Above: Peter (left) in the early days at MIT.
PROFESSIONAL BIO
Peter S. Miller has a long association with MIT, where he completed both undergraduate (chemical engineering, computer science, and management) and graduate work (Sloan School of Management). He served on the board of the Cambridge MIT Enterprise Forum and was Chairman of the Board of the Global MIT Enterprise Forum for four years. He also served on the MIT Alumni Association Board of Directors.
Peter has been Co-Director of the MIT Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) since 2002. VMS is a volunteer-run organization recognized as the gold standard for startup mentoring. The VMS model has been licensed and adopted by over 130 organizations worldwide. His experience at VMS and other mentoring organizations led him to write BUILD YOUR HIGH-TECH STARTUP.
Peter has a strong track record of helping build startups from early stages to liquidity. He was the third employee at Abt Associates (now Abt Global, generating ~$500M in annual revenue) and later became its COO. He has served as board member, principal advisor, or executive at four software companies that were successfully sold to public companies, and as a commercial advisory board member for an industrial biotech company that went public in 2006.
An experienced angel investor, Peter has served on the screening committees of several Boston-area angel groups. He has advised dozens of startups on organizing for growth, operations, and strategic decision-making, drawing on his own experience in every C-level role.
As COO of Genomic Healthcare Strategies, Peter provided strategic counsel to healthcare companies navigating scientific and market changes. He has authored peer-reviewed articles, spoken at conferences on molecular medicine and genomics, and served on numerous boards. He is also a founding principal of Great Dome Associates.
Over the course of his career, Peter has advised large communications firms, pharmaceutical companies, and Fortune 500 firms, in addition to early-stage ventures. His work has included divestitures, due diligence, CEO evaluations, and building consulting arms within technical firms. He is completing a new book for high-tech startups.
Peter (second from right) at ABT Associates.
PERSONAL SNAPSHOTS
Hi. I’m Peter Miller.
I like helping build companies. In fact, I’ve spent my entire career doing just that—sometimes to earn a living, sometimes to give back.
Many people I know have traditional careers—doctor, lawyer, engineer, teacher. I’ve never quite fit a clean occupational label, and I’ve always felt mildly self-conscious about that. But I’ve also really enjoyed my work.
I grew up in University City, Missouri, and later in Wyoming, Ohio—a suburb of Cincinnati. Big high school to small high school.
I tested well—SATs, Merit Scholar, that sort of thing—which got me into MIT. I found lifelong friends in my fraternity and learned my first big lesson: I was way behind students who had attended bigger high schools with more advanced coursework. Ouch.
My freshman year, I was one of several fraternity pledges who, at the direction of the upperclassmen, measured the Harvard Bridge using the height of fellow pledge Oliver Smoot. I’m the kid with the chalk in the old photo, and the one riding with Ollie on MIT Moving Day in 2016.
LIFE LESSON #1: I finally learned how to study in an organized way, thanks to the example and support of older fraternity brothers.
In my sophomore year, I met a first-year Tufts student. I realized pretty quickly she was the woman I wanted to spend my life with. Best decision I ever made.
I graduated, got married, and went to Sloan for grad school.
While there, I worked for an unusual department at Raytheon, where we programmed computer simulations of international relations. The department head and a few of us spun out and founded Abt Associates.
I had plenty of theory and little startup experience—and quickly learned that not all management problems can be solved with linear programming.
LIFE LESSON #2: I learned how to build a company, scale quickly, meet deadlines, hire, fire, and deliver real work.
Abt was very successful. I eventually became its number two. And I discovered something about myself:
LIFE LESSON #3: I’m a good builder, but not a long-term administrator. I stepped down, stayed on the board, and set out to succeed again—which led to:
LIFE LESSON #4: Being an entrepreneur is harder than it looks, and one success doesn’t guarantee another.
My wife held the fort while I tried to help build new ventures and took an early (unsuccessful) stab at writing a book. Yes, failures are learning experiences—and you don’t forget them.
Eventually, I got better at choosing opportunities. I turned down doomed companies and started helping smart specialists learn what they needed to succeed. I joined boards, helped write strategies and business plans, and saw several companies through to liquidity.
I joined the MIT Enterprise Forum’s startup committee, where four of us screened ventures for monthly pitch dinners. I reviewed hundreds of business plans each year, including from founders who now have MIT buildings named after them or products in 30% of American homes.
LIFE LESSON #5: Observing many startups teaches you to recognize patterns—especially the repeatable, avoidable mistakes.
Later I became an angel investor and joined the screening committees of Boston Harbor Angels and Launchpad Venture Group. Despite everything I’d learned, I still fell for compelling tech that never quite reached market.
LIFE LESSON #6: Even with experience, enthusiasm needs boundaries. A portfolio approach helps.
Over time, I became known as someone who was helpful and knew a lot.
I worked with both startups and larger companies—helping them fix problems, restructure, hire, or divest.
My early experience with entrepreneurship programs left me skeptical—too many people chasing MIT tech or naïve founders. But eventually I joined the MIT Venture Mentoring Service, where mentors don’t sell, don’t invest, and disclose and deal with potential conflicts.
LIFE LESSON #7: The right culture—built on trust and ethics—makes all the difference.
At VMS and elsewhere, I kept writing guidance for founders. Eventually, those pieces became the foundation for my book, Build Your High-Tech Startup.
As my late friend George W. Martin—author of many books, including several on Verdi—once said:
“The desire to write is like a minor skin disease. You never die from it, and you never get over it. So there you are. Or rather, here am I. Scribble, scribble, scribble. And I count myself lucky.”
