Chuck Sacco, MBA, is a technology entrepreneur, educator, advisor, and public speaker. His career includes a track record of launching and growing businesses in the fields of enterprise software, business process management, and mobile applications. He has been central to multiple new ventures, as founder, co-founder, and early team member. Chuck works closely with many founders, advising them on strategy, fundraising, pitch deck development, and team building.
At Drexel University, Chuck’s passion is to help students and alums develop their new ventures, creating pathways for them to leverage the educational capabilities and entrepreneurial support resources that are uniquely Drexel. Chuck is an advisory board member at the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship Philadelphia, is a Venture for America Regional Advisory Board Member, is a founding member of the Philadelphia Regional Entrepreneurship Education Consortium, is a Fulbright Specialist, is an editor for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Exchange and is a board member for the Private Investor Forum which runs the Angel Venture Fair in Philadelphia. Chuck also co-chaired the USASBE 2017 conference in Philadelphia.
Question: How did you get into entrepreneurship education? What was your path?
I started teaching as an adjunct in Drexel’s LeBow College of Business in 2010 at the invitation of Dr. Donna De Carolis. I was working at that time on a technology startup housed in Drexel’s entrepreneurship incubator, the Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship. I started that business while working on my MBA at Drexel so the world of entrepreneurship at Drexel was very much at the center of how things got going for me on the educational front. Then, in early 2013, I received a text message from Donna who was appointed as the inaugural dean of the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship at Drexel. Her message was “Let’s talk!”. I had continued my adjunct work for her with a few courses a year and I was continually improving my teaching skills and learning about the word of higher education while also forging ahead with the startup. Donna invited me that summer to take on a role initially as Entrepreneur in Residence and I joined the school’s founding team while wrapping up and exiting from the startup (a long story in and of itself). I eventually took on the role of Assistant Dean of Strategic Initiatives for the Close School and Executive Director of the Baiada Institute which ironically I was a resident in, so I hopefully know something about how to make a university incubator work well for its students and other constituents.
Question: What is your favorite class to teach and why?
I’ve had the opportunity to help create and deliver many courses since the Close School was launched in 2013. Being an entrepreneur, it has been incredible to be able to focus on building new things. My favorite class to teach currently is Early Stage Venture Funding. I approach it as a journey for the students, taking them from founding to exit with many interactive exercises, investors as guest speakers, case studies, and more covering the trajectory a startup goes through. We also look at quite a lot of data regarding angel investing and venture capital. It’s all things I wish I knew before starting a new business.
Question: What does your research focus on and how does it inform your teaching?
While I’m not a researcher, I’ve had the pleasure of working on and publishing case studies, experiential exercises, and other teaching instruments. I also have had the great pleasure of learning about the research side of things and how that helps to inform so much of what we teach. I enjoy the rigor and data aspects of research and have really come to appreciate its importance in the field of entrepreneurship, which sometimes has the reputation of going on instinct and experience as opposed to be data-driven.
Question: How has USASBE membership benefited you?
USASBE membership has been a game-changer for me. Having come from industry it’s hard to appreciate all that goes into the higher education space. I’ve had to learn so much about education and specifically entrepreneurship education. Going from being an adjunct to a full-time staff member with teaching responsibilities has been a significant undertaking and being part of USASBE has helped me in so many ways including teaching skills, center management skills and resources, professional connections, and more. I enjoy every conference and learn considerably from each. It has also been great to take advantage of some of the year-round programming and continue to tap into great resources that USASBE has to offer.
Question: Describe a time when you have had to be nimble or quick on your feet. How did this impact your way of thinking?
I was co-chair of the 2017 USASBE conference in Philadelphia. Talk about having to be nimble. While I’ve organized many programs and events over the years, helping to take on a big education conference required an incredible amount of effort, especially as I was still learning about higher education. The entire process was about being nimble and in the end, we had a great conference (fortunately no snow, thank goodness). Working on that conference game me a great deal of confidence that you can take on things you don’t know much about but you do have to surround yourself with people that have the knowledge and skills to help make something big happen.
Question: What has been a pivotal moment in your career?
Getting my MBA at Drexel. I had a great mentor at the time who basically said “you’ve been talking about getting an MBA for years, just get it done”. I had come through the first part of my career in several technology startups and running various business units in established companies. But I ended up in a company that was plateauing (actually the company that had acquired my first startup) and was getting somewhat lost career-wise and wasn’t sure what to do next. So I went to Drexel, and everything else over the past 15 years is history as they say. That included starting another company, incubating on campus, adjunct teaching, and eventually where I am now with an amazing team at the Close School. I’m also a proud Drexel parent with my daughter minoring in entrepreneurship while also working on the founding team of a startup incubating with us!
Question: We love ending these with a personal tidbit. Can you share a fun fact about yourself? Something that makes you unique or something that would surprise those who don’t know you well?
I was an extra in a movie called “The Best and the Brightest” starring Neil Patrick Harris and several other prominent actors. Most of the filming was done in Philadelphia and my wife and I were invited through a connection to be extras in one of the final scenes of the movie. It was a 12-hour day for a three-minute scene, and fortunately, I didn’t end up on the cutting floor and am pretty visible for much of that scene.
