A Busy Week

Last week brought an assortment of activities.  I won’t go into these with as much depth as in some earlier posts as the week’s activities, with a few exceptions, were continued discussions and explorations of familiar themes. Having said that, however, a primary purpose of this blog is to document my experiences so below I list these activities with brief summaries.

The exceptions were the last three meetings shown below.  These particular conversations shared the common topic of what life is like as an early-stage CEO.  I will write about this topic in greater depth in my very next post.

  • A technology development leader at an electronics startup.
    This person was referred to me by an engineer at this startup that used to work at Analog Devices.  
    He spoke at length about his career progression from a large company to a startup.  He also offered to introduce me to his company’s VP Business Development.
  • MIT Enterprise Forum Start Smart Workshop.
    I atten
    ded the first session of this workshop.  There were about 25 students in total covering a very wide range of industries, technologies, and experience level.  I did not find this first introductory session to be very interesting but hopefully future sessions will be.
  • Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center (MTCC) Platform Meeting.
    This was a meeting of an advisory panel for which I had volunteered. An energy storage company presented at this meeting and received feedback from the panel.  I was very impressed by the extraordinary depth of knowledge one of the panelists (an investor in this field) had in the company’s field.
  • A former colleague.
    This
     person has been working as a consultant for two years and is now leaning towards returning to a large-company position.
  • A recruiter.
    This call was initiated via a LinkedIn inquiry and was
     in regards to a leadership position at an out-of-state semiconductor startup.  This position is of interest to me and we’ll see how this progresses.
  • An experienced technology executive.
    This
     person was referred to me by a former colleague and has held senior positions at both mature and startup companies.  We spoke about his transition to startups and a variety of other related topics.
  • An experienced entrepreneur, investor, and coach.
    This 
    person was referred to me by yet another former colleague.  He has worked at a variety of companies large and small including multiple startups.  He has held many different positions including Founder, CTO, VP Engineering, and VP Marketing.  Our conversation covered many topics but most significantly that of what being an early-stage CEO is all about. This person also offered to introduce me to a few existing executives/investors in the cleantech space.
  • A late-stage startup CEO.
    This
     is a person with whom I had had some dealings with while at my previous position.  We spoke at length in regards to the CEO position and its challenges.

As I enter the second month of my explorations I expect that I’ll have many more weeks like this.  I am starting to touch on familiar topics repeatedly with different people.  Nonetheless, all these interactions are useful as they bring different opinions, perspectives, and experiences that are shaping my views and helping to clarify the direction I want to take.