Back in the game…

I always have a soft spot for tech startups. I co-founded one when I was a college freshman many years ago — that was way before when launching a startup is cool and fashionable. Running that startup was fun and exciting but it also brought along a great deal of uncertainty, a tad too much for my wife’s comfort. After a number of years with that startup, I took a difficult decision to exit it so as to pursue a Ph.D.. But who knew that grad school was fun and exciting but it also brought along a great deal of uncertainty, a tad too much for my wife’s comfort… 🙂 (Doing Ph.D./research actually shares many similarities with running a startup; I will save that topic for another post.)

So when I received my Ph.D., I promised my wife that I would behave myself and focus on my academic career for 6 years — that’s roughly the amount of time needed for a rookie assistant professor to beef up his profile to apply for tenure. No startups (or other funny ideas) before that. Nevertheless, due to my work and research interest, I have many opportunities to advise startups. Although a few of these startups have interesting business propositions, I always resist the temptation to be too involved in them.

Well, the situation has just changed. Some months ago, I was roped into a tech startup by a friend, taking a non-executive role. I can’t reveal much about the company at this point, but I can say that it is involved with a pretty exciting technology. One that I believe is going to be the backbone for many tech trends and products in the future. And one that passes the “strategic value” criteria that I talk about in class; sometimes you just have to walk the talk and put the money where your mouth is…