Nicholas sold his company InterVU to Akamai Technologies for $3 BILLION in 2000. He also co-founded nine companies in the last 12 years that have achieved a successful IPO or acquistion. He is on the Board of Hawaii Biotech and Chairman of the Board for Nayna International.
I met Nicholas a few months ago at a friend’s wedding. After finding out he was involved with Hawaii Biotech I struck up a conversation and was entranced with his knowledge and success. Nicholas shared with me an inside view of the life of an entrepreneur turned venture capitalist and I was absolutely intrigued. I told him about the idea I had for Greater Good Radio (before it was created) and he agreed to come on the show. That was before we even had a list of potential interviewees.
I’ve been hounding him for the past three months to schedule with us. In that time we changed from a conference room at a friend’s office to recording in the Cox Radio Studio with an onsite board engineer. After three months of not being able to hook up Nick emailed me two days ago saying he could do the interview today. I scrambled to make the studio available but with our engineer going on vacation, it was too short notice. Since Nicholas travels weekly internationally I knew we had to do this at all costs. We ended up recording today in my attorney’s conference room. I have to admit that I was not prepared with my normal list of questions because it was such short notice and I didn’t have too much to go on.
We did the interview anyway and I’m absolutely pleased with the content we’ve captured and I know you will be too. Nicholas goes in depth into what makes a great entrepreneur and what mistakes to avoid. He gives a detailed tutorial on how venture capitalists and institutional investors think and this show is an absolute must hear for all entrepreneurs.
BIO:
Nicholas Mitsakos
Chairman, Nayna International, Inc. and board member of Hawaii Biotech, Inc. Nicholas Mitsakos is an investor and entrepreneur focusing on communications and bioscience. He is a member of the board of directors to Meru Networks; Matisse Networks; NetContinuum Corporation; BridgeWave Communications and MiraPoint Communications. He is a co-founder or founding investor in Meru Networks, Matisse Networks, Nayna International and NetContinuum. Mr. Mitsakos is an active advisor to SiNett Corp, Colo Wireless, Inc., Firewave, Inc. and PS Pharmaceuticals.
Mr. Mitsakos has co-founded several other companies, including InterVu (IPO December 1997, sold to Akamai for $3 Billion in March 2000), Capri Systems (sold to Time-Warner in June 1996), and General Computer Corporation (sold to Warner Communications in January 1984). He was the lead investor in Maverick Networks (sold to Broadcom in May, 1999); Berkeley Networks (sold to FORE Systems in October 1998); Wireless Home (sold to Proxim, in April, 2001); ConvergeNet (sold to Dell in July 1999), and Magma Design Automation (IPO November 2001).
Mr. Mitsakos began his career as a founder and CEO of General Computer Corporation, a graphics-based software company grown from three employees to over 50 when it was sold two years later. He then consulted to other technology-based start-ups while at the Boston Consulting Group. After business school, he worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and Drexel Burnham raising private and public equity and debt, and advising on mergers and acquisitions, before starting his own investment company in 1989. Mr. Mitsakos has provided capital for, or acquired, over 25 companies in the US, Europe and Asia, including China. He served as a director or advisor to each company, and was the founding CEO of three companies.
He has been an instructor at UCLA’s Anderson Business School for the last six years, creating two courses focused on developing successful business plans for commercial enterprises using technology, and in one course, specifically the Internet. He holds a BS in Computer Science and Microbiology from the University of Southern California and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Links:
Hawaii Biotech
Mira Point
Nayna International
Net Continuum
BridgeWave
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