Contact

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  • Website: http://www.altgate.com/

Biography

I guess you could say that I'm a serial entrepreneur and blogger, but I confess I'm not entirely happy with that label...it makes it sound like I kill companies and then write about it!

For the last 10-ish years I've lived in Boston but I grew up in rural Oregon and then got a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan. My real passion at Michigan was the solar car team where I was team captain. Not surprisingly, I spent the early part of my career working on alternative energy (solar) and transportation (plug-in electric vehicles). After getting a MBA at Harvard, I spent the next several years working in the financial technology industry at three different startups (two of which I founded or co-founded).

I'm currently President & CEO of Viridus, an online community focused on green issues at work. Previously I was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Softbank Capital where I worked on new business ideas and pretended to be a VC. It was a rare opportunity to be a "fox in the henhouse" and get a look at venture investing from the other side of the table. Lastly, I'll say that, as founder/CEO, I have raised multiple rounds of angel and venture capital as well as debt and I've also done a couple early stage venture deals as an investor.

So this blog is primarily about me sharing tips and advice on startups and fund raising that I wish I knew back when I was doing it the first time. Since it's my personal blog, I also provide random color commentary and things that interest me.

Thanks for reading!

Interests

Technology, sustainability, hedge funds, capital markets, alternative energy, new media, professional (as opposed to "social") networking, current events, solar cars, instant messaging, politics, world events, adventure travel, parenting, entrepreneurship, leadership, mentoring, racquetball, news...