Teaching Team

Jerry Engel (teaching team’s coach) is a seasoned veteran of Silicon Valley – both as a venture capitalist and a visionary thought leader in the Lean Startup movement. Engel co-founded Monitor Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology companies. In his role as a venture capitalist, Engel served on the board of a number of emerging companies that had successful exits, including Maxis (acquired by EA) and Transoft (acquired by HP).

In addition to being an active investor, Engel is an adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley. He founded Berkeley’s Lester Center for Entrepreneurship, where he teaches Entrepreneurship, Venture Financing, Innovation, and Private Equity. Engel collaborated closely with Steve Blank to develop the Lean LaunchPad, which is now the foundation of nationally recognized entrepreneurship programs at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps program. Engel has trained thousands of entrepreneurs, students and faculty on leveraging Lean Startup to build global companies.