Tag Archives: Israel

Smashing the Box – EMC Innovation Tours at MassChallenge

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The official starting point of the Boston Marathon, the oldest Marathon in the world is Hopkinton, MA where EMC’s corporate headquarters sits less than 26 miles from the center of Boston.  The area’s many colleges and universities make Boston an international center of higher education and medicine, leading many to dub the city “The Athens of America” and a world leader in innovation. It is no wonder MassChallenge the largest-ever startup accelerator, and the first to support high impact, early-stage entrepreneurs with no strings attached was established here.

International Day

MassChallenge International Finalists Day

On March 4, 2013, MassChallenge joined forces with Founding Gold Sponsors EMC Corporation and The Kraft Group to extend its reach and launch its Israel program, which will connect Israel’s most promising early-stage companies with the resources and networks at the heart of MassChallenge’s Boston accelerator.  In the announcement John Harthorne, Founder & CEO, MassChallenge stated “MassChallenge Israel features a deep infrastructure of supporters and resources within Israel, strong connections between Israel and Boston, and exclusive opportunities for Israeli startups in Boston. “Boston and Israel have had a special relationship for a long time that has generated close collaboration on the business and technological fronts. MassChallenge selected Israel for our first international location because Israel is at the cutting edge of technology and entrepreneurial activities globally, and because we are eager to leverage the historic ties between our two communities to enable top Israeli startups to scale quickly and effectively.”  Chris Goode, Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs & Public Policy, EMC Corporation said, “Through collaboration, developing solutions for some of the world’s most intractable problems becomes a reality. EMC is honored to be a part of the MassChallenge program and is committed to helping the most profoundly innovative businesses around the world access the resources they need to succeed. MassChallenge Israel will strengthen the already critical bridge between our two innovative regions, and we look forward to supporting the bright new ideas this partnership generates. “

Technology Directions

Technology Directions

Understanding the power of our partnership sponsored by Joel Schwartz, EMC SVP and General Manager, Global New Business Development and EMC Chris Goode, Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs & Public Policy, EMC Corporation I collaborated with Scott Bailey MassChallenge Director of Partnerships and Kara Shurmantine, Manager Partnerships to create new business opportunities between our shared community.  Initially I drove EMC‘s global participation in the MassChallenge’s judging process and inspired local EMC leaders to mentor this year’s 128 finalists.  From there I established and hosted a new CTO Office program called “Technology Directions:  Keeping it Real”.  Our first event held in May was “Open Source Software – What’s the Buzz All About”?  Speakers included leaders from Rackspace and two MassChallenge start-ups Appsembler and Profit Bricks.   On October 16th, 2013 I will host and moderate The New England Diversity Council Inaugural Greater Boston Women in Leadership Symposium, “A Day in Excellence through Leadership”. Please join us if you are in the Boston area.

AIG, Sheryl Chamberlain, Jennifer Rivet

AIG, Sheryl Chamberlain, Jennifer Rivet

But I am not the only one thinking outside the box while extending and growing our partnership with MassChallenge and driving a global community of innovation.   EMC’s EBC Senior Director Bernie Baker and his team Lisa Letts and Jennifer Rivet partnered with Steve Todd, EMC VP and Fellow to develop an EBC customer innovation tour at MassChallenge’ s corporate headquarters.   As the self-appointed MassChallenge Alliance Director I will work with Bernie’s team and Steve Todd to expand this program while building the spirit of innovation from the walls of EMC to our customers, partners and into our global community of EMC leaders and innovators.   Stay tuned as we share results of this amazing program and our continued partnership with MassChallenge where we are committed to living outside the box.

Inspiring the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs

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Global Entrepreneurship: The Israeli Phenomenon

Imagine the possibilities when you immerse students in a global entrepreneurship graduate program that takes students outside the classroom to solve problems, work collaboratively and get closer to industry while driving new levels of innovation. “At Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Massachusetts, a university with a heavy bent toward engineering entrepreneurship plays a part in nearly every course that students encounter,” said Bloomberg Businessweek. Not a surprise, considering it’s the main focus of the university’s mission statement: “Developing innovative and entrepreneurial leaders for a global technological world.“ “Our goal is to introduce as many students as possible—particularly non-business students—to innovation and entrepreneurship,” says Mark Rice, dean of the business school. As a result, WPI inspires the next generation of entrepreneurs working hand in hand with industry taking leadership and innovation to the next level for generations to come.

Joel Schwartz and Students

Joel Schwartz and WPI Students at EMC Israel Center of Excellence (COE)

Understanding the impact of entrepreneurship programs, Joel Schwartz, EMC SVP and General Manager, Global New Business Development, collaborated with WPI professors, Arthur Gerstenfeld and Susan Vernon-Gerstenfeld, to develop a graduate-level course in WPI’s MBA program called “Global Entrepreneurship: The Israeli Phenomenon.”   The course immersed students in the entrepreneurial Israeli-Massachusetts high-tech world through a series of lectures and on-site visits delivered by successful entrepreneurs and business leaders from Israel and the United States.  Critical to understanding their field trip experience in Israel and Israel’s  entrepreneurial success, was an in-depth study of the unique historical, social, cultural, and political factors that created the State of Israel and that allow innovation to flourish.  The academic side of the course addressed those topics through a variety of readings and papers that the students wrote, which set the context for the field trip.  These visits were quite literally on-site as Joel accompanied the WPI class on a weeklong trip to Israel for a series of face-to-face meetings with Israeli CEO’s, venture capitalists, and senior government officials of the international Israeli academic community.  During the field trip, EMC’s Israel COE hosted several panel discussions with entrepreneurs, military personnel, and venture capitalists.

Israel

On-site in Israel

As a guest instructor I had the opportunity to kick off the program sharing key insights into “Israel The Start-up Nation” thus establishing the framework for a discussion between Joel Schwartz and the students.  Other guest lecturers included David Goodtree  (TEDxBoston) who led 2012 Massachusetts’ water mission to Israel,  Akhil Nigam (Co-developer of MassChallange) lead a class with on start-ups while Susan Hunt Stevens from Pratically Green collaborated with Kathrin Winkler EMC’s Chief Sustainability Officer to deliver another powerful lecture on sustainability.  Check out Kathrin’s blog:  Interconnected World.  When the students returned from Israel Kevin Perkins, EMC’s IP Attorney presented the value of IP for entrepreneurs along with Paolo Gaudiano, Founder and President of Infomous, President and CTO of Icosystem, a serial entrepreneur who discussed how he uses IP as a competitive advantage.   A timely discussion in this day and age considering the nature and frequency of IP law suits as detailed on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and other financial and legal publications.

Kevin Perkins and Paolo Gaudiano

Kevin Perkins and Paolo Gaudiano

The students, mostly graduate students had diverse backgrounds, with many from China, some from Latin America and about half from New England.   Here is a video that I took after they returned from Israel. From left to right the students are Jiaqi (Nick) Lu, Joaquin Serrano, Kathryn Remillard, and Weihan Gao.

During the last seven weeks of the program the students were assigned a group project to develop an innovative startup idea including market research, technical feasibility study, financial analysis, and, most importantly, a brief investors’ pitch.  The students presented their startup ideas at the end of the course to “compete” for the investment to a panel of judges including me, Mark Rice (Dean of WPI Business School), and Steve Rubin (then Chairman and now Emeritus of the WPI Board of Trustees).  Four ideas were presented to us but only one could win and that was CrowdSpot. Their idea was based on an existing offering in Amsterdam, where a mobile application helps you find crowds.  Their version of CrowdSpot offered new capabilities which included where the crowd was and wasn’t helping you to find parking, tickets to concerts, sports games etc.  But the other ideas were equaling inspiring and included:  Azimo social entrepreneurship (People2People (P2P) mobile microloans), Precision Threads (custom suits using Israeli 3D camera technology) and True Candidate (enhancing the admissions process using web based social media tools).

With WPI’s business school offering a minor in entrepreneurship, as well as activities like the Entrepreneurship Club on campus, and a business course catalog that includes classes like “Engineering Entrepreneurship,” “Entrepreneurial Selling,” and “Growing and Managing New Ventures” it is no wonder Business Week rated WPI School No. 1 in the Nation for Entrepreneurship.  I look forward to working with WPI and inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Sheryl Chamberlain

Sheryl Chamberlain