The record

I started at Lockheed Martin working ballistic missile defense, then radar and electronic warfare program management, then business development for advanced undersea systems and an advanced submarine think tank. I was selected for two competitive leadership programs there, ELDP and later the executive sponsored BDLP, four spots a year in our business unit. I ran early SiGe MMIC work before most people believed in it, and went 5 for 5 on captures ranging from $500k to multiple billions.

I helped start Ecovent, which sold to ConnectM in 2016. I was CTO of Soluna, which went public on Nasdaq: SLNH. Today I'm Head of Infrastructure at Provocative, building AI data centers.

I've taught at MIT since 2015, and I'm a Lecturer at MIT Sloan since 2018. I still teach the class that introduces students to entrepreneurship by throwing them straight into the chaos, so they can feel it before they ever read about it. I'm an EIR at the Martin Trust Center, a Techstars mentor, and I've advised dozens of independent studies and dozens of startups. I still chair Drexel's ECE External Advisory Board, and I've spoken everywhere from Warsaw to Marrakesh to the HBS Climate Symposium. I've also taught entrepreneurship in Bangkok and worked with two cohorts of students from Portugal.

The most dramatic version of this: I helped teach 3rd through 7th graders in North Carolina. They started from zero. Two weeks later they had functioning businesses: real websites, and some already had revenue.

(I also sold candy out of my locker in 6th grade and got suspended for it. The entrepreneurial instinct started early, just not always legally.)