Jim Pulcrano

Dr. Doug Engelbart passed away on Tuesday, July 2, 2013, and the world lost a visionary who was largely unknown to the common man, but whose ideas and work touch the lives of all of us today. Each and every one of us, without exception. You are probably touching one small piece of his legacy right now.

In 1998 IMD was creating its Executive MBA program and I was tasked with creating the entrepreneurship module, including an expedition to Silicon Valley. An alumnus, Denis Pavillard of… Mehr anzeigen

Dr. Doug Engelbart passed away on Tuesday, July 2, 2013, and the world lost a visionary who was largely unknown to the common man, but whose ideas and work touch the lives of all of us today. Each and every one of us, without exception. You are probably touching one small piece of his legacy right now.

In 1998 IMD was creating its Executive MBA program and I was tasked with creating the entrepreneurship module, including an expedition to Silicon Valley. An alumnus, Denis Pavillard of Logitech, suggested that I meet Doug, whom I admit I'd never heard of before. Over lunch the next day I fell in love with this man. I was enthralled. The following year we included Doug as a speaker in the EMBA, and I felt a thrill go up my spine as I listened to Doug talk about his life's mission, to create tools and technology to help mankind solve complex problems. His impact on the class was remarkable, opening their eyes both to the possibilities that technology was putting in their hands, but also to the selflessness of a genius who simply wanted to connect and help the world. These "lunches with a legend" continued for many years with the EMBAs.
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"What if I do, What if I don't?" was the theme of this event, our 2nd TEDx conference at IMD, and this was my small contribution to a great event.

In French, an article on how networking amongst entrepreneurs can affect their reputations.

This is the 3-page executive summary of my doctoral dissertation on networking and entrepreneurship.

Successfully defended without modifications on July 16, 2012, this link will take you to my doctoral dissertation on entrepreneurship and networking. Key academic finding: There is no networking activity or competence that, alone or even with a small number of other networking factors, could measurably increase the entrepreneur’s chances of success.

Based on the results of a short research project with 122 Swiss entrepreneurs, I learned quite a bit about why and how they network. Some suggestions for entrepeneurs are included in the article. A shorter French version of the article is available in the Le Temps newspaper of the same day.

Two weeks ago I was in Silicon Valley, preparing for our EMBA Discovery Expedition, talking with interesting people from all parts of the Valley ecosystem, and I wanted to understand what they respected, what did they consider success.

Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer have published a great new book on idea hunting, and Andy asked me about my own idea hunting tactics and habits.

It's a moment that almost every successful entrepreneur will have to face eventually: pitching his or her "baby" to potential investors, whether they are Venture Capitalists or angels. We all know that public speaking is man's number one fear (followed by death), but doing it in front of professional investors who have the means to make your startup continue and prosper (or die) can be unnerving. Presenting the facts about one's venture in a way that gets someone to write a large check is not… Mehr anzeigen

It's a moment that almost every successful entrepreneur will have to face eventually: pitching his or her "baby" to potential investors, whether they are Venture Capitalists or angels. We all know that public speaking is man's number one fear (followed by death), but doing it in front of professional investors who have the means to make your startup continue and prosper (or die) can be unnerving. Presenting the facts about one's venture in a way that gets someone to write a large check is not easy. It’s a skill that is developed over time, with repetition and failure.

Here are 10 tips based on my observation of watching IMD’s Executive MBA participants pitch, often times successfully, real startups to real VCs in Silicon Valley. Weniger anzeigen