After spending 20 years in multiple roles at one of the region's leading startup investment firms, Jim Jen has announced he'll be stepping down from his post as the chief operating officer at Innovation Works Inc. in pursuit of his "next journey."
In a post shared on his Medium account, Jen alluded to author Brad Feld's book "Startup Communities" as part of a reference to a 20-year journey that is required to build and better understand the vision of a startup community.
Having accomplished much of that throughout his tenure, first as a portfolio executive and then as an executive director of IW's nationally recognized AlphaLab startup accelerator before landing the COO post, Jen told Pittsburgh Inno that he's proud of the work he's done during his time at the North Side-based organization. He also said he's received an outpouring of support from the local startup community and its entrepreneurs since he posted his plans to step away from the organization on Wednesday.
"We've always wanted to focus on building the community through the entrepreneurs; their heartfelt emotions mean a lot to me," Jen said. "I'm thankful that IW has given me a chance to have this opportunity to build these accelerator programs to benefit our entrepreneur community."
Jen served an influential role in crafting the launch of the AlphaLab startup accelerator, which has gone on to incubate and invest in dozens of local tech software startups over the more than 10 years it has been in operation. Its origins led to the spawning of AlphaLab Gear, which focuses on helping hardware-focused startups obtain commercial viability.
But Jen said he's most proud of the impact he, and IW more broadly, has had on the region over the past two decades as a result of the hundreds of early-stage investments the organization has made during that time into these budding companies.
This isn't retirement, Jen said, and he's looking forward to taking some time to catch up with people who he spent time with for a while. There's also an upcoming college tour to go on with his daughter and he's excited to finish building a website for a fantasy baseball league he started back in college. He also knows he'll be staying in Pittsburgh and has plans to remain involved with the region's startup community and hopes to get involved in other ways beyond the tech scene.
IW said it is not ready to announce its plans to name a successor to take over Jen's role at this time.
