Eric Koester was named the National Entrepreneurship Educator of the Year by USASBE in 2020.

Eric Koester is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and author. Professor Koester is a leading educator in the fields of technology innovation, corporate innovation, and startup creations, including as the former managing director and venture partner of Next Gen Venture Partners (NGVP), an early-stage venture fund, and as the founder and CEO of Manuscripts, a social venture providing community-powered writing and publishing programs named by Inc. Magazine as the #5 fastest-growing privately-held education company in 2021.

Key Highlights:

• Eric has spent much of his career building and funding companies, working with entrepreneurs, and writing and teaching around topics of customer discovery, lean, entrepreneurship, and innovation.
• Eric was previously the co-founder of Zaarly, a marketplace to locate local small businesses and service providers, named by Fast Company as one of the Fifty Most Innovative Companies in the World, and the founder of Main Street Genome, a technology startup developing data tools for the small business economy acquired in 2017.
• He has been an executive at Appature Inc., a cloud-based relationship marketing software company acquired by IMS in 2013.
• Eric founded Learn that Name, acquired by Blackberry in 2010; a top venture and securities lawyer for national law firm Cooley LLP; and was a founder/manager of other companies in the environmental consultancy and web development sectors.
• As an adjunct professor, he is Georgetown's only two-time Entrepreneurship Professor of the Year, was recognized as the National Entrepreneurship Professor of the Year in 2020 by USASBE, and has been named to multiple “40 under 40” lists.
• As an author, Eric has written several books on startups and technology, including Super Mentors (New Degree Press 2022), Pennymores (2022), Founder, JD (New Degree Press 2018), The Green Entrepreneur Handbook (CRC Press 2011), and Starting a High Tech Business Venture (Taylor & Francis 2010).
• Eric also devotes considerable time to building the startup community, including as a board member of UP Global and Startup Weekend and the DC co-chair of Enstitute.

Eric and his wife Allison have three daughters and live in Washington, DC.