Ian Hathaway

Ian Hathaway is an entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and writer, with expertise in startups, technology, and venture capital.  He has worked with global leading organizations to develop new products, shape competitive strategies, produce data-driven insights, and build high-performance teams.  Ian has built new ventures, worked with established companies to expand into new markets, and helped numerous entrepreneurs shape early ideas into viable businesses.

Ian has published for prominent research institutions, universities, businesses, and periodicals, and is co-author of The Startup Community Way, a book on entrepreneurial ecosystems published in July 2020.  His writing and views are regularly cited in leading press outlets, including The New York Times, The Economist, Financial Times, and many others.  He is a frequent contributor for outlets such as the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal.

Ian has advised organizations in the technology and media, startup and venture capital, financial and professional services, and non-profit and public policy sectors on a range of strategic, innovation, and analytical matters.  His clients have included large multinationals, high-growth startups, leading investors and service providers, prominent research institutions, and influential advocacy organizations, among others.

Currently, he leads the global ecosystems business at Techstars, which works with entrepreneurs, community leaders, and institutions around the world to support their path towards building better ecosystems.  Ian is an active startup advisor, mentor, and investor; a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution; and a board member at the Center for American Entrepreneurship.

Previously, Ian was an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank and World Trade Organization, lead innovation initiatives at Bloomberg and Frontier Economics, was an advisor or early employee in Silicon Valley venture-backed startups (successes and failures), founded and sold an analytics and economic advisory firm, and was an adjunct professor at New York University.  He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he studied economics and political economy.