A Powerhouse of Entrepreneurship

MIT Sloan’s Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship has been a long-time friend of MIT’s Sloan Women in Management. Not only has it supported the conference for the past two years, it has been a place for the women entrepreneurs of MIT to connect and share ideas. The driving force behind the strong relationship between SWIM and the Martin Trust Center is its Managing Director, Bill Aulet. Bill is a cheerleader for MIT’s entrepreneurs and his own extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, and mentor gives him deep understanding of the importance of trying new things, no matter the consequences.

We are particularly delighted, therefore, to announce that Bill Aulet will be joining us as the moderator for Maria Cirino‘s keynote address. Bill will be joining Maria on stage to have a frank conversation about her experience launching new companies and taking calculated gambles on new ideas.

With their combined expertise building businesses and watching them succeed and fail, we expect a discussion that will make you find a new understanding of risk taking. You won’t want to miss it!

Join us at the MIT media lab on February 8 for Dare to Fail: Taking Risks When it Matters Most

MIT Sloan’s Own Vanessa Green

In 2011, Vanessa Green graduated from MIT Sloan and quickly became one of Forbes 30-under-30 in Energy for her work as CEO of FINsix, a company that is creating advanced power systems. We are excited to have her back at MIT Sloan to speak about her decision to start a company while in school and the risks she has taken since then to make it a success.

Vanessa helped develop FINsix, formerly OnChip Power, from an idea within MIT into the company that it is today. She helps chart the direction of the company to achieve its lofty goal of developing the world’s smallest power conversion products. In only three short years, FINsix has grown rapidly and secured approximately $6M in funding while growing the company’s employees and customers and continues to garner great press for its products.

We can’t wait to hear Vanessa’s story about choosing to forgo a conventional career for the high risk of entrepreneurship at the SWIM conference on 2/8!

Incredible Entrepreneur Maria Cirino to Keynote Conference

This week has brought some big changes as well as great opportunities to the SWIM Conference. Unfortunately, General Janet Wolfenbarger had a last minute conflict which makes it impossible for her to join us as a keynote. The General  has been incredibly enthusiastic about the women of Boston and sends her regrets. We hope that she can join us at a SWIM event in the future to highlight the risks she has taken to achieve her rank as a four-star general in the US Air Force.

While we are sad that General Wolfenbarger cannot attend, we are fortunate that the conference sparks the interest of so many amazing women leaders. We are thrilled to announce that Maria Cirino, Co-Founder and Managing Director of .406 Ventures, will be joining our conference as a keynote!

Maria Cirino is a remarkable force in the venture capital community, investing in teams and technologies to build them into great companies. And Maria knows a thing or two about building great companies. At the height of the DotCom boom in the late 1990s, Maria joined a company called i-Cube and led the commercial development. She pushed the envelope, closed difficult deals, and helped the company grow from around $5M in revenue to a run rate of around $50M in two years. After a successful IPO, i-Cube was acquired by Razorfish. Never one to tire, only a few short years later Maria was working with Guardent, which three years later, sold to Verisign.

Maria has reached her success because, as she reported in a conversation with Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com, “I have never considered myself qualified for any job I’ve ever had, since the day I got out of school. I’ve been in the right place at the right time. I was given extraordinary opportunities always beyond where I felt my capabilities were.”

Maria’s combination of risk taking, determination, and team work inspire us and we cannot wait to hear what she has to share!