Experience

PX Venture Studio

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Founder & Managing Partner

  • Jan 2019 - 5 years

  San Francisco Bay Area Our venture studio, PX, develops your new venture at startup speed, while insulating your Core Business from any distractions. We put experienced entrepreneurs in charge, and tap a core team that does this all day, every day. Our PX unit has all the necessary startup infrastructure partnerships, from legal counsel to digital prototyping. We provide full transparency, and are experienced at every hurdle from running beta tests, to filing provisional patents, to briefing corporate… Show more Our venture studio, PX, develops your new venture at startup speed, while insulating your Core Business from any distractions. We put experienced entrepreneurs in charge, and tap a core team that does this all day, every day. Our PX unit has all the necessary startup infrastructure partnerships, from legal counsel to digital prototyping. We provide full transparency, and are experienced at every hurdle from running beta tests, to filing provisional patents, to briefing corporate boards. PX helps large enterprises disrupt the status quo, and earn a proper ROI. Our industrial grade entrepreneurship moves big ideas downstream quickly from concept to first revenues to scale-up. This approach has built 18 multi-million dollar businesses in diverse market sectors, since 2012, in addition to more than 60 new products/services/experiences. https://www.pxventurestud.io/ Show less



Peer Insight

• United States
• Business Consulting and Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Managing Partner, Peer Insight + PX Venture Studio

  • Jan 2018 - 6 years

  San Francisco Bay Area At Peer Insight and PX Venture Studio, we help transform innovative concepts into real, revenue-generating businesses. We aren't a dev shop rather a nimble entrepreneurial plug-in to discover compelling customer needs (i.e. leverage design thinking), co-create solutions (rapidly prototype) and define the path to market - and profit - for these new ventures (business model). We do this in contact with the market, not behind closed doors, and all the while we use the guiding principle "take… Show more At Peer Insight and PX Venture Studio, we help transform innovative concepts into real, revenue-generating businesses. We aren't a dev shop rather a nimble entrepreneurial plug-in to discover compelling customer needs (i.e. leverage design thinking), co-create solutions (rapidly prototype) and define the path to market - and profit - for these new ventures (business model). We do this in contact with the market, not behind closed doors, and all the while we use the guiding principle "take affordable risks" to maintain awesome pace and efficiency.

• CEO

  • Jan 2016 - Jan 2018

  Washington D.C. Metro Area At Peer Insight, we help large organizations channel their inner startup. In the spirit of entrepreneurship, we merge design thinking and business strategy to help our clients discover new growth platforms through affordable in-market experiments.

• Vice President

  • Jul 2015 - Dec 2015

  Washington D.C. Metro Area

• Director

  • Jun 2014 - Jun 2015

  Washington D.C. Metro Area

• Senior Consultant

  • Apr 2012 - May 2014

  Washington D.C. Metro Area



Alchemist Accelerator

• Fundraising
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Mentor

  • Jan 2018 - 6 years

  San Francisco Bay Area Alchemist is a venture-backed initiative focused on accelerating the development of seed-stage enterprise-focused ventures. As a mentor, I advise cohort companies on a variety of topics, including: pilot testing, platform strategy, strategic partnering, data monetization, business model and go-to-market strategy, etc. Often in high tech, fintech, digital health and energy, amongst other focal areas.



Angel Investor

• Investor

  • Jan 2018 - 6 years

  San Francisco, California, United States Making angel investments in early stage companies focused on disruptive platform offerings. Investments include Docker, Oxygen, a challenger bank, Villa, UserInterviews, Sana Health, an SOSV (HAX) and Founders Fund backed solution to extreme chronic pain, Mojo Vision, an AR-enabled contact lens (for starters) most recently having raised a Series B led by NEA, and Contraline, a long lasting and reversible male contraceptive, which raised a MBX led Series A in October 2020.



Duke Capital Partners

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Angel Investor

  • Feb 2018 - 5 years 11 months



AMI, an innovation learning community

• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Member, Board of Directors

  • Apr 2014 - Jan 2023



Two Hands

• Australia
• Food and Beverage Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Member, Board of Directors

  • May 2019 - Jan 2022

  Melbourne, Australia / Shanghai, China Two Hands is an Australian start-up born out of a desire to change the way people connect with food. Its mission is to restore trust and closeness between fishers, farmers, chefs, and consumers. It is a digital marketplace, an Airbnb-type disruptor that has reinvented the food supply chain. Two Hands delivers this disruption through blockchain, smart tagging technology, removing numerous middlemen and a Next Generation way of doing business where people, communities, environment and… Show more Two Hands is an Australian start-up born out of a desire to change the way people connect with food. Its mission is to restore trust and closeness between fishers, farmers, chefs, and consumers. It is a digital marketplace, an Airbnb-type disruptor that has reinvented the food supply chain. Two Hands delivers this disruption through blockchain, smart tagging technology, removing numerous middlemen and a Next Generation way of doing business where people, communities, environment and shareholders are all taken into consideration. Show less



The Edit

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals

• Co-Founder / Co-Author

  • Mar 2020 - Jan 2021

  Weekly newsletter on all things corporate innovation and venture. Sign up to receive The Edit every Sunday here: https://www.akinfutures.com/



VU Venture Partners

• United States
• Venture Capital and Private Equity Principals
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Venture Partner

  • Sep 2019 - Feb 2020

  San Francisco Bay Area VU Venture Partners is a $100M multi-stage investment fund. VU uses an ‘agile at scale’ operational approach towards investing which enables us to cover markets broader, deeper, and faster than a traditional fund. VU Venture Partners' investment fund invests initially up to $1M per company and up to $10M in follow-on rounds and invests across Consumer, Enterprise, FinTech / Blockchain, Frontier Tech, HealthTech, and PropTech companies.



HPR

• Member, Board of Directors

  • Jun 2016 - Jun 2018

  Advisor to manufacturing performance startup throughout growth phase up to successful exit (acquisition)



Creative Realities, Inc.

• Business Innovationist

  • Apr 2010 - Apr 2012

  Boston, MA

• Associate Business Innovationist

  • Oct 2008 - Apr 2010

  Boston, MA



Duke University

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Duke Center for Child and Family Policy

  • Jun 2007 - Aug 2007



Center for Creative Leadership

• United States
• Professional Training and Coaching
• 700 & Above Employee

• Strategic Planning & Implementation

  • Jun 2006 - Sep 2006