CEO at UpStart Mobile Inc
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- CEO at UpStart Mobile Inc
- Past
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- CEO at UpStart(tm)
- Executive Producer - Startup Entrepreneur at OutbackOnline - NICTA
- Executive - IXC Intermediated Services at Australian Industry Group
- Program Director, Lab Manager at IBM
- Program Director at IBM US
- chief marketing officer at Headstrong
- Consulting Principal at Strategos
- Manager at IBM alphaworks
- Manager, alphaWorks at IBM
- Innovation Project Manager and District Manager at Kaplan
- Education
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- Georgetown University
- Georgetown University - The McDonough School of Business
- University of California, Berkeley
- Recommended
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6 people have recommended John - Connections
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269
connections
- Industry
- Computer Software
- Websites
John Wolpert’s Summary
Twenty years experience managing teams of creative talent in the entertainment, media, and computer industries. Currently the CEO of UpStart Mobile Inc., maker of mobile applications such as Cabulous (http://cabulous.com).
Ran IBM’s “Extreme Blue” incubator in Austin, Texas. Previously, ran IBM’s alphaWorks team in Silicon Valley, which pioneered the release of emerging research technology for open use over the Internet. In 2003, was engaged by the Australian Industry Group to build an organization that helps innovators in different companies work together. The project became an international enterprise in 2006.
In the late 1980’s, was the CEO of an advertising agency in San Francisco, with clients including Apple, Inc. In the 1990's and early 2000, went on to lead teams for the Washington Post Company, and as the Chief Marketing Officer of James Martin and Company, helped re-brand the firm to Headstrong after a $200 million capital raising.
Work on managing innovation is featured in the Harvard Business Review and in several published cases and books. Graduate of UC Berkeley and received MBA from Georgetown University.
First novel for middle-grade readers, about a 13-year-old soccer star who gets caught up in an adventure inside a haunted theater, is out on Amazon: http://www.thehiddenstage.com
Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jwolpert
John Wolpert’s Specialties:
Business Development and Startup Creation
Talent Management and Acquisition
Cross-functional team leadership
Business concept innovation and technical invention: biztech innovation.
John Wolpert’s Experience
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CEO
UpStart Mobile Inc
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
July 2009 — Present (5 months)
Developer of Mobile Applications that bring people together. Current products: Find My Friend and Cabulous (http://cabulous.com).
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CEO
UpStart(tm)
(Professional Training & Coaching industry)
June 2007 — July 2009 (2 years 2 months)
UpStart(tm). Helping large, established firms empower their entrepreneurial talent to start new businesses.
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Executive Producer - Startup Entrepreneur
OutbackOnline - NICTA
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Games industry)
July 2006 — May 2007 (11 months)
Hired by Australia's IT research institute, NICTA, to create a new business concept for an emerging research project in peer-to-peer networking. Created the Outback Online concept, which pioneers the notion of giving any number of users the ability to create any number of virtual worlds and share them with any number of other people for free - imagine Skype meets Second Life.
We demonstrated for top-tier venture capitalists, including Kleiner Perkins and Accel, how high-quality the experience of creating your own virtual world from an ever-growing toybox of 3d pieces and sharing those worlds freely with others could be. The business model involves the free download of the virtual world experience and charges users for the purchase of 3d items made by Outback designers or by independent developers - imagine eBay for 3d: 3Bay?
The project lives today in three different initiatives:
www.pocketworlds.com
www.yoick.com
http://nicta.com.au/research/projects/peer_to_peer -
Executive - IXC Intermediated Services
Australian Industry Group
(Government Agency; 11-50 employees; Biotechnology industry)
February 2004 — June 2006 (2 years 5 months)
Founded the intermediary practice of IXC. Represented member firms such as IBM and Johnson & Johnson Research in government backed life science industry consortium. IXC is pioneering the use of trusted intermediaries working for government consortia to help companies know where (and where not) to share confidential information in the process of synthesizing different insights, capabilities and research into new growth business opportunities. More on www.ixc.com.au
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Program Director, Lab Manager
IBM
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)
January 2001 — January 2004 (3 years 1 month)
Ran the Austin Extreme Blue Lab, IBMs incubator for talent, technology and business innovation: www.ibm.com/extremeblue.
The lab was one of the most prolific patent producers in the company. Hundreds of IBMs best and brightest were found and trained by the Extreme Blue lab team. The lab now operates in multiple sites in the US, Europe and Asia. The Austin Lab contained 25-40 researchers at any given time. -
Program Director
IBM US
(Public Company; Management Consulting industry)
2001 — 2003 (2 years )
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chief marketing officer
Headstrong
(Computer Software industry)
2000 — 2001 (1 year )
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Consulting Principal
Strategos
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Management Consulting industry)
January 2000 — June 2000 (6 months)
Worked with John Seely Brown and Gary Hamel on a new business concept idea. Created business plan and engaged with venture capitalists to fund it. ...and then April 2000 happened, and the game of getting startup capital changed. Determined the time was no longer right. Returned to IBM.
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Manager
IBM alphaworks
(Public Company; Management Consulting industry)
1998 — 2000 (2 years )
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Manager, alphaWorks
IBM
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; ibm; Information Technology and Services industry)
June 1997 — January 2000 (2 years 8 months)
Ran IBM's fabled alphaWorks team: www.alphaworks.ibm.com.
alphaWorks pioneered open innovation with one of the very first sites that openly gave developers free access to emerging IBM research code. The team celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2006, making it one of the very few corporate innovation teams to survive past the five year mark. And it is still growing. -
Innovation Project Manager and District Manager
Kaplan
(Public Company; Management Consulting industry)
1993 — 1995 (2 years )
John Wolpert’s Education
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Georgetown University
MBA , Organizational Behavior, Management of Technology , 1995 — 1997
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Georgetown University - The McDonough School of Business
MBA , Business , 1995 — 1997
- Activities and Societies:
- Chair, Culture Communication and Technology group - a joint student organization between the business school, the law school and the public policy school.
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University of California, Berkeley
BA , Humanities - Lit and Anthropology , 1985 — 1989
Graduated with Honors
- Activities and Societies:
- Student Chairman, Rockefeller International House, 1987-88
Additional Information
John Wolpert’s Websites:
John Wolpert’s Interests:
My career-long fascination is in finding ways for people in different companies to help each other solve problems and capture new opportunities. My web site on the subject is www.thethreepercent.com
John Wolpert’s Groups:
Society of Childrens Books Writers and Illustrators: www.scbwi.org, Hank Chesbrough Fan Club
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Georgetown McDonough Alumni -
Business Innovation Factory Community -
Living Labs Global -
Extreme Blue Alumni -
Georgetown University Alumni Group -
Team upStart
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Corporate Planning & Global Industry Segmentation
John Wolpert’s Honors:
Was honored in 2004 as the keynote speaker at the University of New South Wales' business school graduation ceremony. In 2003, was the keynote speaker at an event of the Australian Parliament and 200 of the country's leading scientists. Both speeches involved the question of cross-company collaboration.
John Wolpert’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
