By utilizing a dual technical and business background, I've built, grown, and created ventures – both within large organizations and as an entrepreneur. My recently published book - The Startup Gold Mine: How to Tap the Hidden Innovation Agendas of Large Companies to Fund and Grow Your Business - shares this experience in detail and provides a playbook for startups looking to partner or sell to large companies. Most recently, I've helped build and grow Estee Lauder’s External Innovation capabilities, working across business units, brands, and R&D to identify technical and business gaps, build innovation pipelines, and ultimately, create and execute on innovation strategy. While there, I helped develop the world's first lipstick 3D printer, released by Smashbox in September 2016: allure.com/story/smashbox-3d-printed-lipstickBefore joining Estee Lauder, I led the growth team at MomTrusted.com, a venture capital backed social marketplace for education and care. The company leverages the social graph to create a social commerce platform. I took over the growth role when the company was in the pre-revenue stage and helped grow it to a profitable business with thousands of customers, over 3M users, and over 15M monthly impressions. Prior to MomTrusted, I founded and ran CollegeZen, a platform that helped high school students connect with and learn from peer mentors attending colleges of interest. This effort caught the attention of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which named CollegeZen one of the worldwide winners of the College Knowledge Challenge. I was also named a Finalist for Entrepreneur Magazine’s College Entrepreneur of the Year for my work at CollegeZen. I currently work with a variety of groups in the innovation ecosystem, including startups, venture funds, accelerators, and large brands.