This week Amazon Books has just released “Celebrating Entrepreneurs: How MIT Nurtured Pioneering Entrepreneurs Who Built Great Companies”, by my long-time friend, colleague, and former professor (and boss!), MIT Professor Edward Roberts, who founded and still chairs the MIT entrepreneurship program. The book is available for Kindle (and other electronic downloads at $9.99) and in a beautiful colored paperback (for $50). The web site, CelebratingEntrepreneurs.com, tells much more about the author, the book itself, and provides for direct purchase from Amazon at the pre-publication and early sales discounted prices.
It has taken 50 years to transform MIT from its unique historic traditions to today's recognition that forming new innovation-based companies is indeed the most powerful source of impact upon the world. In his praise for the book, MIT President Rafael Reif exclaims: “An entrepreneurship tornado continues to blow at MIT. The energy of entrepreneurship rises through our classrooms, labs, and centers. It is central to who we are as an institution for 50 years of extraordinary achievement.” The first half of the book focuses upon MIT’s history of creating from scratch what we lovingly call the “MIT Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.” Much of what MIT has done has been literally copied by other institutions world-wide. Still more universities, regions and countries have adapted MIT’s approaches as needed to fit their own surroundings.
The second half of the book contains four chapters of greater interest to current or would-be entrepreneurs and investors. They tell the stories by the pioneering entrepreneurs themselves who formed and built: the life sciences and biotechnology industry, the Internet, from CAD-CAM to robotics, and even "modern finance.” The final chapter extends into more recent samples of interviews and company histories that include others from software. electronics, new diverse companies, and newer more diverse founding teams, now from all over the developing world. This part of the book provide dozens of examples and case studies of entrepreneurs who started and built highly successful firms, many which you will instantly recognize, such as HubSpot, Okta, and PillPack, all founded by MIT alums.
ALL author royalties will be donated directly to endowment funds that support the MIT-wide entrepreneurship programs—this will immensely help future MIT entrepreneurs.
I strongly encourage you to purchase and enjoy “Celebrating Entrepreneurs” by Ed Roberts!
