Jim Brisimitzis

5G Open Innovation Lab, Seattle

Jim has over 20 years of enterprise, channel, and startup experience through companies such as Bell Canada, Nortel Networks, PeopleSoft, Oracle and over 13 years at Microsoft. Jim is the Founder of the 5G Open Innovation Lab in Seattle. The Lab is a community of innovators, platforms, and industry focused on discovering, accelerating, and promoting future 5G inspired used cases and innovation. Prior to launching the Lab Jim was a Managing Partner for Quake Capital leading their early efforts to establish a presence in the ecosystem. Jim was also the General Manager of the Microsoft for Startups program in the United States and Canada. His team was responsible for startup engagements partnering with leading North American startup accelerators/incubators.

Together with these partners Jim’s team engaged over 2,800 startups actively running on Azure through programs such as the Customer Access Program (CAP), technical enablement, and events to help startups accelerate their business. Prior to launching the Microsoft for Startups program. Jim led operations for Microsoft Ventures globally in addition to creating and launching their “HiPo” program; an exclusive engagement for Startups with significant market potential.


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