Celebrating Entrepreneurs is a first-hand account of the past, present, and future of entrepreneurship at MIT from the man who has led those endeavors since the beginning.
Edward B. Roberts has created a history of the seminal role of MIT's faculty and alumni in transforming entrepreneurship into a discipline worthy of rigorous academic study; and forming and building the many organizations that constitute the "MIT entrepreneurial ecosystem". They in turn nurtured the founding and investing in thousands of start-up companies that pioneered new industries. MIT spinoff firms annually generate multiple trillions of dollars of global revenues, employing several million people worldwide!
Structured in two parts, the book first showcases how the unique atmosphere at MIT encourages its innovative entrepreneurs to thrive. Then, with in-depth coverage of the founders and companies that pioneered four industries — biotechnology, the Internet, from CAD-CAM to robotics, and modern finance — plus many other successful firms, Professor Roberts analyzes how MIT's most successful entrepreneurs have capitalized on that environment and culture to build companies that have lasted for decades. Both internal and external to MIT, the founders of these organizations and companies tell their own stories, describing their motivations, challenges, and outcomes.
Contents:
- Transforming MIT into an Entrepreneurial Juggernaut:
- The Foundations of MIT Entrepreneurship
- From "Merely" Culture and Tradition to an Entrepreneurship Center
- Building the Entrepreneurship Faculty, Curricula, and Research
- Leading the E-Center and Creating New Programs
- Growing the "MIT Entrepreneurial Ecosystem"
- The Impact of MIT Entrepreneurs
- MIT Entrepreneurship Goes Global
- Entrepreneurs Who Built Innovative Companies that Pioneered New Industries:
- Life Sciences and Biotechnology
- The Internet
- From CAD-CAM to Robotics
- The World of "Modern Finance"
- Moving Forward: Perspectives from a Half-Century of MIT's Growth and Impact:
- MIT Entrepreneurship and the Future
- Appendix: MIT Entrepreneurship Faculty
Readership: Entrepreneurship faculty and students/academia (graduate and undergraduate); Current and prospective entrepreneurs/ students and all industries, especially technology and innovation-based.
"MIT taught me that no problem is too difficult to solve. All you need is to be willing to work hard enough to get it done! In Celebrating Entrepreneurs, Ed Roberts has assembled the lessons learned by many dozens of successful entrepreneurs to stimulate the thoughts and actions of those who aspire to greatness."
RAY STATA
co-founder, former CEO, and Chairman, Analog Devices
"For decades Ed Roberts has studied, taught, and promoted entrepreneurship at MIT and beyond. Here, in a wonderful new edition, he has accounted the enormous benefits to society that MIT entrepreneurs have created."
PHILLIP SHARP
co-founder of Biogen and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Nobel Laureate in Medicine in 1993, and
former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
"Among the many industries pioneered by MIT alumni are life sciences/biotechnology, the Internet, CAD-CAM, robotics, and modern finance. In this impressive volume, Professor Roberts explores how these and other key industries came to be, the entrepreneurs who founded them, and MIT's role in making all this happen."
BRAD FELD
co-founder of Foundry Group and Techstars, and
author of many books on entrepreneurship
"Celebrating Entrepreneurs demonstrates the great power of academic research and teaching in the marketplace through stories of successful MIT entrepreneurs creating great and pioneering firms."
IRWIN JACOBS
Founding Chairman and CEO Emeritus, Qualcomm
"An entrepreneurship tornado continues to blow at MIT. The energy of entrepreneurship rises through our classrooms, labs, and centers. It has been central to who we are as an institution for 50 years of extraordinary service and achievement."
RAFAEL REIF
President, MIT
Edward B Roberts is the David Sarnoff Professor of Management of Technology and Founder/Chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center (now renamed as the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship). A long-time expert on entrepreneurial endeavors, Edward Roberts has literally written the two "bookends" on high-tech business creation and growth. His latest, Celebrating Entrepreneurs: How MIT Nurtured Pioneering Entrepreneurs Who Built Great Companies (Amazon, 2020), describes the history of MIT's transformation into an entrepreneurial juggernaut, led by Roberts for 60 years. The book then delves in depth into 4 industries founded by MIT faculty and alums: life sciences and biotechnology; the Internet; from CAD-CAM to robotics; and "modern finance", including venture capital. He presents the entrepreneurs who created these industries (and several more, e.g. electronics, software and several in developing countries). In their own words these entrepreneurs describe the struggles and strategies that led to great successes.
Roberts' much earlier Entrepreneurs in High-Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 1991), was the first book on entrepreneurship based entirely on extensive research studies of hundreds of entrepreneurs and their firms. It won the Association of American Publishers Award for Outstanding Book in Business and Management.
Ed's own entrepreneurship is as prolific in academia as in industry. Roberts was a founding member of the MIT System Dynamics Group, was Founder and is still Chair of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, and was a founder and for over 30 years chaired MIT Sloan's Management of Technological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group. He co-founded and for nearly 20 years chaired the mid-career MIT Management of Technology (MOT) Program, MIT's first graduate program with degrees offered jointly by two Schools. Most recently he co-created and directed the MIT Sloan Entrepreneurship & Innovation (E&I) MBA Track, which annually enrolls about 40 percent of the entering MBA students, and now includes its degreed executive programs as well. During the past 62 years, Roberts has become internationally known for his research, teaching and active involvement in many aspects of technology management, including technology strategy, corporate venturing, product innovation management, and especially technology-based entrepreneurship.
When not occupied with his MIT responsibilities, Roberts is actively involved as a co-founder, board member and angel investor in many high-tech start-ups. Roberts co-founded and was CEO of Pugh-Roberts Associates, an international management consulting firm, now a division of PA Consulting Group. He co-founded and is a director of Medical Information Technology, Inc., a leading producer of healthcare information systems. He also co-founded and served for 20 years as a director of Sohu.com, Inc., China's first Internet firm. In addition, Roberts co-founded and for 16 years served as a General Partner of the Zero Stage Capital Equity Funds, a group of venture capital funds investing in early-stage technology-based firms. He has been a co-founder and/or director of numerous emerging technology companies including Advanced Magnetics (now AMAG Pharmaceuticals), Interactive SuperComputing (sold to Microsoft), Inverness Medical (now a part of Johnson & Johnson), Pegasystems, and PR Restaurants. He has invested in more than 160 technology-based start-ups, including most recently CeloLabs, HubSpot, Okta and Toast. Roberts has authored over 160 articles and twelve books. He holds four degrees from MIT, including an SB and SM in EE, an SM in management, and a PhD in economics.
He has been married for 63 years to Nancy Roberts. They have three married children and nine grandchildren.
