I build relationships between startups and corporates so they can prosper together.

I focus on teaching startups how to best engage corporate partners and I help our corporate partners create the very best startup engagement engines to drive innovation into their organizations.

I’ve worked at the interface between some of the most innovative startups in the world and the largest corporate partners for over 20 years. With a small team at Techstars I crafted the first corporate-backed, partnership driven, true startup accelerator with the powered by Techstars model and have evolved that model into deep, successful partnerships with corporations like Microsoft, Barclays, Disney, Nike, and Ford. I have also built a wide variety of engagement models with companies like Google, Chase, Amazon, Verizon, P&G, and IBM.

Prior to Techstars I worked at Microsoft and helped create BizSpark, which became a leading example of a corporate startup engagement program. In that role, I worked with startups such as Evernote, Majong (aka Minecraft), Datallegro, Yammer and others that either evolved into deep partnerships or acquisitions.

I joined Microsoft through the acquisition of a company I helped build called Great Plains Software, which is now the Microsoft Dynamics division. Prior to Great Plains I got to build massive robots and AI systems at Boeing, which was just so ridiculously fun.

Specialties: innovation, corporate transformation, creative deals, strategic investing, channel development, business intelligence, ERP, technology architecture, computing, venture capital, acquisitions, due diligence, CRM, operating discipline, contract law, product marketing and HR.