THIS MONTH'S MEETING
Tuesday,
December 13, 2005
WPI, WorcesterCampus Center Odeum
Registration: 6:00 pm
Meeting: 6:30 - 9:00pm
$10.00 members
$20.00 non-members
Membership
Directions to WPI
Sign-up for our Online Newsletter
contents
WPI-Venture Forum Radio Show
Saturday nights 5-7 P.M. on WTAG 580AMExecutive Board
Newsletter Archive
View Print Friendly PDF
Building Your Start-up Team
I nvestors fund both the idea and the management team. But who should be on that team, what skills should they have, and how do you find them? Much like the old adage that location is the key to success in real estate, management is the key to success in starting and growing an early stage company. At the December 13 WPI Venture Forum program, Bob Creeden and Steve Rubin will play the roles of entrepreneur and investor to illustrate the dynamics of building the team of a start-up company.
Their interactive presentation will address such questions as:
- How do I identify the people that I need to be successful?
- Where do I find them?
- How do I attract them?
- What do investors seek in a management team?
- How do I make sure the chemistry works?
- What happens when it doesn't?
- Does my management team include outside service providers?
- Which ones and how do I pick them?
Robert J. Creeden, MBA, is Managing Director of the Center for Innovative Ventures (CIV) at Partners Healthcare, where he oversees the creation and launching of new ventures generated from Partners' innovative research discoveries. During his career, he has reviewed more than 2,000 business plans and invested in more than 40 companies.
Creeden has spent more than 25 years commercializing new technologies and promoting emerging businesses, including 15 years of early stage venture capital investing experience. In 2004, Partners appointed him to establish the CIV. He was previously a general partner at Egan-Managed Capital, a $150 million dollar Boston-based venture fund, after having served as Vice President of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation, an early stage venture firm that funds technology-based companies in Massachusetts.
Earlier in his career, he gained strategic operating expertise as a COO/CFO with start-up ventures and as a management consultant with Control Data Business Advisors. He holds an A.B. in economics from Holy Cross College and an MBA from Suffolk University. Creeden is a member of the Advisory Board for the WPI Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and a former Chair of the WPI Venture Forum, where he currently serves on the Board. He is also a Director of The Capital Network and a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and early-stage investing.
Stephen E. Rubin '74 has built and led several companies and is chairman of Intellution Inc. in Foxboro, Massachusetts. He received his B.S. in computer science from WPI in 1974. After leaving WPI, he was a systems engineer at The Foxboro Company and at EMC Controls, active in developing software for process control systems. He was also assistant to the president at Copeland and Roland, a Columbus, Ohio, developer of automation systems.
In 1980, Rubin founded Computer Control Systems, later renamed Intellution. Intellution has grown to be a worldwide leader in process monitoring and control software for personal computers. With more than 300 employees, the company does business with 75 percent of the Fortune 500 and has five international subsidiaries. In the summer of 1995, Intellution was acquired by Emerson Electric, a leading manufacturer of electrical equipment and control systems.
In 1989 Rubin received WPI's Ichabod Washburn Award for professional achievement by a young alumnus. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School's Owners and Presidents Management (OPM) Program.
