Month: March 2013

Below is what I’ve been up to over the past week-plus.  I have moved the needle a bit away from educational meetings/talks and more towards engaging with the startup community and actively looking for my next position.

• Two former colleagues
  I had separate meetings with two people who had been at Analog Devices and had left to join local startups.  They both expressed great satisfaction with their career paths and experiences at startups and had a variety of practical advice in transitioning from a big company.  One of these ex-colleagues has set up a meeting for me with his company’s founder for further networking.
• Building efficiency startup
  This call was with the two founders of this early-stage company.  They are operating in a market area where I am experienced and believe I can be of some assistance to them.  We discuss various engagement models and will talk again in April as they get closer to raising funds.
• Mentoring:  MIT Clean Energy Prize
  I met with two members of the team I am mentoring in this competition. We had a very interesting discussion about their go-to-market options and business model.  I found myself enjoying the discussion and helping this team wrestle with the various questions and challenges they are facing.
• Mentoring:  MIT Enterprise Forum
  This is another startup program for which I have volunteered as a mentor.  It is fairly unique in that it is not part of a competition nor requires any affiliation with a university (despite the name).  I met my assigned team yesterday and look forward to working with them.
• MIT Enterprise Forum event
  (Crowd Funding: Where it stands now – “The Power of Alternative Financing for Entrepreneurs”)
  Despite the fact that I think the crowd funding model is primarily applicable only to B-to-C businesses I found it interesting to learn about it as well as the status of new legislation enabling the offering of equity via crowd funding.
•  Presentation at Lyric Semiconductor – Analog Devices
  Gave a presentation today about my experience starting up and growing Analog Devices’ iCoupler business to the Lyric team.  This was something requested by Lyric’s director, Ben Vigoda.  Ben felt that hearing about my iCoupler experience would be useful for his team now that they are part of Analog Devices and are working to get their technology into the market.
• Clean tech angel/advisor
  Had coffee with a very active and connected player in New England’s clean tech community.  He expressed optimism in the long-term promise for clean tech technologies and business.  This person reinforced that the networking and volunteering activities I’ve been doing will lead me down the right path.  He also offered additional suggestions in terms of people, organizations, and resources with whom I should engage.

I don’t have much new to report other than to list the coming week’s events:

• Two meetings with former semiconductor colleagues
• Meeting with a clean tech advisor/investor/entrepreneur
• Meeting with a clean tech entrepreneur
• Meeting with the MIT Clean Energy Prize team I am mentoring
• An Entretech Forum event (Crowd Funding: Where it stands now – “The Power of Alternative Financing for Entrepreneurs”)
• A follow-up call with the building efficiency startup I mentioned in my last post.

(A quick update regarding the two other opportunities I noted last time:  In regards to the software startup I’ve decided to pass as it is far outside my set of experiences.  In regards to the semiconductor supply opportunity I am reserving judgment until after a meeting today with a former colleague who will likely be familiar with this type of business and can comment.) 

A primary purpose of this blog is to communicate my experiences as I transition from a large company to a startup. Towards that end, I’d like to use this post to provide some updates on some things I’ve gotten involved in as well as some new opportunities that have arisen.

Mentoring

As I have previously written, I’ve applied as a mentor to several Boston-area incubator programs.  My thinking is that this provides a great way to get more deeply exposed to the activities and challenges of startups, to meet other entrepreneurs and mentors, to get myself better known in the startup community, and of course, to help one or more startups achieve their goals.

So far I have been accepted as a mentor to one program (MIT Clean Energy Prize) and am waiting to hear from a few others.  Tomorrow I am attending a kick-off dinner for the MIT Clean Energy Prize where I’ll meet the team to which I’ve been assigned.

Education

I am three-quarters of the way through the MIT Enterprise Forum’s Start Smart class.  This is an eight-week class touching on startup basics such as positioning, recruiting, fundraising, pitching, etc.  I’m finding much of the material familiar to me as it seems geared towards people with less business experience than me.  However, I really like the format as each week’s class is taught by a different experienced entrepreneur.  Even though most of the concepts they present is familiar to me, hearing about them through these entrepreneurs’ experiences is something I am finding very educational.  In addition, there is always a long Q&A session after each entrepreneur’s talk which invariably strays into a wide range of startup topics.  Having an experienced entrepreneur do this each week is a great, unique resource.  All in all, I’m glad I signed up for this class.

One Old Opportunity

A recruiter contacted me six weeks ago with a very interesting senior position at a Texas semiconductor startup.  I had noted this earlier but had not written about it since.  I won’t go into further detail other than to note that nothing came of this.  As is typical in these recruiter situations there was no feedback as the recruiter moved on to other candidates he or the hiring person must have judged more suitable.

Some New Opportunities

I’ve suddenly been contacted in recent days regarding three separate, potential opportunities.  This week I’ve had meetings to learn more about them.  The first two are unlikely to be what I am looking for but the third I am finding very interesting:

• A software startup:  an ex-colleague recommended me to a friend who is CEO of a company developing a tool to create animations for PCs, mobile devices, and the web.  This person is seeking business help to obtain funding, develop the strategy, and grow the business.  While I did find his vision interesting, the technology and market are far outside my set of experiences.  I will be meeting this person again but my immediate reaction is that this is not the right opportunity for me.
• A small semiconductor supply company:  another ex-colleague recommended me to a friend who is a long-time equipment supplier to semiconductor wafer fabs.  This person, in turn, has a friend who is seeking someone to run his materials supply company and thought I might be suitable.  This also, is not likely the right opportunity for me as it appears to lack the technology development element that I am seeking.  Nevertheless, I will consider this further before finalizing my views.
• A building power efficiency startup:  the founder of this company contacted me yesterday via LinkedIn as he thought my background would be helpful to his company.  The company has an energy efficiency solution that I found very compelling.  It involves both hardware and software and is closely related to the work I had been doing at Analog Devices.  I am currently reviewing materials this person sent me and will be speaking with him again next week.

That’s it for now.  I hope the above provides some flavor as to what I’ve got going on beyond networking.  It seems like every day brings some kind of unexpected development be it a new avenue to explore, a new person to meet, or a new opportunity to consider.  The days are flying by and are full of interesting encounters and thought-provoking possibilities.  I am enjoying the entire experience.

Well, I’ve spent much of my first week back thinking about the two questions foremost in my mind: whether I want to start my own company or join an existing startup and what technology/market area I want to pursue.

In regards to the first question I could still see myself doing either option. However, as I think about starting my own company I have to admit it excites me more strongly than joining an existing startup. Yes, I’ve already stated that that is my long-term goal and that I would be happy joining an existing startup as a stepping-stone. But over the past few weeks I have thought more and more about just jumping right away to found my own company. I’ll continue to pursue both options but am putting more time into thinking about what my own startup would be about.

That leads right to the second question: what technology/market area do I want to pursue? Earlier, I had written that my plan was to select two technology areas for deeper exploration. I started that this week and quickly discovered that this is not a good approach. I found that exploring a given technology did little to help me decide whether it would be a good area in which to focus my efforts. I pretty much found them all interesting, to be addressing important problems, and to have good potential if certain technical and economic challenges can be overcome. Also, I am keenly aware that a large majority of entrepreneurs (especially the successful ones) operate in technology or market areas that they already know.

Putting all this together I’ve concluded that I need to change course. Instead of exploring technology areas I need to explore problem areas within technologies/markets in which I have good knowledge. This means primarily semiconductors and energy-related devices/systems. There is certainly no shortage of problems to be solved in these areas. The trick will be to find one that I can address in some unique way that the market values. I think it unlikely that I’m going to have some bolt-of-lightning flash of inspiration sitting here on my own. Instead I’m going to start looking up people working in these areas and see what ideas I can drum up.

One last comment: it may appear that I am meandering a bit in my pursuit of a startup. I am! But I’m ok with that for now. I fully expected that this transition would involve ambiguity and changes-of-direction as I strive to determine what I want to do as well and find whatever that is. Sitting here in Month 3 of this journey I am ok with where I’m at. However, if I find myself in Month 9 struggling to find my way I admit I will likely feel uneasy about that!

Coming up this week: a few meetings with ex-colleagues, a local cleantech CEO, a local semiconductor equipment supplier, and an MIT Enterprise Forum event (“Big Ideas, Big Solutions – Solving big problems”).

Just back from a relaxing vacation abroad.  It was especially satisfying as I didn’t have the usual dynamic of wondering what was going on back at work, checking to see if there were any fires, and knowing that upon my return I would be thrust right back into a hectic, office environment and playing catchup. 

So, any brilliant inspirations or insightful realizations while I was gone?  No.  To be honest I didn’t really think much about my future instead simply enjoying myself and being with family that I don’t often see.  This was the vacation that I never took right after leaving my job.

I’m now ready to move ahead and transition my focus away from exploration/education over to finding that right position or business opportunity. 

Activities this coming week:

• Begin my research into technology areas leading to a selection of two for greater focus.
• Meet with a person in a similar situation as mine who has recently left their job seeking to start a company.
• Attend a talk on angel/venture term sheets.
• Attend an event where two startups will give practice pitches and receive feedback.
• Meet with a venture capitalist in the clean energy sector.