John Geraci

Class of 2005

Headshot of John Geraci

John co-founded and was head of product for New York-based hyperlocal blogging startup Outside.in, launched in 2006 and acquired by AOL in 2011.  From 2013 to 2015 he was Director of New Products at the New York Times, where he launched new products and helped the organization refine its strategy for innovation and growth.  He has written for Harvard Business Review, O’Reilly Radar, and TechCrunch.  He is currently Entrepreneur in Residence for Parliament, an action-oriented community for exceptional entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 leaders, artists and authors to connect, discover and invent the future of business.

What are you working on?  

Entrepreneur in Residence for Parliament, a gathering of Senior Execs at big companies, entrepreneurs and best-selling authors to meet, exchange ideas and build stuff together.  It's a new company, we're just getting it off the ground, it's a lot of fun.

Also, working with Ian Curry and Cory Forsyth, this: http://thisismomentous.com/ which is also a lot of fun, but is a bit challenging right now as we're all very busy with other stuff.  We're currently working on a service that would let musicians/performers get "backed" by live audiences, to help them carve out a living from their music. (If you're interested let us know!)

What are you excited by? What do you want to brag to us about?  

I'm excited by both of those things above.  Also excited about this piece I just published in Harvard Business Review.

How do you find your degree relates to what you're working on now? 

I am going to try to do more ITP-ish things this year.  I got into a space in work over the last several years where I was surrounded by people with MBAs, and I've decided that's a bad situation for an ITP'er to find him or herself in.  You can't win in that situation.  You need to seek out opportunities where having the *MPS* BEATS OUT having the MBA.  So that's what I'm pursuing.  I think my current role it relates highly.  We'll see.