About Us
Startup.com was originally created as a virtual incubator by Gene Pettinelli and Norton Greenfeld.
Gene has been in new venture formation and operations as a founder, officer and general partner focusing on entrepreneurial companies in software, telecommunications, information processing, and other related high technology areas.
Gene holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering with High Distinction from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Norton has been in the information processing industry in research and development, company formation and product development, strategic market research and management consulting. He was also a regular columnist analyzing industry trends for Unix Review magazine, an irregular writer for such industry publications as PC Week and Computerworld, and publisher of an occasional electronic newsletter, ITbits.
Norton has a Ph.D. and M.S. in Engineering Science (Computer Science) and a B.S. in Mathematics, all from the California Institute of Technology. He was also a post-doctoral fellow there in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences.
What is startup.com's Ethical Policy?
Our reputation rests on the trust we keep with the entrepreneurs that we work with, and we maintain our professional standards at a high level to ensure that trust. Here is a statement of the ethical principles to which we agree, and we hope all entrepreneurs will agree to them also.
- I will share my dreams and ambitions with investors and others who are investing their time, money and energies in my future, but I will not lie to them by omission, by not clearly stating the risks of competition, the difficulties of developing my products or services, or the potential negative reaction of customers.
- I will not lie about my background, or deceive anyone about the true condition of my business.
- I will not enter into transactions for which I don't have an assured means of payment.
- I will not bring on new employees without letting them know about the true state of my finances and my ability to pay them over the time period they expect to be employed.
- I will not try to keep to the letter of an agreement while neglecting my obligation under what I know was the intent of the parties at the time.
- I will not try to bring on new employees with over-inflated promises of the future.
- I will not try to bully my employees or service providers into making evasive or misleading statements about my company.
- I will devote my time, energy and abilities to creating value for my shareholders, my employees, and the other stakeholders in my company.
- I will not tolerate those who abuse their authority, and I will help foster the growth of those that have the desire to help the company flourish.
- I will keep an open mind to all constructive comments, and foster the independence and authority of my employees.
- I will honor all agreements with my current and prior employers by not using any of their confidential information or trade secrets in developing my new business. Any time or resources that I spend on my new business shall be developed with my own time and materials and my original ideas.
We prefer you send an email to info at startup.com
