Bill Aulet | Digital Thread Podcast | Momenta

Disciplined Entrepreneurship

In this week's episode, Ken Forster interviews  Bill Aulet, Managing Director, Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship, and Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice, MIT Sloan School of Management.

The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship promotes education and innovation-driven entrepreneurship. It offers resources for starting and growing new ventures and is a hub for entrepreneurship research and collaboration at MIT. 

Professor Bill Aulet is an award-winning educator and author who is transforming the way entrepreneurship is taught and practiced globally. With over 25 years of experience in successful business ventures, he has raised over $100 million and created shareholder value worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He is currently the Professor of the Practice at MIT Sloan, responsible for leading entrepreneurship education across MIT's Trust Center since 2009.

Aulet's book, Disciplined Entrepreneurship, released in 2013, has been translated into more than 20 languages and has been the basis for three online edX courses taken by hundreds of thousands of people in 199 countries. The accompanying Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook was released in 2017, and both books are used to teach entrepreneurship at hundreds of universities worldwide.

Aulet has an extensive publication record in highly regarded outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and MIT Sloan Experts. He is also a sought-after public speaker and has been featured on programs such as CNBC's Squawk Box and BBC News, sharing his insights at events and conferences around the world. Aulet holds degrees from Harvard and MIT and has served on the boards of several US public tech companies.

Discussion Points:

• What would you consider your digital thread (the one or more thematic threads that define your digital industry journey)?
• What did you learn at IBM that prompted you to start your own startups, given that your origin story is rooted in direct operational roles at IBM and three startups?
• Let's briefly discuss your startup experience, including co-founding Cambridge Decision Dynamics, SensAble (which was sold to 3D Systems), and serving as CFO of Viisage. If you had to summarize your time in three lessons learned regarding entrepreneurship, what would they be?
• Let's fast forward to your current role at MIT, leading the development of entrepreneurship education across the Trust Center. Can you describe this program and your responsibilities in this position?
• You authored your first book, "Disciplined Entrepreneurship," in August 2013, followed by the "Disciplined Entrepreneurship Workbook" in 2017. What is "Disciplined Entrepreneurship"?
• Can entrepreneurship be taught or only learned through experience, given the popular belief that the most successful entrepreneurs drop out of college to pursue their startups?
• How does your book complement well-known Silicon Valley texts such as Eric Ries' "The Lean Startup" and Peter Thiel's "Zero to One"?
• With your extensive knowledge of startups, are there specific sectors, geographies, or founder profiles that you're keeping an eye on?
• As we record this, the ramifications of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse are being felt, including by Momenta and our portfolio companies. What lessons can we learn from this crash?
  
• To what degree are Remote Asset Management, Resilience, and Renewables driving future business, especially given recent geopolitical events?
• What do you see as the key trends and disruptions in global energy, including the role of Digital technology, in the next 10 years?
• What were your key use cases and accomplishments leading Software & Analytics in the early days of digital energy?
• Given your close connection with the startup community, can you share some interesting startups you're following?