Events & Things 
- In 2024, Derby Management facilitated 26 business strategy and/or sales planning meetings. In 2023, 24. In 2022, 21. In 2021, 14.
-Jack continues as an active Tufts professor in his two highly ranked core courses in Marketing and in "The Science of Sales".-This past year, Jack was a keynoter at Tufts' Parent's Weekend speaking on student jobs and careers..
-He also teaches 2 capstone courses in entrepreneurship each semester.
-In May 2025, Jack received Tufts' Mentor Award from the faculty and grad students. He was also noted as an honorary member of the Tufts Chapter of the National Academy of Inventors.
-In 2025, he became a co-founder of two Tufts-startups and is now leading their fundraising as a board member. He became a formal advisor to 5 other Tufts startups in 2025.
-Jack continues as Tufts Faculty Advisor for the DU fraternity and took on the same responsibilty for Delta Psi, a new national business fraternity for men and women at Tufts.
-In June 2021 Jack and his wife, Jan, donated $10 million to Tufts University founding the Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts
-Jack continues his 22 year run as a senior instructor at MIT teaching business planning and marketing.
-Derby Management continues to hold its Annual CEO Dinner at The MIT Endicottt House every March as an instructive celebration for Jack and the firm's favorite customers and industry friends. This year, Brooke Thomson, CEO & President of The Associated Industries of Massachusetts, again provided her exacting and unique perspective of doing business in the Commonwealth.
-In December 2022 and '23, Jack was the kickoff speaker at The Advanced Drug Development Conference in Boston discussing how to improve partnerships between universities and biopharma.
-In December of each year for the past five, Jack continues as the speaker at IEEE's ENET conference where he talks about Sales & Marketing Processes, Tools, Technology, & Metrics.
-Derby Management has conducted hundreds of Boot Camps in New England and New York. Some of those have been on Entrepreneurship and some within the framework of "The Science of Sales" where we collaborate with Next Corps & Luminate in Rochester, NY, where for 10 years, we keynoted The Entrepreneur's Network bringing thousands of new jobs back to the City of Rochester.
-Jack was the keynote speaker at the Financial Executive International's Boston Chapter Annual Academic Awards Program discussing "Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us"
-Jack received the Lifetime Achievement Award in April 2019 from the Boston Chapter of The Association for Corporate Growth.
-David Radlo's Forbes Podcasts: David has been a strong ally and a senior coach working with Jack at Tufts. You can click to his podcasts here!
Our 2025 "How To" publications:
In January 2025 we heavily edited our publications "Writing the Winning Business Plan". Given the major changes in business creation, we are now updating our "How To" publications twice a year. For the 20th year, we are very proud of the fact that our "Writing the Winning Business Plan" has been used at MIT in its Management in Engineering course!Mass High Tech-Jack's Advice to Entrepreneurs
A 20-something launching a new tech company may bring great ideas, energy and dedication to their startup. However, they can always benefit from the experiences of those who have gone before them. So, Mass High Tech invited a handful of experienced members of the New England innovation community to share their own bits of advice to young entrepreneurs.
To set the stage, each person was told, “Imagine that you are talking to a 22-year-old new college grad who has a social media or software startup still in the ‘Mom’s Basement mode.’” They then answered two questions.
Question No. 1: What do they need to know about building and running the company that isn’t taught in school?
Jack Derby, President of Derby Management, co-founder and General Partner of Converge Venture Partners, a Mass High Tech All-Star, and past chairman of Common Angels, the MIT Enterprise Forum and the Association of Corporate Growth. A Professor at Tufts in Marketing & Sales, and founder of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts. Jack continues as a senior lecturer at MIT where he has taught for 22 years.
“In my years of coaching, running and venture investing in technology companies, I have never had a company fail because the technology did not work. Sure, there were twists and turns, but ultimately it got worked out. Having said that, I have seen plenty of companies fail, and they primarily failed due to weak management, and specifically CEOs who did not hire people better than themselves in their own respective specialties.
Lesson #. 1: strong, flexible, passionate and highly skilled management counts more than anything else. Sure, people mouth these words, but they don’t often teach the tactics of what this actually means.”.
Lesson #2: Success in any business is about success in Sales!
Question No. 2: Why should they feel confident in today’s business environment?
“Three things: One, there’s (a lot) more equity money available and being invested than last year. Two, the market for social media and capital efficient software is excitingly buzzy, and there’s significant talent available. Three, the support mechanisms in Greater Boston for startups are at a more robust level than I’ve seen in 30 years, so there’s no excuse for not getting experienced assistance.”
