E21: Rick Plaut | From Intrapreneur to Entrepreneur - How to Be Innovative in Any Environment

Starting It Up

Rick Plaut is an intrapreneur turned entrepreneur and startup advisor. He began and spent the bulk of his career in sales and marketing where he was always finding ways to improve how things were getting done - Rick didn’t know it at the time, but he was something called an Intrapreneur (an entrepreneur within an organization). Eventually, Rick discovered the startup ecosystem through an angel investing group and began making investments in startups and taking on mentorship and teaching roles at organizations like Valley Venture Mentors (VVM), Smith College, and UMass Amherst (where we met in his Intro to Entrepreneurship class). Rick has also co-founded numerous ventures like his current one, Launch 413, a virtual C-suite for scaling startups comprised of executives from Fortune 500 companies and successfully exited startups. We talk about how to develop an innovation-drive mindset, why entrepreneurship is so important to Western Massachusetts (Pioneer Valley), how anyone can apply this entreprenuerial thought process to their life, and more!