Who can you trust? Andrew Maxwell at TEDxUW

When entrepreneurs dream about the companies they'll start, there is a temptation to focus on the one idea that will change the world. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, the best ideas can fail if execution is not well thought out and implemented. Fortunately for today's crop of entrepreneurs, people like Dr. Andrew Maxwell are around to explain the science of entrepreneurship and help guide potential entrepreneurs through pitfalls they may face.
Maxwell is a bit of an old hand when it comes to launching technology based businesses. He has not only been involved in his own startups and worked with more than 100 early-stage tech startups, but has actively studied the startup process as part of his research -- incidentally receiving the Academy of Management's Heizer Award for his Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo on angel-investor decision-making. Maxwell has also advised governments on technology transfer, innovation and entrepreneurship, helped establish the Exceler@tor, the University of Toronto's technology incubator, as well as VentureStart, a FedDev funded program, to train and fund 200 companies in southern Ontario.
Andrew is an Associate Professor at Temple University's Fox School of Business, where he is cross appointed with the College of Engineering. He is also Chief Innovation Officer at the Canadian Innovation Centre in Waterloo. He continues to explore his passion for technology entrepreneurship, and innovation management, developing resources to help entrepreneurs and innovators reduce the likelihood of failure.
Maxwell remains fascinated with innovation and has made it his life's mission to study and share insights that help turn ideas into reality, investigating how individuals look at the risk of forming new relationships in particular. "It's interesting that entrepreneurs and leaders must work with others to implement their innovative ideas," he says, "and yet we spend little time teaching people to decide how to develop relationships, or with whom, something that would be useful at work and in your personal life." Andrew hopes the insights he'll share at TEDxUW will help each attendee make the most of any opportunity they see, and each relationship they might develop.
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In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)