BUILDING A TEAM
This August 2009 photo shows the initial team that started Liquid Light Inc. in Monmouth Junc- tion, NJ: from left, Nety Krishna, Narayanappa Sivasankar, Andrew Bocarsly, Teamey, Emily Cole, Thomas Mallouk, Shaaban Elnaggar and Fouad Elnaggar. Teamey, Fouad Elnaggar and Krishna were all working at a venture capital firm when the group launched Liquid Light. The concept of commander’s intent transfers well to startups: defining a goal, but then letting collab- orators find their own way to achieve it. (Photo courtesy of LTC Kyle Teamey)
mission. Te system is also used to record and share meetings with religious lead- ers and encounters with local villagers or business owners.
TIGR was first introduced to users dur- ing a pre-deployment training exercise at Fort Hood, TX, in spring 2006. Fielding began in November 2007.
“Tat was my first taste of entrepreneur- ial activity,” said Teamey, who worked at least part time on the project from 2005 to 2009. But it was just a beginning. Even while he was still working on the DARPA project, he started to get involved in what would be a string of startups.
A useful tool of entrepreneurship that Teamey adapted from his military experience is the after- action review, which he said the military, particularly the Army, does better than any other organization he has ever worked for.
AND THEN, ‘SWITCH’ In 2006, he helped launch Switch LLC, an energy company specializing in elec- tric power generation primarily from wind, solar and biomass. About a year later, he left the company for another startup that he created with a group of friends from graduate school. Tat com- pany, Dunia Frontier Consultants, was in the field of finance, providing support to investors by gathering essential infor- mation on possible new investments and determining if they made sense in light of an investor’s goals.
Ten, in 2008, he joined a venture capital fund, Redpoint Ventures, as an entre- preneur-in-residence and, while working there, founded Liquid Light Inc., a chem- ical technology company with a vision to convert carbon dioxide to useful materi- als—“take something that has effectively no value and make chemicals and fuels out of it.”
“We devised multiple technologies for doing that,” Teamey said. “Te company grew to 25 people, and I have 18 issued patents out of that work.” Examples of materials that can be made from carbon dioxide using these technologies range from JP-8 (jet fuel) to superglue.
A STUDY IN LEADERSHIP It is no surprise to Teamey, who served on active duty for 6 1/2 years and now serves as the deputy G-3 for the Military Intelligence Readiness Command at Fort Belvoir, VA, to see friends in busi- ness school doing case studies on the military. Military leadership experience is particularly advantageous in starting up a company, he said.
“You could say the job of a military offi- cer is to create order out of chaos, and a startup company is chaos. It’s pure, unadulterated chaos. You have nothing but an idea, and you have to focus that into something that eventually creates tangible value.”
Many of the problem-solving methods
learned in the military are useful to a startup, Teamey said. “You know, things such as allowing initiative within a com- mander’s intent, right? Tat’s a very useful
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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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