There is a prototypical entrepreneur: he or she develops an idea during the late teenage years or the early twenties, drops out of university, identifies a co-founder (of comparable age), seeks and receives venture funding, and the entrepreneur is off to the races. For every Jobs, Gates, and Zuckerberg who personifies this story, there are scores of entrepreneurs who are much longer in the tooth.
Avi Reichental is a case in point. Reichental immigrated from Israel to the United States, and would join Sealed Air when the company had $80 million in revenue and a few hundred employees. He would eventually take on major roles in Engineering, Marketing, and Operations, among other functions within Sealed Air. He was satisfied that he was doing great work. Two decades later, the company had 18,500 employees and $5.5 billion in annual revenue. He was happy, but a chance encounter with an executive recruiter informed him of an entrepreneurial opportunity. Now in his 40s, he had the experience and the financial wherewithal to take a risk. It turned out to be the best time to become a first time entrepreneur.
Fast forward two more decades, and Reichental is the founder and Executive Director of XponentialWorks, a venture investment, corporate advisory, and product development firm that specializes in artificial intelligence [AI], 3D printing, robotics, and the digital transformation of traditional businesses. Furthermore, he is also a General Partner at Cognitiv Ventures, the Chairman of Nano Dimension, the Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Nexa3D and NXT Factory, the Vice Chairman of Techniplas and the CEO of Techniplas Digital, and the Co-founder and Chairman of Centaur Analytics. He refers to himself as a parallel entrepreneur. He describes his fascinating career, his various ventures, which technology trends he is investing in and why, and much more in this far ranging interview.
