You have an idea for a business—maybe it’s your life-long passion, a project you’ve been working on nights/weekends, or something that just popped into your head. You are wondering whether it’s time to quit the “day job” and take your idea to the next level. What do you do next?
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That’s a common question. Could your idea truly make a good business—or should you look longer for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create the next Facebook. This session will be directed to the earliest stages of turning your idea, project or passion into a business.

Join us, on Thursday, July 19 (networking: 6:30pm – 7pm; program 7pm-9pm) for a program presented in collaboration with the Berklee College of Music and the ProArts Consortium, and learn how our panelists view the role and timing of marketing, sales and business development activities for the start-up.

Panelists

Nadeem Mazen, Co-Founder/Co-Owner, danger!awesome, CEO, Serious Business, LLC

Nadeem says that he has had the good fortune to fall into many of his passions: he has led education teams in innovative research, directed award-winning music videos, created commercial animations, programmed software, generated digital and interactive media for Discovery, Showtime, and CNN. His goal is to apply a large, disruptive budget to education reform, education technology, sustainable development, and scaling/disseminating powerful low-tech solutions for emerging markets.

For the present, though, Nadeem is a co-founder/co-owner of danger!awesome, a laser cutting and engraving studio, based in Central Square, Cambridge, that brings high-end fabrication equipment to the community. Nadeem is also the CEO of Serious Business, LLC, a design and consulting firm that works in strategy & interactive media, video production, web and graphic design, among others.

Arthur Ganson, Kinetic Sculptor

Arthur Ganson began making kinetic sculpture in 1977. Since receiving a BFA degree at the University of New Hampshire in 1978, his work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums in both the United States and Europe. He has held residencies at a number of institutions including the Exploratorium in San Francisco and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, where he has maintained an ongoing exhibition of his sculpture since 1995.

His work has been featured in numerous magazines, including Smithsonian Magazine and The New York Times Magazine. In 2005 his work was profiled on Nova: Science Now by WGBH television in Boston, and in 2003 where he appeared as an animated bear on the cartoon series Arthur. He has been a guest speaker at universities and conferences throughout the country, including the TED Conference in 2004 and the Long Now Foundation in 2010.

Besides making and exhibiting sculpture, he occasionally teaches classes in mechanics and wire bending. For the past 13 years he has been the ringleader of the MIT Museum’s Friday After Thanksgiving Chain Reaction, a community event in which families and students of all ages assemble a giant chain reaction. He is the inventor of the children’s toy Toobers and Zots.

Randall Levere, Owner/Founder, Erba Cycles

Randall is the founder and CEO of Erba Cycles, a Boston-based manufacturer of hand-built bicycles made from bamboo and natural fibers for city and comfort cruising. From the time he raced them as a child, Randall has had a passion for bicycles. His early business career began with stints in engineering and internet marketing. On a lark, Randall decided to try making a bicycle from bamboo—-mostly, as a night/weekend project—-having been impressed trial rides on bamboo bikes made by others. That project became a passion and, then, a business. Randall started Erba Cycles and has been making bamboo bikes, which sell worldwide for $2000 and up, at their South Boston facility since 2009.

Albert Reed, Founder & CEO, Demiurge Studios
Albert is the principal founder of Demiurge Studios and is now the Chief Executive Officer. In this role, Albert defines the studio’s product strategy and leads business development efforts. Demiurge Studios is an independent, bootstrapped, video game development house located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since its inception in 2002, the Demiurge Studios team has helped ship over twenty retail titles for PC, mobile devices, and every major console. Prior to founding Demiurge along with his co-founders, Tom Lin and Chris Linder, Albert was a programmer at Cognitoy and Iron Lore Entertainment.