* Erik Heels – Startup Mentor

I am a startup generalist with experience in a wide range of fields: MIT EE graduate, coding, USAF student pilot, DoD acquisitions, Maine Law graduate, publishing, sales, marketing, product marketing, branding, founder, co-founder, patent law, trademark law, connector.

Erik Heels – Employee, Founder, Co-Founder

I’ve been an employee, founder, or co-founder of about a dozen startups, including:

	* Student Painters – ROLE: founder – YEARS: 1982-1983 (while in high school) – MARKET: house painting – RESULTS: advertised in local newspapers, painted in the am hours, played baseball in the pm hours
	* Au Bon Pain – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 1983-1984 (while in high school) – MARKET: French bakery cafe – RESULTS: IPOed, sold (after I left)
	* Bolt Beranek & Newman (BBN) Advanced Computer Inc. (ACI) – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 1988-1989 – MARKET: massively parallel computers – RESULTS: did not exit
	* Cayman Systems – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 1990-1990 – MARKET: GatorBox LocalTalk-to-Ethernet routers – RESULTS: did not exit
	* The Legal List – ROLE: founder – YEARS: 1992-1995 – MARKET: legal publisher – RESULTS: self-published 5 editions of my book “The Legal List” (which paid for law school) then sold the publishing rights to Lawyers Cooperative Publishing (which published 2 more editions) in 1995
	* Counterpoint Publishing – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 1995-1995 – MARKET: legal publisher – RESULTS: acquired by Lawyers Cooperative Publishing (before I started)
	* Counsel Connect – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 1995-1995 – MARKET: social network for lawyers – RESULTS: did not exit
	* Inherent.com – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 1996-1997 – MARKET: websites & more for lawyers – RESULTS: did not exit
	* RedStreet Consulting – ROLE: co-founder – YEARS: 1997-2001 – MARKET: Internet consultancy for the legal vertical – RESULTS: did not exit
	* Verio Inc. – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 1997-2001 – MARKET: Internet serviced provider (ISP) – RESULTS: IPOed, sold to NTT for $6 billion in 2000
	* GiantPeople LLC – ROLE: founder – YEARS: 1999-PRESENT – MARKET: everything that is NOT the practice of law – RESULTS: going concern
	* Bitpipe Inc. – ROLE: employee – YEARS: 2000-2001 – MARKET: white paper aggregator – RESULTS: acquired by TechTarget in 2004 (after I left)
	* Heels.com – ROLE: co-founder – YEARS: 2007-2008 – MARKET: shoe store for women – RESULTS: sold to my co-founder in 2008
	* Treehouse.red – ROLE: founder – YEARS: 2017-PRESENT – MARKET: networking group (#People and #Events for #Impact) – RESULTS: going concern

Clocktower Law – #Patents and #Trademarks for #Startups

Since 2001, hundreds of startup clients have been advised by Clocktower.

* Clocktower Law LLC
– ROLE: founder
– YEARS: 2001-PRESENT
– MARKET: patents and trademarks for startups
– RESULTS: going concern

Since 2001, over 40 of Clocktower’s startup clients have been acquired with exits valued at over $6 billion. Notable clients include:

	* KAYAK (IPOed, acquired by Priceline)
	* AppNexus (acquired by AT&T)
	* Right Media (acquired by Yahoo!)
	* Agile (acquired by Oracle)
	* Onshape (acquired by PTC)
	* Layer3 TV (acquired by T-Mobile)
	* Smarterer (acquired by Pluralsight)
	* Helium (acquired by RR Donnelley)
	* Unidesk (acquired by Citrix)
	* BzzAgent (acquired by Tesco’s Dunnhumby)