Eric Koester

ERIC KOESTER is an entrepreneur who has traversed the world of startups and entrepreneurship -- launching numerous companies, investing in startups, advising companies and teaching hundreds of entrepreneurs annually. Today, much of his energy is focused on the intersection of innovation and people: founders, intrapreneurs, corporate innovation and human capital.

Eric is the founder and partner at Kingmaker Labs, a startup studio that explores, creates, builds, iterates and launches new projects, products and companies. You can see some of the projects from Kingmaker Labs throughout this site. He has also served as the Managing Director and a Venture Partner of NextGen Venture Partners, a network-driven venture capital firm investing in innovative early stage companies.

In 2016, Eric launched the Intrapreneur Institute, a new organization aiming to inspire, train and empower a million corporate intrapreneurs in the next decade. As the workforce has changed and millennials have become the largest group of employees, a need has emerged to reimagine a career that allows for innovation, creativity and autonomy -- a career Koester has dubbed the "Startup Career." You can learn more about intrapreneurs and the Certified Intrapreneur Professional (CIP) designation at www.IntrapreneurInstitute.com.

Eric loves to teach and share insights about startups, entrepreneurship, innovation, mentorship and creativity -- both as a professor at Georgetown University and through Founder Classes, an online learning platform for founders. The goal is to enable more founders and wantrapreneurs to pursue their dreams of starting something they love.

The Book Method was created by Eric as a new way to teach through the creation, publication and promotion of a book. In 2017, at least 16 students will complete the process and publish their work. For more information, contact me.

Eric previously served as a cofounder/founder of Zaarly.com, a home services marketplace named one of Fast Companies Fifty Most Innovative Companies in the World in 2012, Main Street Genome, a developer of data-driven technologies to aid small businesses in their purchasing acquired by Dining Alliance in 2015, cofounder of Learn That Name, a weekend project to help professionals remember their colleagues that was acquired by Blackboard (via it's subsidiary Gist) in 2010, and MEGO Consulting, an environmental consultancy.

The common thread across his career is the belief that innovation and entrepreneurship are innate traits within every human -- and a core impact to humanity when it fosters collaboration and connection.

Most importantly, Eric has learned how to be a kick ass dad to two young girls (Quinn & Parker), two pugs (Bailey & Riley) and a badass partner-in-crime/mom/professor Allison.