Jerald Feinstein, GSAS, GSASP '00
Non-profits, Entrepreneurship, Business Consultancy
As part of Jerald Feinstein’s post-doctoral activities as a Visiting Fellow at The Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (1999-2000) and as a member of the Harvard ABCD Group, the Planet Startup nonprofit was created. Planet Startup is a 501(C)3, Public Charity and NGO. The idea was to create a barefoot entrepreneur program in the US and around the world where young adults would build their own local companies, work with established partners and investors to reap the rewards, and then teach others to do the same using a free-market emergent capitalistic approach. Entrepreneurs would learn to develop pitch decks to brief potential partners and investors similar to what is done on Shark Tank. Planet Startup partners with local social, political, business, educational, and religious organizations offering infrastructure and investment grants that need not be paid back. They use the Harvard Case approach to develop business plans and related materials with the entrepreneurs. Jerald served on a number of Nonprofit Boards including the Capital Area Bureau of Rehabilitation, The Outré Theatre, The Thomas W. McCormick Scholarship Fund, as well as on the boards of several other for-profit corporations. He is a Member of the Florida Association of Nonprofit Organizations, focusing on nonprofit advocacy, governance, and education, where he has assisted other nonprofits in areas of governance and fundraising.
Previously he held leadership positions with consulting firms and organizations such as Booz-Allen, MITRE, The Stanford Research Institute of Stanford University, In-Q-Tel, and others, where his clients have included Citibank, Coca-Cola, Coors, US Intelligence Agencies, the Russian Federation, and the UK (MI-5). He has participated in special programs with Princeton, UPenn, Stanford, and MIT. He has served as Science Advisor to the Airforce, as well as an expert witness. In addition, Dr. Feinstein directed the Technical MBA program at The George Washington University and has served as a professor in technology areas at several schools. He now works with startup firms (in the areas of artificial intelligence applications and fundraising), family offices, and hedge funds, and is a guest on radio talk shows discussing election forecasting.