Entrepreneur In Residence

My children have told me for years that they don’t understand what I do for a living. For the longest time, teammates on my son’s football team thought I was in the CIA. It sort of made sense. I traveled a lot and he couldn’t describe my job, so the CIA seemed like a good guess. This may not help my kids, but I think my new role with Second Century Ventures and its growth accelerator REach® is going to be just as cool as CIA operative.

Today, I’m proud to announce that new role is
“Entrepreneur in Residence.”

I’ve had the privilege and honor of being a Mentor for the REach® Growth Accelerator since it was created in 2013. Second Century Ventures created REach®, which is a nine-month program that provides companies with education, mentorship, an insight panel, and exposure to systematically launch them into the real estate marketplace. I’ve loved my experience as a mentor with the REach® program and have had the unique perspective of sitting on both sides of the table.

In November of 2017, I took on a full-time position with one of the 2017 REach® class members, immoviewer. The story of how we met is a good story. And as a result, I was able to experience the mentor sessions from the other side of the table and also witness the other work Second Century Ventures was doing on behalf of the companies that were part of their accelerator classes.

So what does “Entrepreneur In Residence” mean?

Let’s just use the Wikipedia definition, “In a venture capital fund, a private equity fund or a startup accelerator; the entrepreneur in residence works with the general partners and assists the firm’s portfolio companies by leveraging their industry knowledge, expertise, and network.”

And that’s exactly what I intend to do – work with Second Century Ventures and their portfolio companies by leveraging my industry knowledge, expertise and network to create meaningful results, for everyone. It’s exciting to be a part of such a forward-thinking team.

I will continue to work with other clients, like immoviewer, and continue to speak on topics at the intersection of technology and human behavior, but a good deal of my time and effort is going to be focused on helping Second Century Ventures continue to be the #1 accelerator in the real estate industry and raise it’s status as one the best in the nation for technology accelerators overall.

New Year, New Adventure

When I shared with Bill Lublin that I was going to be taking on the role of “Entrepreneur In Residence” he said, “Very cool. Whatever that means. I’m sure you’ll rock it. But it sounds like a really fun gig. And with a really good group of people.” He is right.

When I wrote about a new adventure on January 1, I said, “I’ve come to this realization – I want to do more. I want to help more. I want to build more. I want to share more of what I’ve learned.” Working with Second Century Ventures is a large part of what I was referring to.

I don’t really care much for titles, but I’m certainly enjoying sharing this new one. And as Bill Lublin also said in our text messages back and forth a couple of weeks ago, “That is possibly the coolest title since ResPres.”

I agree. 🙂