Robert Siegel on Entrepreneurship

Featuring Robert Siegel
X/Seed Capital Management

Location: McDonnell Douglas Engineering Auditorium
Free and open to the public

The Entrepreneurship Course for Scientists and Engineers provides a real-world introduction to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship.  Through a series of presentations by prestigious entrepreneurs and industry leaders, participants will explore the various organizational, strategic and financial challenges facing successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs.  Topics include start-up strategies, business idea evaluation, business plan writing, and introduction to venture capital.

About the Speaker:
Drawing on over 22 years of experience spanning the semiconductor, networking, physical security, software and venture industries, Robert Siegel is an experienced leader with a proven track record in strategy definition, operational execution, product development, international sales and marketing, investing, fund raising and strategic relationships. Siegel is currently with X/Seed Capital Management, an early stage venture fund that works to fund enterprises around advanced technical innovations where there is an opportunity to develop large commercial enterprises. 

Prior to X/Seed, Siegel was the general manager, Video and Software Solutions for GE Security (NYSE:GE).  Siegel was responsible for General Electric’s video surveillance global Center of Excellence (COE), which generated revenues of approximately $350 million in 2007.  Siegel’s responsibilities included developing the firm’s strategic direction in video, delivering on global product development and the formulation of the corresponding go-to-market activities.

Before joining GE, Siegel was a strategy consultant reporting to the CEO of Silicon Image (NASD:SIMG), served as executive vice president of Pixim Inc., a fabless semiconductor firm making image sensors and processors, and was the founder and CEO of Weave Innovations Inc., a product and network services developer for computer and communications platforms. Siegel also served in leadership roles at Intel Corporation (NASD:INTC), where he developed and implemented Intel's product strategy for PCs and set-tops into the family room.

Siegel has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from Stanford University. In 1996, he served as lead researcher for Andrew Grove's best selling book, Only the Paranoid Survive.  He is an invited lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and is the co-inventor of three patents.  He is the co-author of “Defining the Minimum Winning Game in High-Technology Ventures,” which was published in California Management Review in spring 2007, as well as “Cutting the Strategy Diamond in High-Technology Ventures,” which is scheduled to be published in California Management Review in spring 2008.  He is the executive chairman of the board of directors of both SmartDrive Systems and Iconix Video, and is also a member of several private technology company board of advisors.