Mike O'Donnell Biography
mike.l.odonnell@gmail.com

Entrepreneurial Experience

In addition to having started and sold several companies, Mike O'Donnell has been assisting early stage ventures for more than 25 years. Mike frequently teams up with independent consultants, private firms and public agencies to help launch new products and services. Mike's expertise includes business planning, marketing strategies, Internet business models and raising capital. He is the author of several best selling books on business planning and marketing planning, and has served as a faculty member of the U.S. Commercialization Planning Workshop and Chairman of the U.S. Dept. of Energy's National Innovation Workshop.

O'Donnell has raised more than $50 million for new ventures. He was one of the first entrepreneurs funded by Garage.com, and is a graduate of the first Garage.com "Boot camp for Startups." He has been a presenter at VentureNet, VentureOne, AEA Venture, NW Venture Group, WSA Ventures, The Perfect Venture Conference, the SIIA Venture Conference, RHP Visibility Conference, and NWEN's Entrepreneur University. Mike has appeared twice on the nationally syndicated TV show, MoneyHunt. In 2009, O'Donnell was selected to pitch his company to the Northwest and Bay Area Keiretsu Forums chapters.

O'Donnell has been a judge for the annual business plan competition at the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, University of Washington Business School. He is a graduate of Woods Creek Consulting and SmartStarter's CEO workshop. He is on the board of advisors of The Center for Innovation at UND. O'Donnell has served as a mentor to members of the Seattle chapter of Future Woman Entrepreneurs and the Washington CASH program.

In 2008, O'Donnell attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Growing Companies (EPGC).

Venture Experience

Mike O'Donnell started his high-tech career in 1983 as a co-founder of one of the first high-speed electronic service bureaus in the United States. In 1985, he founded Ask Me Multimedia Systems, where he served as its president and CEO for 10 years. Under O'Donnell's direction, Ask Me pioneered some of the first multimedia kiosks, authoring software and presentation programs. In 1991, Ask Me Multimedia received the prestigious, National Small Business Innovation Award from Nations Business Magazine and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

After selling Ask Me Multimedia in 1995 to publicly-traded Midisoft, O'Donnell embraced the Internet revolution and joined CompuServe as a key executive. While at CompuServe, O'Donnell led the team that launched  SPRYNET, CompuServe's Internet Services Division, and introduced CompuServe's Private Label Community service offering, building Web sites for large corporations. During his tenure, SPRYNET was selected by PC Magazine as the `Best Internet Service Provider' in the country.

In 1996, O'Donnell joined Design Intelligence as Director of Electronic Commerce. At Design Intelligence, O'Donnell was the chief architect of the corporate Web site and built iPublishLIVE, an online publishing resource for people who create their own documents and Web pages. Design Intelligence was subsequently acquired by Microsoft.

In 1997, Mike founded StartUPbiz.com, one of the first Internet-based services organized to assist aspiring entrepreneurs. Since that time, StartUPbiz has helped to start more than 25,000 new businesses and helped countless aspiring entrepreneurs.

In 1998, Mike founded iCopyright to address the problem of online pirating of intellectual property. He wrote the business plan, raised over $25 million, designed the product and recruited the board and management team.

In 2001 and 2005, iCopyright won a CODiE, the industry's highest award for Best Digital Rights Management Solution.  While at iCopyright, O'Donnell launched Clip&Copy, a news alerts and press clippings service; ©reators, a licensing service for user-generated content, and Discovery, a content monitoring and infringement detection service. 

In 2008, 2009 and 2010, iCopyright was named by eContent Magazine as one of the 100 Companies that Matter Most in the Digital Content Industry. In 2008, iCopyright was voted The Top Emerging Company in America by venture capitalists and angel investors of FundingPost.com.

Industry Leadership & Publications

O'Donnell has served as Chairman of the Software & Information Industry Association's committee on Internet Marketing & Business Models; as Chairman of the e-Business Division; and as a board member of the SIIA Content Division.  He is the primary author of, "ESD & The Electronic Commerce Value-Chain: Trends & Implications for the Software Industry," and "A New Model for Publishing on the Internet." He is also the author of two white papers on publisher business models: Article Tools: Maximizing Revenue and Minimizing Piracy of Content on the Web and A Vision for Copyright in the 21st Century.

O'Donnell has also served as Chairman of the Board for the Northwest Entrepreneur Network.

Personal Background & References

When Mike is not launching new companies, he is on a personal adventure, or sharing one with family and friends. He is an avid skier, diver and motorcycle enthusiast. Mike is married and has three children. He resides in the Seattle, WA area. Mike can be reached at 425-557-9439, or mike (at) startupbiz.com, or mike.l.odonnell@gmail.com.

Mike's personal and professional references are posted on Linkedin:

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