Brian Ardinger has left Nanonation, and this was his first day on the job as an advisor at a tech business accelerator.
“I’m starting a new gig as the new “Entrepreneur in Residence” at NUtech Ventures,” Brian told me in an email. “NUtech is the technology transfer arm of University of Nebraska. They’re trying to make a bigger play in getting actual startups spun out of the University rather than just licensing patents and technologies. Looking forward to working in the startup ecosystem here and trying to get some new things going.”
The program will be led by Brian Ardinger and NUtech Fellow Luke Smith. The two will work with university inventors to refine a business model, conduct market research and prepare startups for investor pitches.
This is a little bit of Brian going back to his roots. Prior to joining Nanonation, he was head of research at Ion Global, a Hong Kong headquartered technology firm where he developed Asia’s first dedicated customer experience lab.
He was also a Senior Consultant with Gartner, based in Silicon Valley and charged with implementing strategy and research for multinationals around the world and managed projects in industries ranging from software to telecommunications. He got his Bachelors degree in Marketing from the University of Nebraska at Omaha (and later an MBA from Penn State).
Ardinger is hooked up with NUtech for at least a year, but has a day a week to focus on consulting work, new ventures and one of his passions – a business accelerator/networking group called The Big Plate.
That’s going to be tough news around Nano’s Lincoln, Nebraska offices. Ardinger is by a big margin the best known person at Nanonation, and had a high industry profile via his being president (now past prez) of the Digital Screenmedia Association. Optically, it doesn’t help that Brian’s departure is less than three months after founder Bradley Walker left the firm.
Very nice, very sharp guy. Sorry to see Brian leaving the sector, but technology moves so fast and is so steadily interesting that it’s hard to keep bright people excited about the same old thing for too, too long.
These are his new coordinates:
Email: brian at thebigplate.com
Twitter: @ardinger or @TheBigPlate
Web: www.thebigplate.com
Mobile: 402-770-9567