Speaker

Jeff Bussgang

Managing Partner, Flybridge / Senior Lecturer, HBS

Jeff is a former entrepreneur turned VC, HBS Senior Lecturer, author of two, dad of three, husband of one, civic leader, Cross Fitter and fan of all Boston sports.

Jeff’s investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in AI, blockchain, consumer, e-commerce, machine learning, and mobile start-ups. He also serves as a part-time Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and teaches a class on entrepreneurship and lean start-ups called Launching Technology Ventures. In this capacity, he has co-authored over thirty HBS cases, book chapters and teaching notes regarding startup management and entrepreneurship. Jeff also runs The Graduate Syndicate, a micro-seed fund that Flybridge created to invest in startups co-founded by recent Harvard graduates.

Prior to co-founding Flybridge, Jeff co-founded and served as President, Chief Operating Officer, and Board Director at Upromise, a loyalty marketing and financial services firm that was acquired by Sallie Mae. He also served as Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Business Development, Vice President of Worldwide Professional Services and head of Product Management at Open Market, an Internet commerce software leader that went public in 1996. Prior to Open Market, Jeff was with the strategy consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group.

In 2017, Jeff authored a book for startup joiners, Entering StartUpLand: An Essential Guide to Finding the Right Job. In 2010, Jeff authored a book on venture capital and entrepreneurship, Mastering the VC Game, to provide entrepreneurs an insider’s guide to financing and company-building. The book has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch and The Financial Times as an essential guide for entrepreneurs. The first chapter of Mastering the VC Game can be downloaded via https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5906a263d1758ec4d76729d1/t/595dc88b9f7456e91f76ab59/1499318413027/MasteringTheVCGame_samplepages.pdf.

Jeff is an active community member, serving as co-chairman of the leadership council at educational non-profit, Facing History and Ourselves, co-founder of a private-public partnership designed to tackle the underrepresentation of highly-skilled minority employees in Boston’s innovation ecosystem, Hack. Diversity, co-founder and co-chair of an immigration reform non-profit, the Global EIR Coalition, and co-founder and former chair of the progressive policy organization, The Alliance for Business Leadership. Jeff also serves on the boards of the New England Venture Capital Association and EdX, the massively open online course provider created through a joint venture between Harvard and MIT.

Jeff holds a BA in Computer Science from Harvard University where he graduated magna cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and a Ford Scholar.

Moderator

John Carrier

Senior Lecturer/MIT

John Carrier is a Senior Lecturer in the System Dynamics Group at MIT, where he teaches Lean Operations in the Leaders for Global Operations program. His primary interest is in synchronizing new technologies with existing systems and cultures to create sustainable organizations that develop people as well as new products and services. He has extensive field experience, including chemicals, automotive, oil & gas, food and beverage, and high tech operations, particularly in high risk, high reward environments. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and Chemical Engineering Degrees from MIT and the University of Michigan.