Align  passion  with  profession.  Join  a  startup

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So, what is this Startup Institute?

Startup Institute works with professionals, career changers, and dynamic individuals to equip them with the skills needed to have an immediate impact on the startup company they join. Our primary objective is to align passion with profession, and usher students into a life they love.

Startup Institute is a full-time, immersive, eight-week experience that will catapult you into your city's technology ecosystem in the areas of web development, product & design, technical marketing, or sales & business development.

We are here to help solve the huge challenge startups are facing in recruiting, training, and retaining talent. Many early hires are ill-prepared for the unique, fast-paced nature of the startup working environment. We believe our schools will help remove the hiring burden for top-performing growth companies that need highly-qualified talent to contribute to their product delivery from the moment they join the team.

We also offer RampUp - a part-time, community driven, hybrid learning experience which teaches in demand skills to individuals looking to advance at work or just learn something new.

Meet The Team

Who’s behind Startup Institute? We are!

Aaron O'Hearn

Co-Founder and CEO

Aaron is responsible for the growth and oversight of Startup Institute Boston and has held key roles across various organizations impacting the startup ecosystem including Head of Special Projects for TechStars Boston. He helped create Le Camping, the first startup accelerator in France where he focused on building their mentorship and evaluation programs.

@Aaron0
aaron@startupinstitute.com

Shaun Johnson

Co-Founder and COO/Dean

Shaun is responsible for strategy and operations at Startup Institute Boston. His mixed background in athletics, acting, and consulting sets a unique culture, which results in a competitive and collaborative environment where intelligence and improv conquers all challenges.

@idealexit
shaun@startupinstitute.com

Will Eaton

Director of Instructor Development

Will is responsible for helping instructors mold their incredible experiences into engaging, experiential lessons. He was a tenth grade math teacher for Teach For America at the Denver School of Science and Technology. He led his students to outperform the Denver region on state assessment in both growth and overall performance.

@wkeato
will@startupinstitute.com

Christina Wallace

Director, New York

Christina is responsible for launching the New York campus of Startup Institute. She has an eclectic background with experience ranging from classical music, acting, and arts management to management consulting and entrepreneurship. Most recently Christina was the founding CEO of Quincy, a vertically integrated ecommerce brand based in NYC, and experienced first-hand the difficulties of finding top talent prepared to the hit the ground running in a startup environment.

@cmwalla
christina@startupinstitute.com

Kailey Raymond

Program Manager

Kailey is responsible for building relationships with partners of Startup Institute Boston. She enjoys connecting the most innovative companies in Boston with the amazing talent pool at SIB. Leading the charge on student engagement both inside and outside of the program to promote the unique SIB culture, Kailey ensures that students become integral members of the Boston startup community and tech ecosystem.

@kaileyraymond
kailey@startupinstitute.com

Jeremy Carter

Head of Program Design and Operations

Jeremy is responsible for overseeing operations and designing the experience of Startup Institute Boston. He is driven to create meaningful change, encourage personal ambition, and to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. His background in design, music and art culminated in the launch of his own business, Carter Custom Instruments, where he constructs high quality musical instruments for professional artists.

@ccimediums
jeremy@startupinstitute.com

Will Fleiss

Director of Marketing and Communications

Will is responsible for all marketing and communications at Startup Institute. Before joining SI, he spent three years as a senior member of Knewton's marketing team, leading content and aquisition efforts as the company grew from 30 to 90 employees. Prior to joining the startup world, Will lead search marketing offerings on the agency side at BKV, Ogilvy, and Converseon. Making the jump to a startup was the best career decision he ever made, and he's always happy to lend an ear to anyone considering the same move.

@willfleiss
willf@startupinstitute.com

Brian Dant

Web Developer

Brian writes code, and works with the team to turn business vision a technical reality. He's a big fan of our "Dev Track", and works closely with students. He likes Vim, Python, and Django (ssshhh... don't tell our Rails students). When's Brian isn't thinking about code, he's in the programming community gaining and sharing knowledge with other coders. He's currently organizing Code Mentors Boston and Code Raising, TMing for RampUp, and working on an Open Source project with the Open Concept Lab.

@briandant
brian@startupinstitute.com

Paul Northup

Front-End Developer

Paul is the front-end developer at Startup Institute. After three years doing front-end for Bentley University, Paul joined Startup Institute with experience in front-end scalability and dev organization. Outside of the office, he can be found snowboarding, slacklining, or in the woods of Vermont.

@paulnorthup
paul@startupinstitute.com

Advisors

Katie Rae

Co-Founder and Chairperson

Katie acts as an advisor to the SIB team, mentor to the students and graduates, and moonlights as an amazing communication and team dynamics speaker during crosstrack sessions. She is the Managing Director of TechStars Boston and a founder of Project 11, a firm that invests in and assists early-stage startups. She has also been active as an educator, teaching a course with SIB co-founder Reed Sturtevant on entrepreneurship at the MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Reed Sturtevant

Co-Founder

Reed acts as an advisor to the SIB team, mentor to the students and graduates, and is a soft-spoken grounding force on all topics related to venture capital and where SIB students fit into startup organizations. He is a founder of Project 11 and a co-instructor with Katie Rae at MIT's Sloan School of Management. Reed was the founding Director of Microsoft Startup Labs and before that was CTO of EONS, Inc., Managing Director and VP of Technology for Idealab (which founded several companies including Picasa and Compete), and co-founder of Radnet and RadioAMP.

Mark L. Chang

Advisor and Academic Architect

Mark was the first architect of our academics and provides strategic vision for Startup Institute. His passion for higher education, entrepreneurship, and innovation have helped to make Startup Institute what it is today. He is serving as Director of Product at edX, was formerly professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and hails from the University of Washington, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins. Mark is humbled by his colleagues and wants all young people to do startups.

Richard Banfield

Advisor

Richard is CEO of Fresh Tilled Soil, a leading user interface design firm based in Boston, MA. Richard's global experience in web-based technology, design and marketing businesses provides him with the necessary insight into providing high-return UI/UX solutions for Fresh Tilled Soil's client base. The company has delivered design and marketing solutions to over 300 clients across several industries since the start of 2005. Clients range from Fortune 500 and public companies like Microsoft, GE Healthcare, and EnerNOC, to top brands like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Ritz-Carlton, Viacord, Harvard University, MIT, Boston University, Communispace, Innosight and dozens of startups and emerging businesses like HubSpot, Vertica, BlueLeaf and hundreds more.