In the News

Managing the Mental Toll During an Epic Market Inflection Point

Being an entrepreneur is an act of both courage and craziness during the best of times. Failure rates of startups are upwards of 90%. In the wake of a historical inflection point, such as the dot com implosion of April 2000, the great recession of 2008-2009 and now, the global COVID-pandemic, challenges increase by orders of magnitude.

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Announcing Global Venture Catalyst, an Exciting New Entrepreneurial Education Project with Ihklaq Sidhu, PhD and Mike Grandinetti

In this episode, Ihklaq Sidhu, PhD and Mike Grandinetti share information about “Global Venture Catalyst”, a new hands-on, entrepreneurial education initiative they’re launching to provide 500 engineers, technical students, and business school students around the world a transformative experience to work in diverse teams to develop new hight-impact projects.

The Convergence of Innovation, Technology & Higher Education

I’ve spent the last 25+ years working at this extraordinary point of convergence as a Professor, faculty member & mentor at some of the world’s most prestigious educational institutions, in addition to my simultaneous roles as a serial tech entrepreneur, innovation consultant, hackathon leader, startup mentor and board member. The changes that have occurred in the way in which innovation is taught, starting in 2007, has been profound. 2007 is an especially important year and inflection point for innovation based on two critical events. The launch of Apple’s iPhone democratized technology, while the sub-prime mortgage and banking financial crisis spiraled us into the “great recession.”

This created long-terms impacts on innovation as we know it.

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BOSTON TV News 5 Chronicle Trends Episode: Future of FinTech 

This year, professor, entrepreneur and host of the “Disruptive Innovation” podcast, Mike Grandinetti says peer-to-peer payments will continue to explode. Last quarter, one of the more popular digital payment methods – Venmo – processed more than $27 billion in payments. The Cash app and Zelle are growing, as well.

What the news media is doing to defend against deepfakes

Mike Grandinetti’s thoughts on how to combat the growing use of “deepfakes” to mislead the public & discredit major public figures is shared in the linked article. Along with staff at both the hashtagWall Street Journal & the hashtagWashington Post, two publications that adhere to the highest standards of journalism, I share insights about this alarming new trend. Unless managed effectively, it will have a material effect on the 2020 election & far beyond & further undermine our faith in journalism.

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Here’s How Your Brand Can Make The Most Of User-Generated Content

With such a high audience demand for unique, engaging content, it can be overwhelming for brands to keep delivering what their target market wants. One simple strategy that many businesses have adopted is to take advantage of user-generated content (UGC). Not only does UGC help keep your content calendar full, but it makes your audience feel like they’re truly part of your brand experience.

Special Feature in Hultian Magazine Summer 2018

I’m very proud to be prominently featured in this new issue of Hult’s global student magazine, the Hultian. There are two stories in this issue where I am featured. The first, beginning on page 10, describes the #HackForHumanity social impact hackathon that I organized with the support of some amazing Hult students, and led. The second article is a Faculty Spotlight article that highlights my unique approach to challenging and inspiring students both inside, and outside the classroom. My philosophy, “Teaching is Lighting a Fire, not Filling a Bucket.” It is a blessing to have the opportunity to inspire the next generation to achieve great things. They are definitely up for the task.

#Hult #Hultian #Faculty #Educate #Challenge #Inspire

#HandsAndMinds #GlobalGeneration

Inspiring Leadership Doesn’t Come From A Script

Previously, I’ve written about my experiences working for Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, co-founders of Hewlett-Packard. In many ways, they were responsible for defining and introducing the meritocratic-style corporate culture that came to define Silicon Valley and startups worldwide. They were world-class leaders who built an enduring legacy on innovation and respect, all while remaining very open people.

Accelerating Time-to-Value: Fast-Growing Reduxio Implements Priority Engine to Power Pipeline Contribution

Fast-growing Reduxio redefines data storage, management and protection with breakthrough efficiency, recovery and performance. The company understands data’s role in business success, so it’s natural for Reduxio to seek the best possible resource for their marketing and sales teams. TechTarget’s Priority Engine™ provided the insights into real buyers Reduxio needed to deliver more opportunities.

12 Ways To Market To Generation Z

Generation Z is now coming of age and they’ve got a lot of buying power. But marketing to them isn’t easy, because marketing to this generation is unlike the ones before them. Since they are digital natives, their approach to buying is very different.

Become A Great Leader By Working With Great Leaders

When I graduated from Rutgers University with my bachelor’s degree in engineering, most of my classmates joined major East Coast industrial companies. I, however, did something many of them did not consider. Drawn to the unbridled energy driving Silicon Valley and the revolutionary innovation happening in the area’s pioneering companies and research labs, I decided to move west to work for Hewlett-Packard.

How to Run A Hackathon to Boost Innovation Within Your Company

Mike Grandinetti has attended quite a few hackathons and contrary to popular belief, they don’t all need to be focused on coding. Instead, hackathons can be just as powerful for marketing, sales, and operations teams.

How My Time At A Large Corporation Prepared Me For Startup Success

Large corporations and venture capital (VC)-backed startups exist in parallel universes. I have lived in both of them, observing that both require extraordinary work ethic and dedication while offering intense career growth. But despite their similarities, there are minimal connections between these two universes. That said, my time in the corporate world prepared me exceptionally well for a career as a VC-backed startup C-suite executive.

GreenGoose: A True Story of Living the Entrepreneurial Dream

For GreenGoose the journey from Oregon to Providence, RI to Kendall Square in Cambridge and finally to the inaugural Launch Conference, held on 23-24 of February at the San Francisco Design Concourse, has been an intense and ultimately rewarding one. From Betaspring to mentoring from Bill Warner at the Cambridge Innovation Center to now back to Oregon and San Francisco, his is the classic entrepreneurial story of how hard work, frugality, determination to see your vision realized and confronting your fears all combine to produce a successful outcome. For a young entrepreneur like Brian, having the support of a group of mentors and advisors along the way gave him the courage and confidence to keep moving forward despite moments of self-doubt.

Demystifying Cybersecurity for Business Executives

Flashback to 1995. Marc Andreessen, a recent University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana graduate and cofounder of the startup Netscape, was committed to providing access to the internet for the common person. Netscape launched the Mosaic web browser, which opened up internet access to people outside of the defense, scientific research and academic communities.
During that era, very few people understood what havoc was about to be unleashed by connecting company networks to the internet. My startup, Raptor Systems, was one of the very first commercial cybersecurity vendors. As the company’s chief marketing officer, I was tasked with educating the market on inherent risks, while positioning Raptor as the vendor of choice for early adopters in this nascent market.

Introducing Generation G: The Global Generation

As far back as Plato and Socrates, prior generations have lamented the lack of dedication in their successors. Today, discussions surrounding the work ethic of current generations echo the lamentations of these early Greek philosophers, though much of it is baseless. In many ways, the media has drawn artificial distinctions between the millennial generation and Gen Z. Based on my extensive observations and interactions, as a professor and an employer of our future leaders, I think of them as Gen G, or the global generation. Employers who do not properly understand and appreciate this remarkable cohort will never adequately address the skills gap that faces the U.S.

Paving the Way for Future Entrepreneurs and Ten Tips to Make it as One

Entrepreneurship is the equivalent of running a marathon at the speed of the 100-yard dash with high hurdles everywhere along the track. To call it challenging is an understatement of epic proportions. For every gushing article celebrating the successes of the next generation of entrepreneurs, those few companies who successfully raise money on Shark Tank, or even the endless stream of coverage documenting the breathtaking success of the chosen few (Google, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Dropbox), there are countless other companies that never achieve lift-off despite heroic efforts, or that crash and burn after early success. For every Facebook, there are ten thousand failures.

10 Ways Digital Leaders Can Protect Their Teams From Burnout

A little acknowledgment can go a long way.

“When people feel that their work is appreciated and that they are supported, they are fed or energized by their work as opposed to feeling exhausted by it,” said Mike Grandinetti, CMO, and CSO at data management and protection provider Reduxio.

A Day In The Life Of An Early-Stage Startup CMO

Startup culture requires an incredibly specific and unique personality — one that carries a large appetite for juggling multiple roles with the ability to thrive in a volatile environment while remaining relentlessly focused on the company’s vision and mission. Shows like HBO’s Silicon Valley provide a look into the emotional roller coaster that comes with life at a startup.

To take on the role of CMO at a startup is to take on even greater responsibilities. This position demands a keen ability to liaise between the company and the marketplace.

Diversity or Bust: Now It’s Your Time Female Entrepreneurs

If you were to judge what is happening with gender discrimination and sexual harassment for female founders and entrepreneurs based on what you’ve read in the news, or have seen the many disheartening research studies and articles about the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley, you’d be likely to have drawn a cynical conclusion.

Companies not walking the walk when it comes to diversity, study says

To be truly innovative, “multiple, highly diverse perspectives are crucial,” said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing and corporate strategy officer at Reduxio Systems. “At Reduxio, we place great value on a fundamental principle: that the best results come from an intellectually stimulating, collaborative environment with highly empowered teams with lots of autonomy.”

Data protection in an era of continuous attacks

“Many of our customers tell us that they are under continuous attack,” says Reduxio’s chief marketing and corporate strategy officer Mike Grandinetti.  “We are now seeing globally coordinated attacks by hostile foreign governments. For example, US Intelligence has established with 100% certainty that the highly publicised WannaCry virus, which took down Honda, Maersk, FedEx and the UK NHS, was perpetrated by the rogue government of North Korea.”

 

Mike Grandinetti explains why diversity is at the core of his hiring strategy

https://marketingland.com/reduxios-cmo-diversity-key-building-winning-marketing-organization-232475

For Reduxio’s CMO, diversity is key to building a winning marketing organization

https://martechtoday.com/reduxios-cmo-diversity-key-want-build-winning-marketing-organization-209648