The Institute has a rich history of entrepreneurship and innovation dating back to its founding by President Rogers in the 1860's, through its growth under Presidents Walker (1890's), Maclaurin (1910's), Compton (1940's), and up to present day. Over the years, many MIT graduates have started or built companies or developed dramatic technological innovations. These graduates include:

(For more evidence, see BankBoston's 1997 study, MIT: The Impact of Innovation. According to the study, some 150 new companies are started by MIT-related people on a yearly basis worldwide, with approximately one-quarter of that activity occuring in the greater-Boston area alone.)

Here is a summary of key entrepreneur-oriented efforts and opportunities (offered by the Club, by MIT, or by other groups) of potential interest to our members. These resources include:

• MIT Club of Boston Entrepreneurship Activities
  • MIT Founder Forae
  • MIT Entrepreneurs Drinks & Dinners
  • MIT New Venture Starter Series & Other MITCoB Initiatives
• MIT Alumni Sponsored Activities
  • MIT Enterprise Forum
  • MIT Technology Day
  • Technology Review
• MIT Sponsored Activities
  • MIT Entrepreneurship Center
  • MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition
  • MIT Entrepreneurs Club
  • MIT IAP Activities
• Non-MIT Activities
  • Cambridge Business Development Center

Along with MIT in general, the MIT Club of Boston's Entrepreneurship Committee exists to support and further strengthen this record of achievement by building up our community of MIT alumni technologists, innovators, and entrepreneurs and establishing ties with other entrepreneurs and resources outside our community. Our overall goals are being approached through a growing number of mostly informal events and activities which allow our MIT-related innovators and entrepreneurs -- both actual and potential -- to meet and share practical business and technical know-how.

The MIT Club of Boston has principally hosted informal events by and for alum entrepreneurs, including Entrepreneurs Drinks & Dinner, Founder Forae, and a new Starter Series for interested potential entrepreneurs. We try to compliment the more formal programs offered by the MIT Enterprise Forum and the several others described below.

MIT Entrepreneurs Drinks & Dinners

This is an informal venue for experienced and up-and-coming MIT-related entrepreneurs to connect in an informal session at a Boston-area establishment to discuss plans and meet folks. In past monthly meetings at Legal Seafoods and the Sail Loft, we've averaged a half-dozen to a dozen MIT grads at various stages of starting or thinking of starting a company. Now we're meeting at the MIT Muddy Charles, which was recently noted in Newsweek (11/9/98, p53) as an MIT bar where people start companies (!).

MIT Entrepreneurs Drinks and Dinner
Third Monday of each month (e.g. Jan 18, Feb 15), starting with drinks at 7pm
meet at Muddy Charles Pub (map), MIT, then food at Legal Seafoods, Kendall Square or call for pizza delivery as decided by the group.
Cost: The price of your food and drinks (parking's free at MIT)
Contact:Please contact Joost Bonsen at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to RSVP and/or for more information.

MIT New Venture Starter Series & Other MITCOB Initiatives

At a general planning session earlier this year, people who had expressed interest in MITCoB Entrepreneurship efforts gathered and proposed several initiatives, including:

• MIT alum business referral webpages
• the RedInk business plan Review
• a one-day supertour of several startups
• a high-growth enterprises career fair
• ... and more

(For info on these, please drop Joost Bonsen < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > a line and he'll connect you straight to the interested parties.)

One of these emerging activities is an MIT New Venture Starter Series geared towards people who are very interested in starting a company but who have not reached the point yet where they are ready to do it. Specifically, this series will be focused on strategies, tactics, and heuristics for finding and refining business opportunities. Please contact Mariam Tariq < This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it > for more information and offers to help.

Run under MIT Alumni/ae Association auspices by staff and local volunteers at nearly twenty chapters worldwide, for twenty-plus years the MIT Enterprise Forum has provided regional entrepreneurship education and support for both alums and members of local business communities.

Cambridge Chapter

The Cambridge chapter of the MIT Enterprise Forum runs a series of monthly activities (1st and 2nd Wednesdays) and seasonal workshops for Boston-area entrepreneurs from MIT and beyond. For instance, a workshop of significant general interest held this past spring dealt with "Strategic Business-to-Business Relationships" (Saturday, April 24, 1999). The content of the Cambridge chapter's varied events is usually very good and we recommend that you attend and investigate further.

Also affiliated with the Forum is the Technology Capital Network (TCN), a matching service introducing entrepreneurs to private investors.

You should consider registering to become a member of the Forum and investigating their website for additional details. (See also a related MITCOB article.)

Satellite Broadcast Series

In addition to coordinating the network of global chapters, the head office of the MIT Enterprise Forum hosts top-quality MIT Enterprise speakers and broadcasts these nationwide from MIT via satelite. Past speakers in this excellent Satellite Broadcast Series include:

• Tim Berners-Lee
• Prof. Edward Roberts
• Bob Metcalfe
• Alex d'Arbeloff

The three-year-old MIT Entrepreneurship Center ("E-Center"), based in the MIT Sloan School of Management, serves as a focal point for many entrepreneurship classes and activities on campus. While the focus of the E-Center is on current students and their endeavors, there are several connections to alums, including the E-Lab and the E-Society, which might suit you.

MIT Entrepreneurs Lab (E-Lab)

An internship program for current students at MIT who work with company management at participating firms on a one-day/week basis. Although there is significant competition to become a participating company, if you'd like to register your firm for consideration as a potential host to student interns, please visit the website and signup.

MIT Entrepreneurs Society (E-Society)

A newly-formed society of alum entrepreneurs who all pledge to support one another in entrepreneurial endeavors and also to donate a percentage of the capital appreciation of their ventures back to MIT. To investigate this philanthropic network further, please contact Will Clurman ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Jack McCullough ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

Technology Day is MIT's alumni reunion soiree, held the day after Commencement, mostly in Kresge Auditorium at MIT. This year's Technology Day held Saturday, June 5, 1999 was themed "The Human Body: Emerging Medical Science and Technology".

In addition to the Saturday events (which will be spotlighted more thoroughly in an upcoming MITCOB newsletter), for the first time on Friday this year -- in the afternoon after morning Commencement -- there was a Medical Entrepreneurs panel with a range of Health Care, Biomedical Technologies, and Life Sciences company founders and executives:

MIT's alum journal, Technology Review has had a spectacular restart, with a new focus squarely on the business of innovation. If you haven't already subscribed, we strongly urge you do so. If you seek a worthy gift for an entrepreneurial or inventive teenager, family member, or friend, buy them a subscription. No corporate coffee table should be without Technology Review.

Furthermore, Tech Review is organizing world-class innovators into an Innovator's Breakfast Series at University Park Hotel in Cambridge, MA. For more info on this Series and subscription info, please visit their website.

The student-run MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Comptition is now in its tenth year of helping launch new companies out of MIT. Over 30 firms have been started by alums from the Competition, employing some 3-400 people, and with a aggregate valuation estimated at over ~$1-200 Million.

MIT $50K Participation Eligibility

While the principal contestants must be currently registered MIT students, many teams have been formed with alums, often recent graduates or grads with industry-specific experience. If this kind of activity suits you, check out the website and sign yourself up appropriately.

Public MIT $50K Events

Regardless of whether you participate on a team, the public events the students organize are quintessential-MIT and quite enjoyable. These highly-recommended free events included:

$50K Competition Final Event/Awards Ceremony held
Wednesday, May 5, 7pm, Kresge Auditorium, MIT

For eleven years science and engineering students and friends have gathered informally on a weekly basis in building 66 at MIT to exchange ideas and criticize half-baked notions. Many alums find periodic refresher visits worthwhile. For the latest info and to receive the e-club emailings, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

MIT's January Independent Activity Period (IAP) is always densely packed with great classes and content. And it's open to members of the MIT Community and MIT Affiliates, including MIT alums.

Entrepreneurship courses have grown in number recently to include three credit-bearing Sloan classes in 1999 (credit for students only, though), and several non-credit courses. (Note that these are in addition to any of the regular monthly events described above.)

The three credit classes held during IAP 1999 were:

• 15.974 - Personal Career Strategy and Preliminary Venture Analysis (Olive)
• 15.975 - The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans (Hadzima)
• 15.976 - Starting and Building a Technology-Based Company (Zenie)

The non-credit classes from IAP 1999 included:

• Technology Venture Workshop (TVW) (Bonsen) [contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for info]
• Entrepreneurship: A Personal Approach (Monsarrat)
• Lemelson Innovation Forum (Peavey)
• People issues in Entrepreneurship (Gray) [see also oe.mit.edu/ent/]

Stay tuned for the IAP 2000 schedule - it might be exciting !!

In cooperation with MIT, the Cambridge Business Development Center offers a monthly Breakfast with the Stars spotlighting well-known local CEOs and founders of high technology growth companies. Please Note: This program is open only to the CEOs, founders, or presidents of technology companies.

Networking begins at 7:15am, and the speaker will begin promptly at 7:45am. Cost is $10. MIT provides free parking in the Sloan lot. Pre-registration is required.

For more information, please contact Martha Mangelsdorf This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .