A former executive at North Side-based startup investment firm Innovation Works Inc. is getting back into the local startup ecosystem by taking over the Corporate Startup Lab (CSL) housed within the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University.
Jim Jen succeeded CSL Director and Co-Founder Sean Ammirati on Aug. 7 and now runs the day-to-day operations of an initiative that performs research, develops tools and promotes ways for large companies to best integrate entrepreneurial practices into their own innovation processes. Jen, who simultaneously joins CMU's Tepper School of Business as a distinguished service professor of entrepreneurship, stepped down from his post as the chief operating officer at IW last February.
"The two [posts] really go hand in hand because I think you can fulfill CMU's educational mission of preparing its students and the best way to prepare them, I think, is real-world examples and working with corporations to help them solve their problems," Jen said. "That's what drew me to this opportunity."
As for Ammirati, he'll take on an advisory role for Jen and the CSL while his role as a faculty professor at CMU remains unchanged.
"I will be as involved or uninvolved as Jim wants in the advisory role," Ammirati said. "I'll be around as much as is helpful. But certainly no more than as is helpful."
Over his 20-year stint at IW, Jen served an influential role in crafting the launch of the AlphaLab startup accelerator, which has gone on to incubate and invest in dozens of local tech software startups over the more than 10 years it has been in operation. Its origins led to the spawning of AlphaLab Gear, which focuses on helping hardware-focused startups obtain commercial viability.
In this new role, Jen said he's looking forward to working with established companies to help them better address internal innovations, per the CSL's mission.
"We've both done a lot working with startups and through the venture investing model to grow companies," Jen said. "But we also both believe that you can do it in other companies and organizations. And so I'm very excited about that."
