Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, scale of operations, etc. Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing start-ups in the hopes that some of the companies they support will become successful. Because startups face high uncertainty, VC investments have high rates of failure. Start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and often come from high technology industries such as information technology (IT) or biotechnology.
Tom Byers is a professor at Stanford University in the United States. He concentrates in the area of high-technology ventures and serves as the faculty director for the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
David Wilhelm is a global renewable energy developer, currently working for Hecate Energy. Formerly, Wilhelm worked in the venture capital space and as a political campaign manager; most notably serving as Campaign Manager for the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, and later as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Edward Baer Roberts was an American academic who was faculty member at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He became the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology in 1974.
An entrepreneur in residence, or executive in residence (EIR), is a position commonly held by successful entrepreneurs in venture capital firms, private equity firms, startup accelerators, law firms or business schools. Typically, the EIR has led or currently leads a small, early-stage, emerging company with perceived high-growth potential or has demonstrated significant growth in terms of employees, annual revenue, or both.
Robert B. Goergen is a corporate executive, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of Blyth, Inc. He is also the founder and chairman of The Ropart Group, a private-equity investment firm. Goergen was a member of the Forbes 400 for a number of years in 1990s, but was later surpassed by other Americans. Goergen earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Rochester in 1960, where he was also initiated into the Beta Phi Chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He also holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his career at Procter & Gamble before moving onto other firms, including McCann-Erickson, McKinsey & Co. and the venture capital group at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Goergen's philanthropy efforts are prolific, including several large donations to the University of Rochester, where the main athletics center and joint biomedical engineering and optics building bear his name, and to the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, with an endowment for a faculty chair and an entrepreneurial management program.
James E. Schrager is a Clinical Professor of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He studies the use of strategy to help executives predict outcomes and has three times won the Emory Williams Award for Teaching Excellence. He was named by BusinessWeek magazine as one of the top twelve U.S. teachers of entrepreneurship. In 2017, he was given the Faculty Excellence Award at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business to recognize outstanding teaching.
Terry McGuire is a co-founder and general partner of Polaris Partners based in the Boston office. McGuire focuses on life sciences investments.
Steven Neil Kaplan is the Neubauer Family Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He started teaching at the business school in 1988, and was named Neubauer Professor in 1999. He is also the Kessenich Faculty director of the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, at the University.
David Turner Morgenthaler was an American businessman who founded the venture capital firm Morgenthaler Ventures. He was also instrumental in helping change the U.S. capital gains tax rate from 49% to 28% in 1978 and amending ERISA legislation to allow pension funds to invest in venture capital in 1979.
Mark Tebbe is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business where he helped develop and co-teaches the Entrepreneurial Discovery class having served in this role since 2011. In addition to his appointment as adjunct professor, Mark is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in Booth's Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation where he mentors students and advises faculty in developing technological business techniques. He is an active investor and mentor to various companies in the startup ecosystem as part of Hyde Park Angels.
Michael Dirck Moyer is an American entrepreneur, author, adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University, and adjunct associate professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has written eight books in support of achieving success in advanced education and business, including How to Make Colleges Want You (2008) and Slicing Pie (2012), the latter of which outlined his strategy for dividing equity in startup companies.
Shaker A. Zahra is the Robert E. Buuck Chair of Entrepreneurship and professor of strategy and entrepreneurship, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. He is also the academic director of the Gary S. Holmes Entrepreneurship Center.
Peter (Balazs) Záboji was an angel investor and entrepreneur. Much of the Budapest's success as a startup hub has been credited to Peter B. Záboji and his European Entrepreneurship Foundation (EEF). He has contributed significantly to the development of start up businesses in Budapest and received the highest civil recognition from the president of Hungary.
Vinay Nair is a serial entrepreneur and academic. He is involved as an advisor or board member in several companies in financial services, across investment management, venture capital and fintech. He is the founder and chairman of TIFIN, an AI platform to create and manage a portfolio of fintech brands and companies in areas of wealth management and asset management, as well as founder and chairman of 55ip, a fintech firm with offices in Boston and Mumbai, India that was acquired by J.P.Morgan.
Paul A. Gompers is an American economist and former long-distance runner. He is the Eugene Holman Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He is the co-author of three books.
Josh Lerner is an American economist known for his research in venture capital, private equity, and innovation and entrepreneurship. He is the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at the Harvard Business School. According to Web of Science on June 16, 2023, he has 165 indexed publications and a Hirsch index of 66, and over 74,000 citations on Google Scholar, which puts him in top 5% of economics researchers in the USA. His research encompasses investments, startups, venture capital and private equity.
Lawrence Lenihan is an American businessperson. Lenihan began his career at IBM, and became a principal at Broadview Associates. He is the co-founder of Pequot Ventures in 1996, FirstMark Capital in 2008, Norisol Ferrari in 2009, and Resonance in 2015. He has also served as an adjunct professor at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, and has sat on boards for companies funded by his venture funds in addition to others.
Douglas J. Cumming is a Canadian financial economist. He is the DeSantis Distinguished Professor and chair of the finance department in the College of Business at Florida Atlantic University in the United States.
