Sign up here to get the latest news, updates and
special offers delivered directly to your inbox.
I started Idealab with a dream to make something like a modern version of Thomas Edison’s Lab where we could test ideas under one roof and then spin them off into separate companies. These companies would have their own management teams and their own equity pools, while at the same time benefitting from shared experiences and resources.
With lots of help from so many great people, my dream became a reality. We have come up with more than 5,000 ideas, started more than 150 companies, and had more than 50 successful IPO’s and acquisitions. We are most proud that we created more than 10,000 jobs and thousands of new entrepreneurs.
We learned lots of lessons - some great and some painful - and it’s my honor to share them with you here. If even one tiny bit of one of these lessons can help you be more successful, that would make me so happy. I love entrepreneurship, and hope that our lessons can help more companies and entrepreneurs to be successful and change the world in a positive way.
I am so grateful to all the people who helped me make the Idealab “experiment” work for these 25 years.
Sincerely,
Chairman and Founder,
Idealab
I am Bill Gross and I started Idealab 25 years ago.
It's been a long entrepreneurial journey for me. I have been an entrepreneur all my life. I was selling
candy at the bus stop when I was in junior high school, I was making solar devices in high school in a mail-order business, I made loudspeakers in college to pay my way through. After college, I started software
companies.
And finally, I had so much fun being an entrepreneur, and I had so many ideas ..rather than being a serial
entrepreneur I wanted to become a “parallel” entrepreneur. So I started Idealab to do exactly that.
Under one roof we could house multiple companies and I could have ideas in many, many different
areas.
Over the last 25 years, we've had many ups and downs and we started more than 150 companies and we
have had more than 50 successful IPOs and acquisitions.
But most of all, I had many lessons learned. That's exactly what I'd like to share.
25 lessons from 25 years of starting companies. If any of these lessons learned could be helpful to you in your business or
improve your success, that would make me feel really, really great.
Bill Gross discusses his entrepreneurial journey to solve climate change
SALT Voices: Bill Gross | Founder & Chairman, Idealab
Ground-breaking solar technologies and why clean technology is a trillion dollar opportunity
Bill's talk on the single biggest reason why startups succeed
Bill speaks about regulation designed to foster technology-driven growth
An informative and inspiring talk on innovation and starting companies
I started Idealab with a dream to make something like a modern version of Thomas Edison’s Lab where we could test ideas under one roof and then spin them off into separate companies. These companies would have their own management teams and their own equity pools, while at the same time benefitting from shared experiences and resources.
With lots of help from so many great people, my dream became a reality. We have come up with more than 5,000 ideas, started more than 150 companies, and had more than 50 successful IPO’s and acquisitions. We are most proud that we created more than 10,000 jobs and thousands of new entrepreneurs.
We learned lots of lessons - some great and some painful - and it’s my honor to share them with you here. If even one tiny bit of one of these lessons can help you be more successful, that would make me so happy. I love entrepreneurship, and hope that our lessons can help more companies and entrepreneurs to be successful and change the world in a positive way.
I am so grateful to all the people who helped me make the Idealab “experiment” work for these 25 years.
Sincerely,
Chairman and Founder,
Idealab
