* Erik Heels – Startup Mentor

I am a startup generalist with experience in a wide range of fields: MIT EE graduate, coding, USAF student pilot, DoD acquisitions, Maine Law graduate, publishing, sales, marketing, product marketing, branding, founder, co-founder, patent law, trademark law, connector.

Erik Heels – Employee, Founder, Co-Founder


I’ve been an employee, founder, or co-founder of about a dozen startups, including:

* Student Painters
– ROLE: founder
– YEARS: 1982-1983 (while in high school)
– MARKET: house painting
– RESULTS: advertised in local newspapers, painted in the am hours, played baseball in the pm hours

* Au Bon Pain
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 1983-1984 (while in high school)
– MARKET: French bakery cafe
– RESULTS: IPOed, sold (after I left)

* Bolt Beranek & Newman (BBN) Advanced Computer Inc. (ACI)
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 1988-1989
– MARKET: massively parallel computers
– RESULTS: did not exit

* Cayman Systems
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 1990-1990
– MARKET: GatorBox LocalTalk-to-Ethernet routers
– RESULTS: did not exit

* The Legal List
– ROLE: founder
– YEARS: 1992-1995
– MARKET: legal publisher
– RESULTS: self-published 5 editions of my book “The Legal List” (which paid for law school) then sold the publishing rights to Lawyers Cooperative Publishing (which published 2 more editions) in 1995

* Counterpoint Publishing
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 1995-1995
– MARKET: legal publisher
– RESULTS: acquired by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing (before I started)

* Counsel Connect
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 1995-1995
– MARKET: social network for lawyers
– RESULTS: did not exit

* Inherent.com
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 1996-1997
– MARKET: websites & more for lawyers
– RESULTS: did not exit

* RedStreet Consulting
– ROLE: co-founder
– YEARS: 1997-2001
– MARKET: Internet consultancy for the legal vertical
– RESULTS: did not exit

* Verio Inc.
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 1997-2001
– MARKET: Internet serviced provider (ISP)
– RESULTS: IPOed, sold to NTT for $6 billion in 2000

GiantPeople treehouse logo.

* GiantPeople LLC
– ROLE: founder
– YEARS: 1999-PRESENT
– MARKET: everything that is NOT the practice of law
– RESULTS: going concern

* Bitpipe Inc.
– ROLE: employee
– YEARS: 2000-2001
– MARKET: white paper aggregator
– RESULTS: acquired by TechTarget in 2004 (after I left)

* Heels.com
– ROLE: co-founder
– YEARS: 2007-2008
– MARKET: shoe store for women
– RESULTS: sold to my co-founder in 2008

* Treehouse.red
– ROLE: founder
– YEARS: 2017-PRESENT
– MARKET: networking group (#People and #Events for #Impact)
– RESULTS: going concern

Clocktower Law – #Patents and #Trademarks for #Startups


Since 2001, hundreds of startup clients have been advised by Clocktower.

Clocktower Law logo

* Clocktower Law LLC
– ROLE: founder
– YEARS: 2001-PRESENT
– MARKET: patents and trademarks for startups
– RESULTS: going concern

Since 2001, over 40 of Clocktower’s startup clients have been acquired with exits valued at over $6 billion. Notable clients include:

* KAYAK (IPOed, acquired by Priceline)

* AppNexus (acquired by AT&T)

* Right Media (acquired by Yahoo!)

* Agile (acquired by Oracle)

* Onshape (acquired by PTC)

* Layer3 TV (acquired by T-Mobile)

* Smarterer (acquired by Pluralsight)

* Helium (acquired by RR Donnelley)

* Unidesk (acquired by Citrix)

* BzzAgent (acquired by Tesco’s Dunnhumby)

Startup Accelerators


Since 2017, I’ve been mentoring for various startup accelerators, including:

* MassChallenge

* TechStars

* gener8tor

Many Hats


I am a startup generalist with experience in a wide range of fields: MIT EE graduate, coding, USAF student pilot, DoD acquisitions, Maine Law graduate, publishing, sales, marketing, product marketing, branding, founder, co-founder, patent law, trademark law, connector.

I have many interests, have many irons in the fire, and wear many hats. My current signature attempt to summarize all of this:

Best,
Erik

Erik J. Heels (he/him) <heels@alum.mit.edu>
17 Forest Rd., Acton MA 01720-4508
text: 978-761-7808 | voicemail: 978-263-0400
Clocktower: #Patents and #Trademarks for #Startups
GiantPeople: Technology, Law, Baseball, and Rock ‘n’ Roll
Treehouse: #People and #Events for #Impact
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P.S. Thanks for making it to the end.

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