A maverick, systems thinker, and champion for growth.Adam Simons is an investor, adviser, and board member to a portfolio of start ups and emerging companies around the globe. After spending 15 years in large enterprises, Adam has grown a practice where he works hands-on with some of the best startups in the world - both consumer and enterprise - helping to cultivate and grow the talents of early stage founders and their teams. Operational advice, investing, strategic and fundraising planning, access to a deep network to enable progress, boardroom dynamics, and yes, taking that freak-out call at 11pm (we’ve all been there!).Adam has marketing, corporate strategy, and general management experience across a variety of industries such as hospitality, technology, health care, financial services, and consumer packaged goods. Adam comes from a family of entrepreneurs and deeply understands what it takes to succeed in early stage businesses.His work both in-house for corporations and, before that, in consulting has covered a broad array of business issues relating to marketing strategy, new product innovation, corporate growth strategy, financial investments, and mergers/acquisitions. Adam is regularly viewed as an industry expert in tools and approaches at the front end of innovation and he has a great passion for this space. He is a regular lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a variety of conferences around the world.Adam has an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, where he specialized in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. His undergraduate degree is in Communication from Cornell University, where he graduated with honors.