silicon Valley drinking from the West Coast Fire Hose of Entrepreneurship. Our theme was “East meets West: The Unification Study Tour.” For us, the theme worked well. But some of those out west, as well … Continue reading “Route 128 vs. Silicon Valley: Stop the Noize!”
Report from the Russian (Entrepreneurial) Front
November 20, 2009, Moscow, Russia—I write this from the Moscow airport on my way home to Massachusetts after teaming with MIT colleagues Howard Anderson and Peter Kurzina to teach a week-long boot camp on entrepreneurship for the first class of MBAs at the new Skolkovo Business School. Skolkovo* is a private business school strongly supported … Continue reading “Report from the Russian (Entrepreneurial) Front”
How to Build a Successful Innovation Ecosystem: Educate, Network, and Celebrate
Last week, I was honored to give a keynote speech in Dublin, Ireland, at an international symposium marking the launch of the nation’s ambitious new R&D program in energy by its NSF equivalent, the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI). The Symposium on Science and Engineering Underpinning Sustainable Energies and Energy-Efficiency was an excellent opportunity to … Continue reading “How to Build a Successful Innovation Ecosystem: Educate, Network, and Celebrate”
The Next Big Thing in Energy Innovation and Investing? Let’s Talk Water
Energy innovation and investing are exploding right now. Technological breakthroughs are seen as perhaps the greatest hope to solving our dire energy challenge. However, what is often overlooked is the link between finding or creating new sources of energy and the effects on food and water. Indeed, if you think of energy as a coin, … Continue reading “The Next Big Thing in Energy Innovation and Investing? Let’s Talk Water”
What’s Wrong With Energy Investing? Part II
I had the good fortune to receive a substantial amount of feedback on my first post on this subject a few weeks ago. The feedback was productive and helped to clarify key points and in general reinforced my conviction laid out in the Part I entry. In that article, I advanced the idea that while … Continue reading “What’s Wrong With Energy Investing? Part II”
What’s Wrong with Energy Investing? Part I
I just returned to Kendall Square after spending a spectacular weekend at Squam Lake in New Hampshire and at the forefront of my mind—and what I could not shake over the weekend—is the state of the development of the New England energy ecosystem. Granted, I have a personal agenda, as in 30 days I commence … Continue reading “What’s Wrong with Energy Investing? Part I”