Jules Pieri

Advisory Board Member

2024 - Current

Ada IQ is at the forefront of leveraging artificial intelligence to transform product design. By integrating AI-driven insights into the design process, Ada IQ empowers creators to develop products that not only meet but exceed consumer expectations. Ada IQ is a techstars_ ’24 company with funding and support from America’s Seed Fund (NSF), NVIDIA and Northeastern University.

Executive Fellow

2024

Entrepreneur in Residence

2014 - 2024

Investing Partner

2019

XFactor Ventures is looking for tenacious female founders and mixed-gender founding teams attacking billion-dollar market opportunities. With three funds and a portfolio of over 85 companies, we are one of the most active venture investors in companies founded by women. We invest $125k into pre-seed or seed stage rounds and provide advice, mentorship, and connections to help our companies succeed. The XFactor investing partners are current successful operators, collectively raising over $800M in capital, hiring thousands of employees, but they are still in the trenches every day.

President's Council Board Member

2023

Selected to represent the 600,000 UM alumni on this newly formed advisory board for the University's President, Santa Ono.

Board Member, Boston Design Vision

2023 - 2024

Member Of The Board Of Advisors

2021 - 2023

The board’s remit is to educate policy-makers on structural challenges to entrepreneurship.

Advisory Board Member

2022 - 2023

Board Member

2016 - 2021

Chair of Endowment, and Digital Transformation and Nominating Committees. Member of Facility, Membership, and Executive Advisory Committees.

Co-founder and CEO

2008 - 2020

The Grommet is a ground breaking platform to launch undiscovered products and help them succeed. The proof: we helped launch FitBit, GoldieBlox, Bombas, SodaStream, IdeaPaint, Food Should Taste Good, and Bananagrams. We consistently predicted the future big winners and leveled the playing field so the best products and companies--mostly from small businesses--could win. I led the company from inception to $60M in revenue and had full operational and P and L responsibility. The company's investors included prominent investors such as Peter Lynch and Gerry Laybourne. I also brought in two strategic investors: Rakuten and Ace Hardware. I am especially proud of my 100% CEO approval level from employees on GlassDoor. I established our corporate board in 2009 and recruited credible accomplished independent board members alongside investor representation.

President and COO

2006 - 2007

Ziggs.com was a social networking platform for professional people--a competitor to LinkedIn, actually. Joined the start-up company at a time when the business model needed revamping and expansion. Worked closely with the founder to reinvent the business model and led the team through the development and launch of an entirely new product. Ziggs was sold to Reputation.com in 2010