Like start-ups RelayRides in 2010 and Ember in 2001, it has been satisfying to help a bright, young founding CEO get his start-up off the ground. As the second person at Bridj, my first task was to quickly hire a team. It was that team which:
- Launched the service on June 2nd (on time, no less!),
- Expanded service every couple of weeks,
- Raised $4 million in venture capital from Atlas Ventures, Zipcar investor Jill Preotle, NextView Ventures, Suffolk Equity, and FreshTracks Capital and,
- Positioned the company for great things to come in Boston and beyond.
I am proud of what we accomplished as a team.
My time at Bridj was similar to assignments at Ember (where I was interim COO and which went on to raise a total of $89 million in venture capital before being acquired in 2012 by Silicon Labs) and RelayRides (where I was interim COO and which has raised $54 in venture capital and now has cars available in over 1,900 cities and dozens of airports.)
At Ember, RelayRides, and now Bridj, management was then turned over to a permanent COO from the industry, in this case Gabe Klein.
So what’s next for me? Friends say I should take some time off — since joining RelayRides in 2010 I’ve not taken a single day off between eight interim assignments. But taking time off isn’t in my chemistry. So a couple of hours before finishing my gig at Bridj, I agreed to join a great team that’s been asking me to join them since the spring. I start in September; until then, rather than relaxing on our dock in Maine, I’m spending a couple of weeks mentoring / helping out at a few start-ups in Boston.
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