MIDDVantage | Exploring Careers in Innovation: Start-Ups to Larger Enterprises
MIDDVantage is a virtual career exploration program that offers Middlebury students and alumni — through the perspective of Middlebury alumni and guests — exposure to fields of interest during a time in which in-person career programming, internship, and job experiences have been curtailed.
Innovation exists all around us and comes in different forms within small start-up organizations to large organizations that have been in existence for many years. This series includes interviews with many different professionals who are engaged in applying innovation skill sets within varying functions who will share their perspectives on the challenges in financing and growing early stage ventures, as well as, bringing innovation within larger organizations.
Episode 1: Venture Investing: Discussion About the Job and About Raising a Fund (29 minutes)
Guest Speakers: Lacey Johnson ’08, Partner, Alumni Ventures Group and Marco Casas ’07, Venture Investor, Basecamp
Interviewer: Adrienne Coslick ‘21
Lacey Johnson ’08 is a Partner at Alumni Ventures Group (AVG), where she identifies, evaluates, and executes on investments in early & growth stage companies.
Lacey joined AVG in 2017 from CareGroup Investment Office, a $3B manager of combined endowment and pension assets. As a member of the investment team, Lacey was responsible for investment sourcing and due diligence.
Lacey managed investment opportunities across asset classes and strategies, including venture capital, growth equity, buyout, private credit, and hedge fund vehicles. Previously, she was an Associate at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and an Analyst in the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs. Lacey has a BA in History from Middlebury College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Marco Casas ’07 is a venture investor at Basecamp, one of the most active early-stage funds in the world.
In addition, Marco serves as board observer, advisor, and mentor to several private companies and nonprofit organizations; he is a Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Term Member.
Previously, Marco led the expansion of several emerging market financial institutions in the Americas. Marco completed the IB Program at the United World College (UWC) of Southern Africa, and he holds a BA in political science from Middlebury College, where he was a Davis UWC Scholar, and MBA degrees from Columbia University and London Business School.
Episode 2: The Technical Side: Building a Digital Product, Managing a Product/Engineering Team (28 minutes)
Guest Speakers: Brian Sirkia ’12.5, Co-Founder & CTO at Lately and Nima Alidoust ’09, VP of Strategy and Head of Product at Rigetti Computing
Interviewer: Jason Schneiderman ‘23
Brian Sirkia ’12.5 is the CTO and Co-Founder of Lately, a marketing AI platform based in NYC. He leads the company’s product development and engineering, which is focused on using AI prediction models to augment and create marketing content for customers like Foursquare, SAP, Microsoft, and Samsung.
Before Lately, he co-founded a Craigslist competitor startup and ran a digital marketing agency building websites for clients including Mass MoCA, Ellsworth Kelly, and the San Francisco Film Festival. At Middlebury, he studied Economics and Computer Science and played rugby.
Connect with Brian in Midd2Midd.
Nima Alidoust ’09 majored in Physics at Middlebury and received his Ph.D. in Quantum Chemistry from Princeton University. He worked for Mckinsey for a number of years serving clients in high-tech industries.
He subsequently served as Vice President of Strategy and Head of Product at Rigetti Computing. Nima is now the CEO of a new company that is working on quantum simulation of materials.
Episode 3: Marketing and Customer Success: Growth Hacking, Brand and Customer-Centric Innovation (21 minutes)
Guest Speaker: Olivia Lew ’07.5, Chief Commercial Officer, Heart Health Intelligence
Interviewer: Serrin Kim ‘22
Olivia Lew ‘07.5 went into the non‐ profit sector after graduating from Middlebury, where she quickly became engaged in recruiting and activating passionate business leaders to support environmental causes.
She felt that lessons from the corporate world could offer an opportunity to make a larger impact, leading her to earn an MBA at Georgetown. From there, she went into public and private sector consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton and then Capgemini, which included opportunities to work in Europe and Asia.
Implementing enterprise transformations while consulting Global 500 companies allowed Olivia to develop valuable experience in collaboration, creative thinking, and change management which she applied to her role on the early stage investment team at General Catalyst.
At General Catalyst, her investment focus was on early‐stage founders building transformative companies at the intersection of software and health care. Earlier this year, Olivia joined the team at Heart Health Intelligence as Chief Commercial Officer. Their goal is to enable healthcare in the home.
Episode 4: Product Manager Role — Ideal for Liberal Arts Students (33 minutes)
Guest Speaker: Caroline Goodwin ’14, Senior Product Manager, PlacePass
Interviewer: Adam Wisco ‘22
Caroline Goodwin is a Senior Product Manager at PlacePass, a Boston-based travel technology startup. Her responsibilities include strategic planning with the executive team, coordinating software development with the engineering team, and measuring engagement with end users and external partners.
Prior to PlacePass, Caroline held various roles at San Francisco travel tech startup Peek including customer success and product marketing.
Caroline earned her B.A. in International and Global Studies from Middlebury College in 2014.
To be continued…
This series is made possible by the enthusiastic efforts of Marco Casas ’07 who conceptualized the series and recruited several other alumni to contribute their time and experiences to the content of each episode throughout the series.
