Luis von Ahm is a strong role-model for entrepreneurs and is a champion for open education as a way of improving peoples’ lives. Von Ahm has a proven track record and the sale of his reCAPTCHA technology provides him with valuable insight on what acquisitions entail. von Ahm is different than the others in this forum since he is predominantly an academic whose research and educational work resulted in a viable product. Before researching entrepreneurs and founders for this forum, I assumed there was a strong distinction between the private and educational sectors, making it incredibly difficult to move from one to the other.
It has been refreshing to see founders that are able to do both or move into the private sector with their ventures. I think the experience of an accomplished educator matched with a leadership team that has extensive start-up experience, is absolutely necessary.