Bailey Kane Takes The Reins
Meet IDEA’s new CEO.
It is with great pleasure that we announce the incoming 2018–2019 Altschuler-Meyer IDEA CEO, Bailey Kane, who is no stranger to Mosaic, the group of student-led organizations which support the Northeastern Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.
What are some of your past experiences at Northeastern?
Over the past few years at Northeastern, my primary involvement has been within the Mosaic entrepreneurship community. I began by working as a work study employee at The Sherman Center. This was a great introduction into bridging the gap between my degree in computer science and computer engineering with my personal interests in entrepreneurship. From this involvement, I was able to co-found Generate, the Northeastern product development studio, with my best friend, Mina Iskarous. We spent about two years on the management team laying out the vision and processes to ensure the organization’s success in the future. Around the same time we started this, I was fortunate enough to start working with the IDEA Prototype Fund, a wonderful and underutilized resource. After spending a semester improving the program, I moved onto the IDEA Investment Committee to begin injecting product thinking into the investment analysis process. About a year ago, I left campus to spend two months working as an investment associate at a private equity firm in NYC, and six months as a software quality assurance engineer at a medical device company in San Francisco. Other highlights: Husky Hunt, the Underwear Run, and spending spring break trips in Dubai, Houston, and Silicon Valley.
Why were you drawn to IDEA?
Growing up, I watched my dad go back to school to start his own auto repair shop. He had spent his prior years working under other people only to realize that he had greater potential as a leader, and had the opportunity to make an impact in our quaint New Hampshire town. About 15 years later, his business is thriving and supporting our local community. This is my inspiration and my mission as an entrepreneur — to take advantage of my own skills and potential to support those around me, and to push them to achieve greatness in their own endeavors. While I have yet to identify my own venture opportunity, working with IDEA to empower those around me to pursue their own goals is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I’ve spent the past few years learning about organizational development, venture operations, and leadership, and hope that I can use these experiences to make IDEA better than it’s ever been before. Someday in the future, I look forward to running my own company and working with my peers toward our shared goals.
Plans as CEO?
As a technical student, my involvement with IDEA may appear surprising. This should not be the case. There is nothing inherently different about the capability of people from different backgrounds to find success in starting a business, becoming leaders, or otherwise participating in entrepreneurship. Over the next year I plan to improve the relationships we have with students in communities that we as an organization are less familiar with. There is exciting potential for a room of interdisciplinary students to change the world, and I hope to further enable that at Northeastern.
Most excited about?
On a somewhat selfish note, I am incredibly excited to be back in the Mosaic ecosystem. I’ve spent the better part of my college career building relationships with students and faculty working in this community, and it’s great to be able to learn further from them. Similarly, I deeply care about the IDEA program and the mission behind it. Working in an organization that values education, proactive efforts, and a drive to change the world is a dream situation. Looking back on what I’ve already been able to learn here, I hope to create equally valuable experiences for the next set of leaders and team members over this next year. I’ll be learning about leadership and community building along the way to make it happen.
