Venture Capital & Startups 4: Graduate Alumnus Entrepreneur/VC: Christian Theriault *08 (This and all future sessions held in JRR/LAS.)

Session Description: Alumnus Chris Theriault, a serial entrepreneur turned VC with expertise across several deep tech industries, will share his career journey and advice for current graduate students with a networking reception to follow. He has co-founded or been involved with startups in robotics, machine vision, medical devices, and new chemical entity development. His latest company, Tag Optics, which was acquired by a Japanese multinational, had the distinction of producing the world’s fastest focusing lens – widely used across several market verticals ranging from laser material processing to metrology and biomedical engineering. More recently, Chris has been involved with mentoring and investing in high-tech startups and participates in various accelerator programs, the NSF’s America’s Seed Fund and various angel groups where he regularly serves as the diligence team lead or domain expert for sensors/advanced manufacturing, energy technologies, data science, or machine vision sectors. Chris holds an MSE in Material Science and Process Management and an A.B. in Molecular Biology and Bioengineering, both from Princeton University; he has authored several academic papers and holds numerous patents. He currently serves as an advisor to several technology and consumer facing startups. 

Cohort Description: A growing number of startups are emerging from universities and research institutes — young enterprises that are accelerating innovation and changing the game in social entrepreneurship and in every field imaginable. Increasingly, graduate students are the founders behind these new businesses. At Princeton, there is a robust innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem that connects graduate students, postdocs, alumni, faculty, venture capitalists, and industry.  During the course of 8 weeks, this program serves as a “crash course” for understanding the world of VC funding and startups. You will learn about the lingo, the economics, the process, and the landscape—and meet members of the broader innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. You will also hear first-hand from graduate alumni founders about their entrepreneurial journeys -- and all of the challenges and successes they had along the way. The cohort culminates with a group project where graduate students will work across disciplines to synthesize and apply their learnings. 

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