Feld-Weiser One-on-One: Feld on Work-Life Balance

Wednesday, June 10th, 6:00-7:00pm
@ Wittemyer Courtroom, Wolf Law Building

As part of Silicon Flatirons' Entrepreneurship Initiative, Phil Weiser, Professor of Law and Telecommunications, is engaging in a series of interviews with local venture capitalist Brad Feld on topics ranging from financing strategies for start-ups to the nature of innovation to managing work-life balance. Readers of Brad's blog already appreciate that his insights and wit are not to be missed. This third session will focus on the challenges and importance of finding life-work balance.

For entrepreneurs, lawyers, and other professionals, work-life balance is often a topic that individuals plan on thinking about when they have time. For Brad Feld, this topic "took me 15 years, a failed first marriage, and my current wife (Amy Batchelor, Wellesley Graduate) almost calling it quits for me to realize that I had to figure out what 'work life balance' meant to me." This recognition led to Brad's commitment to a series of rules, which evolved into a set of habits that include:

  1. Spend Time Away
  2. Life Dinner
  3. Segment Space
  4. Be Present
  5. Meditate

Notably, Brad's view on life-work balance is not that working hard is not important; rather, it's that "balance improves the quality/quantity of work that you can get done and he has become more effective at accomplishing stuff." In this session, we will discuss the challenges about finding life-work balance, developing strategies to both work hard and work effectively as well as how to define success not just in work, but in life.

About Brad Feld

Brad Feld has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 20 years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies and later became a venture affiliate of the predecessor to Mobius Venture Capital.

Brad currently serves on the board of directors of Gnip, Oblong, and Zynga Game Network for Foundry Group. Previously, Brad served as chief technology officer of AmeriData Technologies. AmeriData acquired Feld Technologies, a firm he founded in 1987 that specialized in custom software applications. Brad had grown Feld Technologies into one of Boston's leading software consulting firms prior to the acquisition. He also directed the diversification into software consulting at AmeriData, a $1.5 billion publicly-traded company which was acquired by GE Capital in 1995.

Brad holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Brad is also an avid art collector and long-distance runner. He has completed thirteen marathons as part of his mission to run a marathon in each of the 50 states. Brad is a nationally recognized speaker on the topics of venture capital investing and entrepreneurship and writes widely read and well respected blogs at www.feld.com and www.askthevc.com.